Family honors heritage

A neighborhood family was the center of a controversy last weekend, one that threatened to prevent them from participating in a religious ceremony. The Lake family wanted to participate in the Lakota Indian ceremony Sunday night, but the lawsuit filed by a neighbor prevented it from occurring. \nThe lawsuit was filed against the Lakes for burning sage, sweet grass and cedar, all symbolic elements incorporated in the ceremony. Monday morning, Judge Kenneth G. Todd decided that Mark Lake was not guilty of any crime and that he could go ahead with the ceremony.\nThe story began last weekend when Lake and his family opened their home and their hearts to Kenny Hawkman, a Lakota Indian from South Dakota.\nHawkman arrived Sunday to help the Lake family conduct a Lakota religious ceremony called the sweatlodge.\n"Kenny is our spiritual leader," Lake said. "We share our home and offer tobacco to show that we are grateful."\nThe sweatlodge is one of the Seven Sacred Rites exercised by the Lakota people. It is done as a purification ritual to pray and give thanks to God and all Lakota relatives.\nThe sweatlodge is traditionally made from willow poles, bent over one another and stuck into the ground, to form a dome shape. The dome is then covered with blankets or hides.\n"The shape of the sweatlodge represents many things," Hawkman said. "It is the womb of the universe, the womb of Mother Earth and the womb of woman."\nLake's 6-year-old daughter, Summer, was responsible for sprinkling sage around the lodge.\nAfter building the lodge, Lake created a round fire pit in its center, which represents the center of the universe according to the Lakota tradition, Lake said.\nRocks are heated in a fire outside the lodge and delivered into the fire pit when the participants are ready to begin their sweat.\n"The rocks are our grandfathers from the seven generations before," Hawkman said.\n"We pray over them and the grandfathers draw the poisons from our bodies and our hearts by their heat."\nWhile inside the sweatlodge, the spiritual leader pours water over the rocks. Steam fills the lodge and begins to purify participants physically and spiritually, Hawkman said.\n"The water is a symbol of woman and the fire is a symbol of man," Lake said.\nThe door to the lodge is pulled shut and the leader asks the Great Spirit to look upon them and provide the help they need in life.\nHawkman said he prays for strength to confront all the struggles indigenous people face in modern times.\nNative Americans continue to fight for religious freedom and the protection of their spiritual ways from desecration, Lake said.\n"We will pray for our neighbors in the lodge," Lake said. "The ritual is for everyone, black, white, red and yellow"