It’s a federal crime to climb Mt. Rushmore, known as “the shrine of democracy.” But there are no laws keeping climbers off of Devils Tower, a 1,267-foot rise in Wyoming that some Native Americans consider the “center of life.”
Malinda Maynor, a master’s student in history, explains that Native American traditions consider some natural sites such as mountains and trees to be sacred, living entities. Consider that idea, and it’s easier to understand why the Lakota tribe gets upset when rock climbers disturb their healing and prayer ceremonies at Devils Tower.
To increase awareness about such beliefs, filmmaker Christopher McLeod began making a documentary. When McLeod went looking for a coproducer, Maynor was a natural—she’s a Lumbee Indian and had made several shorts about Lumbee culture while in film school at Stanford University. Maynor worked on the film full-time for three years and part-time for one year—doing background research, writing grant proposals, managing staff, and participating in filming and editing.
After much work, In the Light of Reverence debuted on PBS in August of last year. The documentary tells the story of clashes over the use of Devils Tower and two other Native American sacred sites. For instance, the National Park Service had asked climbers not to visit Devils Tower during the month of June, when Native American ceremonies are most prevalent. While 85 percent of climbers complied, one group sued the park service, contending that the restriction represented an inappropriate pact between government and religion.
In the film, Lakota scholar Vine Deloria explains, “It’s not that Indians should have exclusive rights at Devils Tower. It’s that that location is sacred enough so that it should have some time of its own.” A federal judge agreed by turning down the climbers’ suit. That ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Maynor says, “An important part of making the film was developing relationships with native communities and really listening to what it was they had to say.” The filmmakers did the same for those on the other side of the debate, interviewing rock climbers, new agers, and miners. A reviewer in the New York Times writes, “The candor from both sides is revelatory. .The filmmakers have managed to get people to speak articulately but bluntly.”
Maynor is now using some of the skills she perfected on the film to research and write an “ethnohistory” of Lumbee migration in the late nineteenth century. Ethnohistory is a combination of cultural anthropology and traditional historical research that makes use of sources outside the written record, including personal interviews and cultural artifacts such as cemeteries.
“One of ethnohistory’s basic assumptions is that culture influences history,” Maynor says. “It’s a good way for me to approach Lumbee history and honor my ancestors because I don’t have to rely only on an outsider’s perspective of who we are. The outsider perspective is limited—not always wrong, but limited.”
In the Light of Reverence won a Jury Award at the 2001 Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. Find classroom resources online here. For information about renting or purchasing the film, contact Bullfrog Films, 800/543-3764 or video@bullfrogfilms.com.