Lily Reeves

Phoenix, Arizona

Ritual for Reducing to Ash

you will need: pen/paper/open wild space/ lighter

  1. Walk barefoot into the wild. Walk alone, or with another. Find a place where you can quietly stand.

  2. Close your eyes. Take three slow, deep breaths. Notice what you hear/ smell / feel without your vision. Know what you know to be true without seeing.

  3. Pick up a handful of earth. Make sure it is clean, wild earth.

  4. Smell the earth.

  5. Rub the earth together between both hands, until the earth becomes hot. Once you create warmth with friction, drop the handful of earth and cover your ears with your warm hands. Take a deep breath, moving your hands to your nose and mouth, and then to your ears for three full breaths.

  6. With the pen and paper, write a short poem about wildflowers.

  7. As you are holding your finished written poem in one hand, with the other hand, recite the following incantation as you light your poem on fire. *
    "I do not hold the earth ; the earth holds me

    What I take in this life, I borrow from the future.

    What will remain is the world I leave behind"

  8. Enjoy the rest of your life

*Please be wildfire aware and do not let ashes blow into the wind*

Portraits of Lian Bighorse and Solei D'Avignon

Apache Stronghold and the Fight to Protect Oak Flat
2021
Lily Reeves (she/her)

 Lian Bighorse is a member of Apache Stronghold and is the youth resiliency, tribal practices, and circles of care program manager for native health services, which incorporates tribal practices for healing, with a focus on young adults. She and her family have been fighting for indigenous rights her whole life, protecting areas of cultural importance like Oak Flat and Mount Ghram in Arizona.

She is pictured with her daughter, Solei D’ D'Avignon. Solei has decided that she wants to have her Sunrise Dance, an Apache coming of age ceremony, at Oak Flat when she is of age. 

Sunrise dance is a four-day long womanhood ceremony that happens when young girl has her first moon. Solei, who is 10 years old, says, “Oak Flat is one of our sacred holy places. A lot of dances take place at oak flat- and I don’t want it destroyed by the time I have my dance there. I pray that oak flat won’t be destroyed. I pray for all our sacred holy places, and our holy ground, and all the living things. “

“We are worried that if they know that I want it there, that the government would have already destroyed the place by the time I’d have it. We are worried I won’t be able to have my dance at Oak Flat.”

Lian explains, "It's a whole ceremony we have in honor of women and of womanhood, and it sets her on the path and journey of a good life, and that's really important to me and my family." 

"These ceremonies have been practiced in these places since before my time, before my grandparents time. The significance is that these stories are traditional songs, and these stories are from these areas. It's something you have to experience and be a part of and be there. When we talk about spirituality, it's all these elements that come together that you experience in these places.”

"The teachings from my family have been instilled in us in these places. It's a constant, and has never been different." 

"We have to leave the reservation to go and visit our holy places, like mount Graham and Oak Flat. We grew up with the understanding that the reservations weren't where our people were always. Our ancestral homelands were much bigger. We have to leave the reservation to practice who we are as native people."

“It's vital to have that experience, and to share it with Solei, and for her to have those experiences. It's what keeps me balanced, or else you lose those connections with the land."

"It's like any connection with any place that you pray, where you find solace or healing. ...  With any person, or any kind of religion, it's the same. And for us, this is how we pray and this is what we do. It's not necessarily structured in a building, it's with nature, and with the land.”

The proposed mine at Oak Flat would not only have a devastating ecological impact, but also an irreversible effect on the cultural identity and spiritual practices of Apache and native people of Arizona. It would actively prevent Apache people from practicing their religion in a place where they have prayed and danced and held ceremony for hundreds of years. The destruction of Oak Flat would mean severing historical ties of an entire culture of people. It would mean losing the place that exists within stories and songs and language. It would cut a cultural tie that has formed over thousands of years. It would prevent Lian from teaching her daughter how to build a traditional Wickup or harvest wild food or practice cultural and spiritual sovereignty as a native person. It would destroy this place and access to all of the knowledge that has shaped Lian and her Family.

"There is a unique balance and a system that gives life to everything... There's going to be a point where we throw off the natural balance. We are messing up our gift. There will be a point where everyone will be reminded how off balance we are. We've become dependent on these resources, and it's scary. When I think about mining, I ask, where can we stop? And when do we acknowledge that we are the ones causing this chaos?"

Video edited and produced by Palo Fiero Productions.