In the Light of Reverence - Mount Shasta

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At 14,162 feet, rising from the surrounding forest, Mount Shasta dominates the landscape of northern California. In a meadow just below the treeline, two communities gather for summer healing rituals amidst a carpet of wildflowers. New Age practitioners have gravitated to Panther Meadows for decades to pray, dance, sing and drum.

Northern California's Wintu community also conducts a renewal ceremony in the meadow. Florence Jones feels that the New Age 'ceremonies' offend the mountain. She is the 88-year-old top doctor of the Winnemem Wintu, and leads a thousand-year-old ceremony at a spring in the meadow. Wintu religion focuses on healing and recreating natural resources, including humans, plants, animals, the spring, and the mountain itself. It disturbs them that 'New Agers' dance naked in the meadow and leave crystals in the water. The walls of the spring are collapsing due to people climbing in and out.

The forest service has also proposed a multi-million dollar ski resort a few hundred yards away with the ski runs coming right down through the Panther Meadows. The Wintu struggle to protect Panther Meadows from the encroachment of the ski resort and the desecration of New Age practices.

Across the USA, Native Americans are struggling to protect their sacred places. Religious freedom, so valued in America, is not guaranteed to those who practice land-based religion. Every year, more sacred sites - the land-based equivalent of the world's great cathedrals - are being destroyed. Strip Mining and development cause much of the destruction. But rock climbers, tourists, and New Age religious practitioners are part of the problem, too. The biggest problem is ignorance.

MOUNT SHASTA, part of the IN THE LIGHT OF REVERENCE Classroom Series, tells the story of the Wintu, an indigenous community of northern California, and the land they struggle to protect.

'This beautifully-crafted film shows how the places most sacred to Native Americans are being both disrespected and destroyed, and how Indians are fighting back to save their own religious heritage. This film is a wake-up call for everyone who cares about the environment and human rights and deserves every opportunity to reach a broad and diverse audience.' Robert Redford

'For those who know nothing about the denial of Native American religious freedom, this film will change minds and open hearts. For those of us already involved in the struggle to save sacred land, this film will energize and inspire.' Walter Echo-Hawk, Native American Rights Fund

'The film clearly articulates some of the issues indigenous peoples all over the world face as they struggle to prevent their spiritual beliefs from being marginalized by people who believe spiritual places are structures built by men, not the Creator.' Wilma Mankiller, author and former Principal Chief of Cherokee Nation

'This respectful, brave, and understated film, which urges the redress of profound historical errors, is itself an act of reparation. In the Light of Reverence reaches beyond cultural disputes to reveal and document the arena of human wisdom.' Barry Lopez

'The Middle East may get the headlines, but there are battles involving sacred ground in the United States, too, as nicely documented by In the Light of Reverence, on PBS.' The New York Times

'In the Light of Reverence shines a beam on the fundamental differences between two world views, one based on individual rights - including the right to exploit the land for profit - the other, on responsibility to a community that includes people, ancestral spirits and the spirits of the forest and mountains themselves.' Sara Jean Green, Seattle Times

'Highly recommended...' MC Journal

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Main credits

McLeod, Christopher (film producer)
McLeod, Christopher (film director)
Abbe, Jessica (screenwriter)
Coyote, Peter (narrator)
Cardinal, Tantoo (narrator)
Lowery, Malinda Maynor (film producer)

Other credits

Editor, Will Parinello; cinematography, Will Parrinello; music, Jon Herbst.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

native americans, light, reverence, religion, land, environment, human rights, social studies, indigenous people, Mount Shasta, Wintu,"Mount Shasta",Bullfrog Films

WEBVTT

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Major funding for in the light of reverence

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was provided by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.

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[music]

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All over America for 500 years,
native people have struggled

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to protect their sacred places,
burial grounds where ancestors rest,

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sanctuaries for medicinal plants,

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landscapes of unusual natural
power, sources of prophecy.

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Native Americans are still
losing ground, sacred ground.

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[music]

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The first Americans,

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the indigenous peoples who have
lived and occupied this land for

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eons and eons of time are being
deprived of a central principle

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on which the United States of America was
established, that of religious freedom.

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These people are true believers who uh…
want to engage in a religious practice,

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problem is this is federal land.

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This is my Church. I am not going
down to white people’s church

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and go and then raise hell. They have the right to
come up here and worship, they have the right to do

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any… anything anybody else does on the public
lands, but so do we have the right to mine.

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Irony of the situation is that

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you can go on public land or ski, you can go on public
lands to strip a mountain, leave a cyanide pool,

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but you cannot go on public lands to pray
for the earth and it’s continued fertility.

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A long time ago, the sun and Spider Woman

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created the earth. With
her saliva spider women

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molded clay, breathed spirit into
it and gave birth to the people.

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Then she taught them how
to care for land and life.

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[music]

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For most Americans, the holy land
exists on another continent,

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but for Native Americans,
the Holy Land is here.

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On public land, and on private property, Native
Americans are fighting for hundreds of sites.

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This is the story of three communities,

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the Lakota, Hopi, and Wintu,
and the places they care for.

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Threatened by mineral
extraction, recreational uses,

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and competing religions.

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[sil.]

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This is the test of the Indian
Broadcasting System, this is only a test,

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we haven’t had anybody bring us any coffee.
Or donuts. Those regular listeners know that

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I don’t like coffee I like a chocolate. And you are
listening to listener supported community radio

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for the Sacramento valley FM
90.1 KZFR in Chico, California.

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[music]

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Coming back, we came back we were up there at
ceremony, it was a good ceremony, went to the spring.

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Went to the spring.

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The kids (inaudible) someone
take the big people first.

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Whenever we go to the top of the mountain she’s just
a little plain person, you know, not all dressed up,

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not all big pipe in a certain way
and all of that sort of stuff.

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It’s just us and nature and
the spirit world, you know.

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When you look around you only
see the good thing, when

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when you (inaudible) all evil
away from your heart and soul.

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When you speak you only speak the
right thing so help me great spirit.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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Florence Jones is the top spiritual doctor
of Winnemem Wintu of Northern California.

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Their ancestral home is the McLeod
River Watershed south of Mount Shasta.

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Healing ceremonies have been
conducted here for a thousand years.

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Now Florence Jones is handing
them down to her great niece.

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For 15 years, they have fought a
proposed ski resort on Mount Shasta

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and resisted New Age newcomers who
congregate at their sacred site.

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This whole area is part of that religion

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and you can’t have a religion without
the land. It’s not, you know, something

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that you read in a book but it’s the
way you walk on the land, and the way

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you… you treat your relatives,
all of the relatives.

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The relatives include a whole
landscape animated with spirits,

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in the animals, the plants, the mountain
itself, in the Wintu’s sacred spring.

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And it always bubbling

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in the sand coming up like it and if
anybody go around there, if they greet him

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then the bubbles go right
to it, you’re accepted.

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The same old way, (inaudible).

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It’s still that way, probably
always will be that way.

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When Florence Jones was born,

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Wintu shamans determined that she was a
special baby who would become a healer.

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She made her first visit to the spring at
Panther Meadows high on Mount Shasta in 1908.

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I always feel like time’s running
out, and then when it’s gone

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it’s gone forever. You know, there
isn’t anyone else like the language.

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(inaudible) their last two fluent speakers.

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And when they’re gone the language is gone,
you don’t get to hear conversation anymore,

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when that language isn’t uh… a
living language anymore. Then what?

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[music]

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1951. At the time of first
contact with non Indians

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there were 14,000 Wintu.

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By 1910, there were only
395, Florence Jones

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was one of them. Your whole
family had to move out, right?

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Everybody had to move out,
(inaudible) and McLeod River.

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Like most northern California Indians,
the Wintu have no reservation.

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During the gold rush they quickly lost
their lands to miners and settlers.

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The government paid bounty hunters
to kill Indians, $5 a head.

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The population was decimated.
A 150 years later,

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the United States still does not
recognize the Wintu as a tribe,

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their religion has survived government
policies of extermination and assimilation.

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The process of training the doctors
starts, you know, from birth

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and extends to a time where they are
to visit all the sacred places.

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And all along the river umm… she had to
go… in 10 years old, she had to go there

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alone to travel that whole
length of the river.

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Right after that she was captured,
when they came in the hunt for kids,

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and was taken. And the parents
had no right to stop it,

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no rights to say, you know, she’s
in training. You can’t take her

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she’s our next doctor. In the
boarding school, they baptized her

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and they started trying to introduce the
Church into the lives of these kids.

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They didn’t let you speak your
language, they marched you around

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all the time. If they
weren’t tending to you,

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they let you march in circles,
just to keep you moving.

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[non-English narration]

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Her family all stayed on the McLeod river

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even after the killings on smallpox,
and whatever else that came in

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that kind of wiped out the
population, until the dam came in.

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All the Indians were moved
out of McLeod river.

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There are a lot of sacred
places under the lake now.

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Graham(ph), what do you think will
happen if they build that ski resort

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and that spring uh… is ruined,
what will happen to the people,

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the Wintu people, like for ceremony

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and for… going on?

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That shouldn’t, we have to
pray a little bit harder.

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Maybe someday they’ll see
the light and see the good.

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And the beautiful world and nature.

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They might wake up and feel that,
somebody has got to do that, someone.

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[music]

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We just all can’t just be dumb and die.

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Indians and environmentalists were
allies against the ski resort,

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faced with lawsuits and
protests, the forest supervisor

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agreed to meet with the Wintu at their
summer camp below the mountain.

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We said that we thought it was appropriate to have
a ski area there. So the Forest Service went out

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with what we call a prospectus and then people
bid on it and then we selected someone.

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So we are the ones that said we think
the ski area would be appropriate.

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When those ski runs go in and those people
impact that area and that sewage system is set,

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every dollar that you putting into
restoring that area, that’s nothing,

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that’s almost a distraction from the real
problem of what’s gonna happen to the spring.

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We made a decision to do it, we can’t
simply undo it, we spent 10 years

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or so on this, we were asked to analyze something we
hadn’t done before, we were doing that in good faith.

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What gives me and hurts my
heart is you people love,

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all Tom, Dick and Harry to come into
my Church. That’s what I am asking,

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how could you keep them
out of… out of church?

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The only way I can keep
people out of that spot

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is to say that because of the damage to
the plants, the damage to the rocks,

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the damage to the water,
nobody goes in there.

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And if I say…

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What they do… they did… they did everything
under the sun to ruin that place. Yeah.

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They… they terminated my spring. Yes, I am
trying to work on this, I… I, you know,

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that’s what I think, I’m trying to
figure out a way that I can keep

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everybody else out and still allow
for you… for your ceremony.

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I don’t… but I can’t break the
law, because it’s public land.

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This is sacred ground, and Mother Earth is

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and we got to respect it.

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And I like to see it go on, I
wanted a little people to know

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what… what their great grandfather
and what their people done.

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Though they can carry it on when they get
older, I don’t want to see a day out.

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[sil.]

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It’s a wonderful area, when you get
up there, and it’s just so pristine,

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it’s so beautiful and you can ski over to areas
and just sit there and… and listen and watch

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and see nothing for hundreds of miles. There’s
just nothing like it. We can offer that to

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a lot of people, that could never experience at
anyplace else and it could help us financially locally

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for a lot of people too.
When you look at the land,

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what is the first thing people see?

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How they can make money on it?

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So it’s money or learning how to
value what looks like nothing.

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As when the people came here they said, \"Look at
the Indians, they’ve done nothing with this land.\"

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Well, in our world view
is like that’s great,

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it looks so natural, that’s
the way it’s supposed to be.

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The environmental movement
whether anybody wants to

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see it or not is a movement of religion.
It’s a movement of respecting

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Mother Earth as opposed to the God of the
universe who I believe created all things.

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And how can you fight religion,
how can you go against religion,

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you know, that’s a bad thing.

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Before there was a visible world,

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spirit beings roamed. To
choose what physical form

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each spirit will take, Creator called
them to his home on Mount Shasta.

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One became eagle and flew off.
Another chose bear and walked away.

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Sunflower took root in the Mountain Meadow,

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all but one anxious spirit had chosen,
Creator was tired of waiting.

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Finally, the little being said,
\"Ah, I’m going to be a human

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and ran down the mountain,\" Creator
thought, \"That one’s going to need help.\"

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So he called back the water spirit, the
fire spirit, and the mountain spirits,

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and asked them to take
care of this little human,

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because he doesn’t know his purpose.

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Backed by the Bible, American pioneers

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once condemned tribal religions as pagan.

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A century later, their descendants
imitate Indian rituals.

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The Harmonic Convergence in 1987,
turned Mount Shasta into a Mecca

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for the new age. Every summer day,
Winnemem Wintu are outnumbered

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by other celebrants at Panther Meadows.

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Wherever truth is running as a spring,

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that’s what I’m interested in and it doesn’t
really matter what culture it’s coming from

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or whether it’s indigenous or not.
When people are drawn

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to a sacred place, I feel
the need to allow space

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for inspiration for a person
coming from wherever.

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Your day of Baptism. This
is a free country, right?

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It’s a free country and… and all of the… the land out
there, that’s where you can express your freedom.

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A lot of the New Age begins to look to

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traditional native for traditional indigenous
peoples for uh… some answers to their own

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uh… spiritual bankruptcy,
uh… to their own uh… need

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for… for their own self gratification.

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In an effort to find themselves, they’re… they’re
appropriating a lot of native belief systems,

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to plug into it on the weekend. Only
to get a feeling for themselves alone,

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they feel an emptiness.

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To me the spiritual lineage
has as much importance

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as the blood lineage. I feel I’ve been
Native American, I feel I’ve been black,

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I know I’ve been Chinese and Egyptian,
many, many different things.

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[music]

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That area right there is our church,

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and this is how you behave in our church.
But they believe that,

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it’s as much theirs as anybody’s
because it’s out here.

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If we build a building around it and said,
this is our building, and inside this building

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is our sacred spring and this is how you
behave in it. And then maybe they would

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because then they can see the
boundaries of what is ours.

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You know, just like we couldn’t walk
into the Catholic Church and say,

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\"Hey, I think we should have a little fire right
here because that’s our way, we need a fire,

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that’s a sacred thing.\" That
would ruin the church, right.

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Hi. Hi, we really like your music, that’s great.
Very nice. It’s very soothing. Good drums.

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Yeah, good drummer. So
you know this area is

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
sacred to the Wintu tribe? Wintu
is very sacred. Yeah. Yeah, and…

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
(inaudible) about the Wintu tribe. Florence
Jones, she’s a shaman, she’s one of the last

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
native speakers of the Wintu, they never
camped here at all. They came up here

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
for ceremonies and they’ve told us some of
the things that they have a hard time with,

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
and that’s nudity when people aren’t nude
here, which is often, I mean totally nude.

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
Sunbathing, because it offends, it’s like their
church so like if you walked into their church nude.

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
The area means things
umm… has a sym… symbolism

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
that it’s difficult for me as a
Westerner to really comprehend,

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
but I think Julie’s description of it as her church,
if you think of wherever your church might be…

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
Which might be here, right here, right.
Yeah, if…if somebody desecrated that.

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
Well, how would the nudity be desecrated? Yeah, nudity isn’t
desecrated. To hers it is but…. Yeah. Yeah, the barriers that she has…

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
If a little child walks to
the spring, take some water,

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
that child is innocent. Well,
their tradition is not to bring

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
any children up here, ‘cause they
think that spring is too powerful.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
Well, we definitely feel the sacredness of it, we wanna
treat it with that sacredness and live in a ceremonial way

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
that the Native Americans did.

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
Now there are masses of populations that
are coming through with no direction.

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
I mean, there are… there are so many churches it’s
like going down the (inaudible) into the supermarket.

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
It’s like what do you choose,
what are you gonna be?

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
And umm… you know, there’s
only one box of Wintu.

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:38.000
[music]

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
Go back to nature,

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
the most important thing of a
human being is go back to nature

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
where nature takes care of your
mind and your heart and soul.

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
[music]

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
Every August, the Wintu
return to Panther Meadows.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
Florence Jones doctors the people,
the spring and the mountain itself

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
with prayers and songs.
Our service is probably

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
in their own way waiting for Grahams(ph)
and Emerson to be out of the picture.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
And then all of us young looking
people uh… they’re gonna say,

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
you people don’t have no right here, you’re
just young people, you don’t know the old ways.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
But what are we gonna do,
how are we gonna win this?

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
What do we got to do?

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
Is this so much to ask for, this place,

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
this spot, this spring? There are
many springs on this mountain.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
Why can’t those people go over there?

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
There’s lot of snow in this mountain.
There’s lot of other mountains

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
with snow on it, why can’t those
people with the need to ski go there.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
[sil.]

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
We believe that there is a
spiritual world out there,

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
that is more knowing then we are.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
And it has been put there by
Creator to help when they can.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
It would be like umm… if you’re in trouble

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
or something happens to you, and you start calling
for your mom, even though she’s nowhere around

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
that could hear you, and
you start calling for her.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Sometimes women can
actually hear that child,

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
for Wintu’s, that is our mother.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
And if you want help, you start
calling for those helpers

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:05.000
or that spring to come and help you.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:33.000
[sil.]

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
No.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:53.000
[sil.] You’re back?

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
I am through. I hope all
of you people that’s here,

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
your hearts will settle and
have a good clear mind.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
Change all your bad habits to the good.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
You all understand?

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
I hope all you do. ‘Cause
in spirit I wanna see

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
all of you people again.
Soul will (inaudible).

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
[music]

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
When I went to the place where
the ski area would actually be,

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
what became the apparent was

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
they could see a part of the
ski area and even if they

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
couldn’t see a part of the proposed ski
area, they would know it was there.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
They would know that it had
impinged upon their special place.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
They were looking for a place
where it would be peaceful,

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
where it’d be quiet, where
they could meditate

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
and commune with their creator. A ski area

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
with the attendant traffic,
noise, people, et cetera.,

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
are just the exact opposite of what
these people were saying they needed

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
in order to carry out their
traditional activities.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
Supervisor Haywood decided against
a new ski area on Mount Shasta.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
Pretty soon we’re going to be
a country that’s fragmented

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
by every group having its own little set of rights, the
pursuit of happiness was a pursuit of private property

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
and now that’s being eroded,

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
uh… in essence under the guise of religion.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
[sil.]

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
They’re rowing(ph) to not put a ski
area up there, it was a relief.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
This country is one of the richest countries in
the world and to fight against it with nothing

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
but a belief system. Uh… I
think it’s an amazing decision

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
that they… they actually
found cause or reason

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
not to do it.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
In our common land,

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
we do not share a common vision.
What is sacred is elusive

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
like a spider web, unseen
until it catches the light.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
Tribal religions rooted in the land

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
have been denied the religious liberties
guaranteed all Americans by the Constitution.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
The American Indian Religious
Freedom Act of 1978,

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
was an attempt to redress old wrongs
and prevent cultural erosion.

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
But the law has failed to save
critical sites from development.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
Protections granted by public
land managers are vulnerable

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
to shifts in the political winds. The
American Indian Religious Freedom Act

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
is a well meaning act, it’s allowed

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
some progressive officials
to protect the old ways,

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
but it’s not the same as a statue.
Those places are

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
the basis of whole society and
they deserve to be protected.

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
They’re worthy of protection not as
a matter of discretion but as an

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
absolute matter of right.
When you look at the public

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
and how they view these places,
they don’t necessarily recognize

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
the significance from the American
Indian point of view, they don’t know.

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
And but once they are told, once that’s
explained to them, once they’ve been

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
brought into understand the significance
of place, they’ll respect it.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
The attitude(ph) of our species

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
is this whole thing was created for us.

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
And it has no value except how we use it.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
The basic (inaudible) American society as a
right society, not a responsibility society.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
What you’ve got is each individual saying,
\"Will I have a right to do this?\"

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
Having religious places revolving
in the regional(ph) manner

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
means that you are always in contact with the
Earth, you’re responsible for it and to it.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:43.000
[music]

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
Spider woman told us

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
if we take care of the earth,
the earth will take care of us.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
Every night in the doorway between worlds,

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
she repairs her tattered web and waits.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:13.000
[music]

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
For more information visit us on
the web at www.sacredland.org

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:18.000
[sil.]

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
Major funding for in the light of reverence

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
was provided by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:38.000
[sil.]