Chief Arvol Looking Horse became chief and the 19th keeper of the Original Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota Nation of the Sioux at 12 years old, the youngest to ever hold this exalted position known as the “sacred bundle keeper.”
His ascension came with a warning from his grandmother.
“She said if the people don’t straighten up, my grandson will be the last sacred bundle keeper,” Looking Horse said during his visit from South Dakota to be presented with a humanitarian award at the Malibu Guitar Festival.
Best known for leading the protests against the pipeline at Standing Rock, Chief Arvol doesn’t feel defeated that the project is going ahead following President Trump’s election.
“We had 300 flags there and the whole word was watching. Everywhere we go, people know and are talking about Standing Rock,” he described.
His main concern with the pipeline is that it’s affecting drinking water on the reservation. “The world is still talking about the water of life and knows what’s going on,” he said.
Throughout First Nation history (“First Nation” is preferred over “Native American”), they have talked about the black snake coming over the earth when man will be faced with global disaster.
“There are signs that Grandmother Earth is sick with a fever and man has gone too far,” he said. “The people in this world need to ask themselves, is it about money or is it spiritual? If we are going to survive, we need to stand on our spiritual ways and bring compassion back to the earth.”
Looking Horse took part in the March for Science in Washington DC and has no doubt that climate change is real. “In my years on the reservation doing ceremonies, the climate has changed so much and temperatures have escalated. When I was doing ceremonies back in the 1970s, the highest temperatures were 96 to 98 degrees. Now it’s 112 to 115.”
With 80 percent unemployment on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, where he still lives, Looking Horse grew up to become a professional rodeo rider. His mother broke horses and his father was a bareback rider, so the equestrian life is in his blood as well as his name.
He lived his dream to ride with the top cowboys of the world until a horse fell on him. He was paralyzed from the neck down and both knees were shattered. Speaking to him through his beloved grandmother, the Spirit White Buffalo Woman said she was going to give him his life back so he could stand with his people. Call it miraculous, call it good fortune, but Looking Horse eventually defied doctor’s predictions and regained the power to walk. He has since dedicated his life to his people, world peace and global healing.
He says it’s “pretty awesome” to be honored by the Malibu Guitar Festival. “It makes me feel so good to see our people recognized,” he said. “Every time I receive an award, I accept it for the First Nation people of Turtle Island. Many don’t realize we still live on the reservations.”
The chief can play guitar “a little bit.
“I love music. I was a drummer in a band when I was in my senior year of high school,” Looking Horse recalled. “Willie Nelson once gave me a guitar. I passed it on to someone in Canada.”
June 21, the summer solstice, marks the 22nd World Peace and Prayer Day and Chief Arvol Looking Horse is directing a ceremony for all religions, races and cultures to pray for peace and the planet. This is a man who fervently believes in the power of prayer.
“I don’t know any other way,” he said.
For more information:
worldpeaceandprayerday.com
