Fireandice2009

The Ice is Speaking
In the deep of winter of 1963 two young Eskimo men heading out to hunt stopped at the Big Wall of the Icecap to make their prayers. They returned to their Elders empty-handed and spoke of a strange phenomenon: though the temperature was -30 degrees, water was trickling down the sheer face of the Icecap. Nothing is supposed to flow when it is that cold. This was the first sign of the melting of the ice in the North. The first sign that something was going wrong - not at home - but in the world.

Today that trickle has grown to roaring rivers of water pouring out of the ice mountain into the Atlantic Ocean. Since that first trickle was noticed the average depth of the Icecap has shrunk from five kilometers to three, and the melt is accelerating. Today there are hundreds of roaring rivers coming off the Icecap year round. In geologic terms the rapidity of ice melt in Greenland is instantaneous.

The melting Icecap is the most dramatic evidence of accelerating global climate change. Greenland is our miner’s canary. The validity of various theories about global climate change remains to be seen but the certainty is that our world is changing, and those changes will alter our lifeways at best, and essentially destroy them at worst. To be confronted with the changes in Greenland is to have that reality brought home dramatically.

We have ignored the prophets, scientists and wise ones who have told us that our society is like a child playing with fire. The ultimate arrogance is that no matter what the consequences might be we think we can shape them to our advantage. The ice is our silent rebuke.

The Ancient Prophesy
The Old Ones say that long ago, so long that no one knows the time anymore, there were trees standing tall in Greenland, and the sacred fires of the people burned brightly within their circles. Then the deep cold came, lasting a long time, and out of that was built a very large ice on the land. As the big ice grew, the people moved following the beach of that ice and reached far distances to places they never had seen before. And then as the ice started to retreat, they followed her back and came home again to their land. And when they came home, they realized that the trees no longer stood, that they were now lying on the ground.

And thus the Old Ones say, the sacred fire never came back. But the ancient prophesy says that one day, when the people need it the most, the sacred fire will return to the North. The people have been waiting a very long time for that Fire to come home, never knowing how it might happen or when.

Today, after lying down all these years, the ancient trees in Greenland are now starting to stand up once more. This was the sign to the Elders that the time has come. Last year they sent an Eskimo Runner from their land to the Everglades where a gathering of traditional Indian Elders and youth was being hosted by the Independent Traditional Seminole Nation. The runner brought a message and a request:

"We the people of the Far North are in great need of the support of the traditional leaders from the Four Directions to help us regain our spiritual strength in the face of rapidly changing times. The Elders of the North ask that you send a delegation of your Elders to our country to unite with us as a fulfillment of the ancient prophesies that one day the sacred fire will come home."

A consensus was reached by the Elders: that a collection of ashes from the sacred fires, and there are many sacred fires within the nations of Indian people living in North America, would be made and put in a basket; then, in a prayerful, ceremonial manner, they would be given to the people on the Top of the World so that they themselves can put them down in a fire pit near the Ice Cap. And out of the ashes of the sacred fires from the Four Directions, the people of the Far North would light the fire - and when they do, the sacred fire will come home.

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