This Native American stone ceremonial formation is among dozens of Indigenous cultural sites in the Shirley Basin. (Douglas Balmain)
Wind Ceremony
A herd of cow elk
huddled close around leggy calves
three coyote siblings
testing their speed
across the basin’s long flats
a swift fox den,
one mother with four pups,
asleep below the all-seeing
eyes of golden eagles perched
high on the rim above.
The sun sinks down
against an oceanic horizon
pronghorn spook, stutter, and sprint
as the breathless wind
takes a single moment’s rest
giving just one chance
to hover above our ancestors’ camp
the rock outlines of their ancient homes
settled into earth
fire lichen grown across their faces
painted by the hue
of ten million sunsets.
--
The wind ceremony begins:
drumming, chanting, dancing
arms outstretched
waiting as the wind refills its lungs
in one deathless breath.
--
And just beyond sight
25 miles away
Industry stages matériel
readying an advance along its ceaseless front,
in tireless pursuit of its own end.
Perhaps our ceremony cannot stop it
before it reaches this place
but we can honor this ground as it stands now,
we can pay tribute to its past,
and we can bear witness
as we inflict the costs
of what we continue
to ask for.
huddled close around leggy calves
three coyote siblings
testing their speed
across the basin’s long flats
a swift fox den,
one mother with four pups,
asleep below the all-seeing
eyes of golden eagles perched
high on the rim above.
The sun sinks down
against an oceanic horizon
pronghorn spook, stutter, and sprint
as the breathless wind
takes a single moment’s rest
giving just one chance
to hover above our ancestors’ camp
the rock outlines of their ancient homes
settled into earth
fire lichen grown across their faces
painted by the hue
of ten million sunsets.
--
The wind ceremony begins:
drumming, chanting, dancing
arms outstretched
waiting as the wind refills its lungs
in one deathless breath.
--
And just beyond sight
25 miles away
Industry stages matériel
readying an advance along its ceaseless front,
in tireless pursuit of its own end.
Perhaps our ceremony cannot stop it
before it reaches this place
but we can honor this ground as it stands now,
we can pay tribute to its past,
and we can bear witness
as we inflict the costs
of what we continue
to ask for.
Note: This basin, including the location of the Native American ceremonial ruin depicted in the video, are on federal public lands. BayWa Group, a global energy-development conglomerate based in Germany, has filed a proposal to develop this entire basin for energy production: https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2017774/510
