In March of 2012 I made a visit to Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation located in one of the poorest counties in the US. There were many aspects of this brief visit that have profoundly formed my vision of prayer and relationships.
I was invited into a sweat ceremony for prayer over a particularly painful circumstance that our host family was experiencing. At the end of the individual prayers there was a standard repeated phrase - “Mitakuye Oyasin”. The elder let me know that this was similar to how Christian’s conclude a prayer with the standard “amen.” But this phrase runs deep in the Lakota spirituality as it translates “we are all related.”
The elder’s grace and hospitality toward me revealed just how seriously he lived out that value. It’s as if he read this…
When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:33-34 (Common English Bible)
As I type this, a van full of close friends of mine are rolling along interstate 70 toward Ferguson, Missouri to be present with the people there as they anticipate great pain and unrest. Essentially, this van full of advocates and peace lovers are going to promote the Lakota message that indeed “we are all related.”
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