When talking about the South Dakota plains, people often think of the Mount Rushmore presidential faces or the large bison, but the ones who have long protected this land are the Native Americans centered around Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota.

They met the divine in nature without scriptures or churches. Trees were gods, rivers were gods, and they believed that even animals and stones had spirits.

They lived with faith, treating nature carefully as if in a contract. However, no matter how much they respected nature and believed in the divine, they ultimately lost their land and were displaced in front of outsiders wielding guns and Bibles. The life they preserved through faith was sometimes too gentle to withstand the pace of the times.

The religion of the Dakota region cannot be forcibly separated from nature. The expression that the sky is the father and the earth is the mother shows that nature was indeed a sacred entity, and they believed that the great spiritual force called Wakan Tanka connected all life.

The thought that humans are not the masters of nature but merely one of its components. Therefore, before hunting, they sought permission from the deer, and before cutting down trees, they expressed their reasons and gratitude. It feels like the inspiration for the story in the movie Avatar.

Their religion was expressed through dance, song, symbols, and rituals. The Sun Dance, which could last for days once started, contained meanings of sacrifice and healing. The scene of dancing with hooks in their chests while praying to the sun and ancestors may be shocking to outsiders, but for them, it was the most sacred prayer of offering pain for the tribe.

The Ghost Dance was more desperate. During the time when buffaloes were disappearing and land was being lost, it was a dance performed in hope of the ancestors returning and the world being restored. It was both hope and resistance, but the government banned it, and the leaders were arrested. They believed and struggled, but the flow of the times was brutal.

The various purification rituals they performed as religious ceremonies involved burning sage and sweetgrass to cleanse bad energies with smoke. Now it is consumed like a healing trend, but for the indigenous people, it was a long-prohibited act. It is an ironic situation. They were banned and oppressed back then, yet now everyone enjoys it like scented candles.

There is also a culture passed down orally instead of through books. The story of Sky Woman falling from the sky to create the earth, the legend of the world being created on the back of a giant turtle, and the promise between humans and buffaloes. These stories were both religion and history, guidelines for life, and a way to pass identity to children. However, during the era of boarding schools where only English was enforced, many stories were cut off. The lack of written records was a weakness, and the religion maintained without writing was easily shaken by the pressures of the times. The stories that were believed and passed down were forcibly broken.

The same goes for sacred sites. Places like Bear Butte and the Black Hills were not just simple scenery but doors to communicate with the divine. The hills climbed for what is called vision quests, the rocks where prayers were offered to ancestors, and the rivers where traditional ceremonies were held. However, due to gold mining development and national park designations, these sacred sites became public lands and tourist spots requiring entrance fees. The transformation of sacred spaces into tourist points on maps is bittersweet. The land they believed in and protected was ultimately displaced in front of capital and policy.

However, religion has not completely disappeared. With the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, restricted ceremonies were restored, and the younger generation began to learn the language and practice the dances again. It is a process of picking up embers from the ashes and reviving them. It is not as grand as before, but it is quietly coming back to life.

Though those who lived by their beliefs were displaced, those who remain still pray.

Holding onto the traces of lost ancestors on the land that was taken away.