Alternative view on Badger-Two Medicine issue

Looking southward from Red Crow Mountain in today's Glacier National Park, one is blessed with a view of the pristine landscape of the Badger-Two Medicine, which is nestled between the Continental Divide and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. All Montanans can agree that the wild character of this area is inviting. But the eye does not capture the depth of its cultural significance.

I am Ma-tak'-soo-woo, a grandson of Chief Red Crow, (1830-1900). I feel a solemn duty to share with Montanans the traditional cultural regard that unifies our Blackfeet people with this landscape. This regard stems from the ancient parables that articulate that this area is Blackfeet Holy Ground. This regard is also reaffirmed in the reference and practice of today's traditional Blackfeet.

We refer to the Rockies as the "Backbone of the World", and embrace this "Backbone" as both a source and a channel for the varied expressions of the "Great Mystery", including the characters Thunder, Coldmaker, Windmaker, and Medicine Elk. The land between the Badger and Two Medicine Rivers is also where Old Man Napi, in the long ago time, organized the first men to go northward to look for wives.

The quintessential religious ceremony for our Blackfeet is the O'-kan, (Medicine Lodge or Sun Dance). The Badger-Two Medicine cradles four peaks honoring the central figures in the O'-kan's origin story. Those mountains are Morning Star, Feather Woman, Scarface, and Poia. In the traditional naming of something, a name imparts the essence of its meaning upon that which is named. This is Holy Ground.

The Badger-Two Medicine is also home to both Wolf and Grizzly who, in the long ago time, aided both a Blackfeet man and a woman in their respective odysseys to escape misfortune and return home. The epilogue of both parables, (Medicine Grizzly and Medicine Wolf), have our morally-considerate brothers traveling westward into the sunset of the Badger-Two Medicine watershed.

Finally this landscape, in an undesecrated state, insures an accessible sanctuary for the continued practice of the vision quest, which is at the heart of traditional American Indian spirituality. My late father, Wally (Kut-o-yis'), mentored and impressed upon me that, while the vision quest is rooted in identity, it ultimately becomes a path for establishing conscious contact with a power greater than self. This Power is that which both weaves and binds the universe.

Recently, over 90 percent of commenting Montanans supported a non-motorized conservation-based management alternative for the Rocky Mountain Front, the majestic northern third of which is the Badger-Two Medicine. Formerly "alternative 5," the newly-released Badger-Two Medicine Travel Plan is the option most respectful of and harmonious with the reverence developed and held by my Blackfeet People. Two tribal councils and the Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Office have concurred. The Forest Travel Plan also strengthens the environment for local and state-based outfitters by its emphasis on horse and foot travel.

From Judeo-Christian tradition, I was raised with an important story involving the Sinai wilderness, a vision quest, and the revelation of Commandments. In that story, Moses is instructed by God to remove his sandals because he is standing upon sacred ground. The principle here is timeless: respect sanctity by minimizing impact. Please join our Blackfeet People in support of the Forest Service travel plan restricting motorized travel inside the Badger-Two Medicine. This too is sacred ground.

Jack Gladstone (Ma-tak'-soo-woo) is a citizen of the Blackfeet Indian Nation.