From the heart of the mountains to the cold waters of the creek descending in depths away from our eyes. Here I am, a Mexican girl traveling around the west of United States. From all the different things I could write about and learning in these days, I can only think about my mixed feelings with nature. I don’t just want to understand the land in a spiritual way myself, but also find it in the hearts of those who had been here before. I realize the importance of taking care of the places where we belong and to those we visit as a sigh of air when meeting new horizons. I had always believed in nature’s strength, but it is August 25th, six days after departure to this Expedition, during the night when I realized its great splendid beauty and power. This night, a powerful and majesty thunderstorm surprised us, although it wasn’t up to our bodies, all of us could felt it close in our souls, since its power made the trees tremble and lit the shadows in the forest with its splendorous rays, so that during the first hours of the morning we could hear the roar of its thunder on our way to see the wolves in Yellowstone. We had the opportunity to see how nature wakes up and see its beauty in those wolves playing with peace. It is there, when you can realize how huge and majestic it is to be alive. And then, you can ask yourself, how can humans be villains and so far away from our roots? Why do we play to be the superiors of this planet, when there is a lot that we don't understand yet? There is so much that we hide for our own selfishness, to consume that candle of power. But, when this candle goes away, there wouldn't be enough to be safe.
(Photo by Alhondra LopGa)
One of the things that I am more excited to learn about are the original ancestors of these lands: the Native Indigenous of the West, that as we had learned, they prefer to be called as indigenous or their perspective tribe name instead of Native Americans. ¡Dioces Ancestrales! How much we can learn from the Cheyenne, Shoshone, Crow and more tribes. They know how to connect with nature, and have a great history that has been hidden with a white shadow. Here I am, a Mexican girl traveling around the west of United States, breaking down the stereotypes of this history and connecting her soul with mother nature.
In our first adventure, we have learned about Medicine Wheel at the Medicine Mountain & Bighorn County, in Shell Wyoming. To give you a little bit of context, Medicine Wheel, or sometimes called the Sacred Hoop, is a spiritual place that has been used by generations of various Native Indigenous Peoples, with the purpose of healing and health. I was in love when I discovered that this place embodies the four directions, father-sky and mother nature & spirit tree: all of these symbolize the health and cycles of life. What makes the difference between other medicine wheels across the west and this particular medicine wheel in Shell, is that this is the best-known and one of the largest and best preserved on the Northern and Northwest plains. Plus, it was the first medicine wheel mentioned in popular literature.
(Photo from Wikipedia)
Now, you may be asking yourselves; why this name, where does its name came from? If you asked these questions while you where reading my story, you aren't the only ones. We have learned that places are part us as we are part of them, and names play a big role in understanding the roots of its story. In Mexico, the majority of the places and names had a big importance and reflect the culture, roots and history of my country. For example, the world México came from three Náhualt’s voices: metztli, that means moon; xictli, center or navel; Co, place. With means “en el ombligo de la luna” (in the navel of the moon), at the end, this meaning have a beautiful story that I can shorten with these words: México (Tenochtitlán) was located in the center of lakes.
But, coming back to my original story, why Medicine Wheel? After a long talk with Mike Stites an Archaeologist at this place, we had concluded that the name came from the understanding of white people, the world “medicine” came from the reasoning that this place was used to heal indigenous peoples, and “wheel” because its physical form looks like a wheel. One thing that I was very surprise about is that Mike mentioned that archeology studies wants always to find the scientific explanation of artifacts, and some archeologists don’t believe in the spiritual meaning of these places, if there isn't a explanation, they call it “ceremonial” artifacts. However, I do believe in the ideologies of those cultures, as a Mexican, we also have a lot of legends, a lot of stories and landmarks, and I believe we as new generations should appreciate the reasonings and not doubt of the meaning that their creators gave to it. We still need to learn more about these people, and I encourage you to learn also about them, and connect with nature. Let’s come back to our roots, understand and respect the land, and the ancestors who were before in those lands and have opened the path to us so that we could have this life. Let’s listen to nature, let’s learn about her., Let’s talk with trees, and let the trees talk to us., Let’s listen to the voices of nature and then we can belong to our Earth and Earth would belong to us.