When he was just a boy, Chief Arvol Looking Horse inherited one of the most important objects in his culture, and was simultaneously charged with the protection of the sacred. In this day and age, when the capacity to exploit and commodify nature is greater than ever before, that’s a difficult proposition for a man, let alone a boy of 12 years. 

As the 19th carrier of the sacred white buffalo calf woman pipe, the most sacred chununpa of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations), Chief Looking Horse has spent a lifetime thinking about the sacred and how it manifests in the world. He is adamant that the sacred needs space, not just in our hearts and minds, but tangibly, in the physical world, and is committed to fighting for that space.

As part of Chief Looking Horse’s work at the 12th World Wilderness Congress (WILD12) held in He Sápa, the sacred Black Hills (South Dakota), he asked WILD to join his mission in creating space for the sacred, especially white animals which are, for his culture and others, messengers sent from the spirit world to remind us of our call to a higher spiritual life.

In partnership with Chief Looking Horse and Phil Two Eagle, the WILD12 Executive Host, WILD’s team drafted several resolutions. The first calls for the protection of white animals and sacred species, including expanding and strengthening Indigenous Peoples stewardship of the land in order to meet the scientific consensus of keeping  at least Half of Earth’s ecology intact, thus creating more space for white animals to manifest. The second calls for honoring treaties (sacred obligations) made with Indigenous Peoples for the purposes of traditional ecological stewardship.

In addition to these two WILD12 resolutions, congress delegates (Ernesto Enkerlin, former National Commissioner, Mexican National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP), and Beatrice Padilla, world renowned artist and activist) also drafted a resolution calling for the protection of the entire Black Hills region, all of which is sacred to the Oceti Sakowin. 

WILD combined these three resolutions into one, forming the basis for IUCN Resolution 107: Scaling up Indigenous Leadership in the protection of biodiversity and the sacred. Recognizing that the IUCN Commission on the Environment, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP) – particularly its Culture, Conservation, and Spirituality Specialist Group – has laid important ethical and policy foundations for the recognition and protection of sacred natural sites, WILD collaborated with CEESP members to further develop motion 107, informed by ongoing dialogue around  gaps and emergent needs in the protection of the sacred. The result is Motion 107 as you see it now. Primary calls to action include:

1. Strengthening recognition of sacred landscapes, not just individual sites, and working with the United Nations World Heritage Committee to enhance its ability to honor such places.
2. Creating management guidelines for sacred areas across all categories of protected areas, including Category 1A (wilderness).
3. Centering the conservation of sacred species around Indigenous leadership, cultures, and governance systems.

Also embedded in this motion is the recognition that Indigenous lifeways are reservoirs of ecological wisdom and knowledge that, in general, have a far better track record in preserving life-giving ecological processes than does contemporary culture. Supporting these cultures and, most importantly, approaching them with curiosity and humility, might help us identify the values and institutions that aid them in being excellent ecological stewards so that we might consider investing in such systems within our own culture.

While Chief Arvol Looking Horse is unable to attend the World Conservation Congress this year, Indigenous representatives will be a part of the WILDdelegation to speak to this motion. We respectfully invite IUCN members to consider joining us in protecting the sacred by voting in favor of Motion 107.