到格奥尔德森

步行仅一英里半，约半小时，但感觉好像我走在时间近万年。

这是结束美国西方的旅程主要是汽车中，我折回我的祖父母所采取的一个1939年的旅程。 我参观了大峡谷，优胜美地，黄石等自然奇观，并决定了10000英尺的高原，有一个公认的人类历史跨越千百年来，一记美洲土著人的一个特殊的神圣的，是一个合适的结论。

Wyoming's flat-topped Medicine Mountain, part of the Bighorn National Forest, hosts one of the largest prehistoric medicine wheels in North America. The eighty-foot wide stone circle, with twenty-eight spokes around a central rock mound and six rock piles or cairns situated at different outer points, is estimated to have been in use for millennia by various Plains and mountain tribes. Today, the wheel is still frequented by several tribes, the most common practice being the vision quest where individuals seek spiritual direction and harmony, and leave prayer offerings in return.

The origin story of the wheel varies from tribe to tribe. Crow Indians claimed it existed when they first arrived, believing that the sun built it to show people how to make a teepee. The Shoshone and others believe that little people built the wheel and that they still live in caverns beneath it. An early ethnologist, GB Grinnell, suggested that the wheel is a stone model of the Cheyenne sun dance lodge, built where wood was scarce.

Perhaps the wheel served as a timepiece or calendar for specific rituals and ceremonies. In studying the wheel for National Geographic, noted astronomer John A. Eddy found that many of the cairns line up for the summer solstice sunrise and sunset, and the rising points of three bright stars-Aldebaran, Rigel and Sirius. “The early Indians of the plains made use of the sun and stars in fairly sophisticated ways,” Eddy concluded.

In the early evening, I had pulled into the unpaved Forest Service parking area near the base of Medicine Mountain and began the 1.5-mile walking ascent. Vehicle access to the site is heavily regulated, and that seemed appropriate. One has to earn the right to visit the wheel, I felt. After all, native people through the ages had once walked to this spot for days and even weeks, seekers of the sacred.

Ascending the winding road, I soon met the last group of visitors who were on their way down since only one other car was in the parking area. Visitation had been rising steadily in recent years, so I felt it was almost miraculous that I found myself walking alone up the mountain. The western sun was dipping in and out of clouds, bathing the mountaintop in soft yellow light–a spectacular sight. Then I spotted the unmistakable form of a fox running down the trail towards me. We nearly met face to face before he quickly scooted off into the brush. People may have left the mountain for the evening, but not the wildlife.

At a gap before the last rise, a sign told of how this was the conjunction of an ancient trail where buffalo-oriented Plains people interacted with the more hunter-gatherer mountain people, going back 10,000 years. Medicine Mountain was always a place of peace, where even traditional enemies such as the Crow, Blackfeet and Sioux could gather unmolested. The same is true of other sites, such as the Pipestone area in southwestern Minnesota, where red catlinite was obtained for medicine pipes.

Appropriately, on the last leg of the climb, the trail was red pea gravel, perhaps symbolic of the sacred red road one follows when they dedicate their life in service of Creator.

走近轮，五颜六色的经幡，烟草关系，医药包装袋，并已在风中跳舞的绳子外围围栏上捆绑其他产品。 地方的权力是渗透。 我一直在攀登与繁荣，感觉更有活力，比我在天，但我放慢当我接近的顶部和左右车轮走在顺时针的方式。 坐在西向东，然后我跪下来，掏出长梗的药管我了，从一个马斯科吉的精神名为熊心前超过二十五年的领导人收到。 我弄脏自己和管雪松叶净化自然香，因为我充满了纯粹的烟草红碗，哼着诵熊心教我。 正如我最初的指示，我指出了四个方向干，然后向天空和大地之前，把对自己的心脏和我的嘴唇轻。

许多当地人相信，摆在所有四个方向的造物主的精神佣工，在天空和大地，这是我们每个人内一块神圣的。 这就是为什么数字7经常被认为是一个神圣的数字。

我抽管道和地球上所有生命祈祷，为我的家人和亲人，我的祖先和后代，和精神上的和谐和在我生命中的清晰度。 我为我的旅程了感谢和它是如何先到。 我给为市民正在仔细未来保护土地，并感谢这些人仍然在管理这些土地的警惕。

With my eyes closed, I lifted the pipe to the sky in thanksgiving just as a young voice called out from the trail, “Indians!” Startled, I glanced over at a sandy-haired boy who had fixated on the colorful prayer flags and other objects tied to the fence. He was racing up the hill. Behind him was a man and woman, a young girl of about four, and a large black dog. I backed away quietly as the father tried to keep the boy from handling the offerings. They talked loudly, snapped a few pictures, and stayed only a few minutes, barely noticing me. This was clearly a tourist stop for them, a curiosity. So what if someone was praying? In that instant when that boy had cried out “Indians!” I realized the tremendous educational challenge that remains regarding Native American sacred sites that are open to the general public. What if I had been on a vision quest, sitting inside the wheel praying for up to four days without food or water, and tourists strolled up taking photos of me? How would I feel? One wouldn't enter a Catholic Church and scream, “Nuns!”

Signs can be effective-if people stop long enough to read them. One sign explained that some native leaders believe the medicine wheel belongs to all people, but with that access comes a tremendous responsibility. Visitors should approach sacred Native American sites with respect and reverence, as they would their own church or temple. Of course, children will be children, and I bore no ill will towards the young boy.

What is the best way to regulate a sacred site? When numerous tribes are using it, such as the medicine wheel, you can't put it in the hands of one tribe, and if you allowed only Native Americans to use it, who would determine who is a Native American? The lines are blurry after generations of racial mixing and the fact that some tribes and groups are not recognized by the federal government, even though members may have bona-fide native blood and cultural heritage. And what about those sincere seekers who are not Native American? Is there a place for them?

我想起了许多在南达科他州的年访问到另一个圣地熊小山前一个明确的眼睛看守提醒每一位参观者要安静，不打扰的人祈祷。 一个人的接触，可以在教育旅客非常有用。 神圣可以保持神圣的，所有参观者可以离开，并带走的东西是好的。

一个良好的开端，关于医药山的石轮是两个美洲土著部落组织，医药轮联盟和医学车轮联盟在1988林务局建议兴建一个观景台轮的形成。 随着环境和历史保护团体的帮助下，成功地阻止了平台建议和长对话是就如何最好地保护网站的完整性开始。 团体和林务局，最终研制出轮的历史建筑保护规划和周围18,000亩，整个山区。 一个宗旨，允许美国本地人医生要求时的隐私。 此外，正在努力为更多的美国本地人口译在旅游旺季。

在试图解释精神的重要性，如医药轮的地方，笔者TH沃特金斯指出，如现代分类“国家森林”或“国家公园”是毫无意义的，因为美洲原住民的信仰体系和做法有没有围墙。 “他写道，”他们神圣的地方]代表了质量，其价值无法通过测量绘制的边界或生态系统的测量或野生动物登记造册。 “有一种精神层面对这些土地的心脏，一个维度与古人类和野生维持他们的世界之间的连接的协议，只能由测量。 印度人，这块大陆上的第一人民，荣幸，连接更忠实于那些跟随他们为主导的这片土地上的人的存在。 ，传统的印度人认为，这是一个神圣的连接，并验证它何时何地，他们可以与仪式比记录的时间旧。“

Bill Tall Bull, a Northern Cheyenne elder, put it even more succinctly, “The Earth has a spirit. All of creation has a spirit. Everything that comes from the sacred earth is sacred.”

Traditional native people point out that there is a danger to protecting certain sacred sites, or, in a broader sense, parks and wilderness areas, if the rest of the lands are then open for rampant exploitation. If all of our actions were done with careful planning and attunement to the land, our entire economy and way of life would become more sustainable, and our problems would be solved from the ground up, with day to day choices. Pie in the sky, I know, but places such as the medicine wheel have given me a glimpse of the possibilities.

离开方向盘前，我把我管沿外围的地方，我一直坐在烟草和灰分。 我不知道离开尚未在这一地区传统的晶体或其他物体。 烟草，另一方面，几乎所有的本土美国在这个大陆上部落是神圣的。 它总是用祈祷和仪式，只因为欧洲人的到来已烟草成瘾性和娱乐的方式与众多的健康后果，。 即使化学品被添加到一些品牌，以提高瘾。 一是有问题的这种做法的道德疗效。

第二天早上，睡在地面上的最后一次后，我开车南下，对丹佛和乘飞机回家。 我觉得少仅比我在我的整个旅程。 它是这样，当你触摸神圣的，你觉得一切，每个人都的一部分。 我最希望的是我们民族的神圣的景观，为保持坚定的路标，以点的方式为未来的旅客，帮助我们的荣誉和加强人类和地球之间的的年龄老紧凑。

格奥尔德森是无数杂志文章和书籍，包括视觉拾得人（任务丛书2007年），横跨美国和经验阶层与美洲土著人的作者。 他的第一本书，减旅行的水域（佛罗里达大学出版社）是在2006年的旅游书北美旅游记者协会亚军。 由佛罗里达大学出版社于2009年夏末，他的最新著作，Kissimmee河的新曙光：奥兰多由独木舟奥基乔比湖，将被释放。 要了解他的工作，请登陆www.dougalderson.net。