The Lakota ride here...
Holding my camera in my hand I understood fiercely that I didn't have full control of the settings. What was ISO... and the shutter speed, what was that supposed to be? In the early months of using my Canon R6, it was all the feels... I understood fully the power of the camera and yet I also understood I had no idea what I was doing. Countless times I had reached out to local photographers asking, Hey - can I pay you to teach me? Sometimes the answer was yes without follow through and other times there was no answer at all.
Feeling frustrated I turned to the internet and found the Click Community. A fierce group of creators who were and are committed to teaching and providing some great online education content. Following online and through instagram, I came across Beth Mancuso's workshop, Into the Badlands We Go... Perfect I thought! Look at the pretty rocks...
In the weeks that followed I called to book the lodge and the owner said, we are close to the Pine Ridge Reserve. You may want to check that out while you're here. Pine Ridge wasn't just a reserve, it holds so many incredible stories of resistance and hope. Legends of Chief Black Elk who gave Edward Curtis his name. Chief Spotted Elk who hid his people in the Badlands... As I sat at my computer thinking about going to South Dakota to learn to use my camera, I began to understand it was about to become so much more than rocks.
Pulling into the Circle View Ranch, the sky was a shade of magenta I had not see before... the grass a hue of dark green with yellow flowers. The sunlight moving between raindrops and dust that blew through the air. Standing at the desk the kind owner said, I'm so sorry. I thought you were coming in tomorrow. We don't have any rooms in the lodge but if you're okay with this idea we can put you in the homestead down by the river just for tonight. There is no electricity or bathroom but our guests love it. My husband's grandparents built it. See the road there... every winter the Lakota ride past the cabin in remembrance of the Wounded Knee Massacre. I looked at my host and smiled... Yes please, it sounds perfect. Turning to her son she said, "can you run down to the cabin and clear it of rattlers.".. and with that she tossed me a flashlight and sheets for the bed.
As I moved through the dark cabin without power, the wind sounded like a train. I've watched those shows where people were interviewed who survived a tornado... they all said the same thing. Right now all I could hope for was the metal door I was standing in front of was in fact a storm shelter. As I grabbed the handle and pulled it open, the wind ripped past me into the cabin.
Okay Lucy, this cabin has been here since 1905, it hasn't blown over yet. If this is how you go then at least you called your family to say goodbye. After my pep talk, i walked over to the bed and pulled the blankets tight over my head. Thunder and lightning continued at a pace I had never experienced and I could taste the electricity in my teeth..
When the rain stopped, I could feel the sweat cover my cold body. With the deepest of breaths I checked to see if I was still alive, dry lightning still flashed across the sky.
Sitting up now I could hear Coyote....
His voice and that of his friends now echoed through by body. Moving to lock the door I wondered if Coyotes can open doors... they are smart like that aren't they?
Tricksters and shapeshifters... The heavens... this ground... like a welcoming, a reckoning for the stories to come.
"You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me."
Chief Black Elk ~
