When he was just a boy, Chief Arvol Looking Horse inherited one of the most important objects in his culture and was entrusted with protecting the sacred. In this day and age, when the capacity to exploit and commodify nature is greater than ever before, that’s a difficult proposition for anyone – let alone a12-year-old boy.
As the 19th carrier of the sacred white buffalo calf woman pipe – the most sacred chununpa of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations) – Chief Looking Horse has spent a lifetime contemplating the sacred and its manifestations in the world. He is adamant that the sacred needs space not only in our hearts and minds but tangibly, in the physical world, and he is committed to defending that space.
As part of his work at the 12th World Wilderness Congress (WILD12), held in He Sápa – the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota – Chief Looking Horse invited WILD to join his mission of creating space for the sacred, especially white animals, which in his culture and others are seen as messengers from the spirit world, reminding us of our call to a higher spiritual life.
In partnership with Chief Looking Horse and Phil Two Eagle, the WILD12 Executive Host, WILD’s team drafted several resolutions. The first calls for the protection of white animals and sacred species, including expanding and strengthening Indigenous peoples’ stewardship of the land in order to meet the scientific consensus of keeping at least Half of Earth’s ecology intact – thereby creating more space for white animals to manifest. The second calls for honouring treaties – sacred obligations – made with Indigenous peoples’ to support traditional ecological stewardship.
In addition to these two WILD12 resolutions, congress delegates Ernesto Enkerlin – former National Commissioner of Mexico’s National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) – and Beatrice Padilla, world renowned artist and activist, drafted a resolution calling for the protection of the entire Black Hills region, all of which is sacred to the Oceti Sakowin.
WILD combined these three resolutions into one, forming the basis for IUCN Motion 107: Scaling up Indigenous Leadership in the protection of biodiversity and the sacred. The IUCN Commission on the Environment, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) – particularly its Culture, Conservation, and Spirituality Specialist Group – has laid important ethical and policy foundations for the recognition and protection of sacred natural sites. Building on this work, WILD collaborated with CEESP members to further develop motion 107, drawing on ongoing dialogue around gaps and emerging needs in the protection of the sacred. The result is Motion 107 as you see it today.
Primary calls to action include:
- Strengthening recognition of sacred landscapes – not just individual sites – and working with the United Nations World Heritage Committee to enhance its ability to honour such places.
- Creating management guidelines for sacred areas across all categories of protected areas, including Category 1A (wilderness).
- Centring the conservation of sacred species around Indigenous leadership, cultures, and governance systems.
Also embedded in this motion is the recognition that Indigenous lifeways are reservoirs of ecological wisdom and knowledge, with a far better track record of preserving life-giving ecological processes than contemporary culture. Supporting these cultures – and, most importantly, approaching them with curiosity and humility – might help us identify the values and institutions that aid them in being effective ecological stewards, offering models we might consider investing in within our own culture.
While Chief Arvol Looking Horse will be unable to attend the IUCN World Conservation Congress this year, Indigenous representatives will be a part of the WILD delegation to speak on this motion. We respectfully invite IUCN members to join us in protecting the sacred by voting in favour of Motion 107.
By acting now, we affirm that the sacred matters, not only in spirit, but in the world we all share.