Spring council is when gathering participants come together and figure out where home is and create the energy that puts the gathering into motion. As with all things gathering related, no experience is necessary. All you need is a desire to be of service to your family.
Spring council is the planting of the seed that unfolds during seed camp (when we build the gathering), and blossoms on the 4th of July.
This year spring council starts on June 17. Many year's spring council happens in the general area where the gathering will end up, but not always. Please be prepared for what ever unfolds.
Once spring council reaches a decision by consensus or by foot, people who are involved with spring council usually make the information freely available. Word of warning: Sometimes the first set of directions and/or other information is incomplete, so check your sources before you head out to make sure you have the "updated directions." Please triple check where you are headed.
If you have not already connected up with the scouting process, but have sites, please email me so I can hook you up with others who are scouting.
If you plan on coming to spring council, be prepared for cold and/or wet weather and rough conditions. Have your own methods to boil or filter water. Bring food. This is not a gathering so all the support systems normally in place won't be up until sometime during seed camp.
That being said, people generally help each other out, seeing the gathering start from nothing and turn into a small town is an amazing experience, and the friendships you make with other people can be long lasting.
Many years sensitive natural resources guide our behavior. This year spring council is happening on land sacred to the Sioux Nation and many tribes. At least some tribal members will participate. Please show respect for the people who consider the Black Hills sacred land and for their culture. We are asking people to treat spring council as a ceremony, treat our hosts with the utmost respect, and bend our traditions to accommodate theirs as best we can. If you have been drinking, please stay away as we are being welcomed to council here and we do not want to offend our First Nation brothers and sisters. Please wear appropriate clothing as some tribal members may take offense at nudity. This year, I hope that sensitive cultural intersections will guide our actions. Council in respect for all people in attendance and the beautiful land that is welcoming us.
Spring council will take place in the state of South Dakota near Hill City South Dakota about 35 miles southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota. Rumor has it that a taxi ride from Rapid City to Hill City costs about $40. Directions to the spring council location will be available here and the usual places on June 15. If you plan on going, please know that the National Forest in South Dakota may have a fire ban. You must have a permit to build an open fire. Click here for details. Depending on how you read the regulation, it either expired on May 28 or is on-going. Consult with family already on the land before you build a campfire.
DIRECTIONS:
From Rapid City, SD, take Hwy 16 south west to Hill City, South Dakota (about 30 miles)
From Hill City, South Dakota go west 20 miles on Hwy 17 (Deerfield Road). Continue past Deerfield Lake 3 miles to the Intersection of 110 & 17. Go 12 miles up Castle Creek to the intersection of 117 & Castle Creek. You have found the spring council site.
 |
| Topo Map of intersection of 110 & 117 |
If you need more information, stop at the Hill City, SD Visitor Center. Click here for more info.
Please stay off Hwy 85 until further notice!
Please note this is not the gathering site. The situation is in flux. If you're not planning on being on site by June 17 or 18, please check back on this blog for updated information.
If Spring council in SD, what about the scouts in MI and VT that have sites scouted as there is chat that MI has a site picked out and there posting that all over facebook? And now you say SP in SD, this leaves everyone out that scouted the other states how is that fair? cause to get from one state to the next take a few days of traveling.. and my vote would be for MI site..
ReplyDeleteFolks out scouting have been talking on a regular basis. That's all I know.
Deleteits a done deal folks ...let the bitching and whining begin
Deleteto a large degree the folks scouting in VT and MI have worked in conjunction with those in SD, many of them are the same people!
Deletemost of what you hear on the internet is small bits and pieces gleaned and amplified, there's no fact checking or way to check fact.
And of course occasionally you'll have the rainbow politics of people trying to push or pull a gathering to a particular area for whatever reason.
In this case there was a push for MI, with big fan-fare about a 'site' that in reality is not of adequate size for an annual.
Ultimately the final 'decision' was made by a circle of folks with the benefit of all the information, and with folks who had seen all the real possibilities on the table.
Hope that helps answer your question!
I agree Gary, i sobbed @the first comment...haha
DeleteOh Karin, again, your wisdom in your communications is so perfect, so Rainbow. Much love and thanks for your level headedness. See you on the Land, no matter where it is!
ReplyDeletesilly !!
ReplyDeleteGreat Lakes !! sounds great Hope we can tune miss sturgis biker We were just in Utah and Montana love and light
ReplyDeleteI've never been to a council. How long is it? How many people attend?
ReplyDeleteEvery year is different. I would imagine between 25 and 200 people will be there. It lasts as many days as it last. You can read the council mini manual for more information http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/focalizers/council-mini.html
DeleteThanks you soooo much! Do you think that the council will take place in the only national forest in SD?
DeleteI don't know. We don't always hold spring council on lands managed by the US Forest Service.
DeleteCool. Thank you so much :)
DeleteLovin y'all!
Been staying close to SD in and around..Climbed quite a few mountains this spring. It's been real and surreal. Raven and I climbed out of or into a few intense box canyons this year where the views were stunning and the heights a little frightening.We saw lots of snow, lots of rain and plenty of sun and a few rainbows...three to be exact...and two double rainbows. It's happening folks! One more time! Give peace a chance. See you all at home somewhere over the rainbow. Lovin you all.
ReplyDeleteI think we really need to start just pulling a state out of a hat at the Vision Councils... this wide array of possible states is just too difficult logistically, both for the scouts and for those who would attend. With the Spring Council in SD, then the final site is de facto decided to be in SD, simply due to the travel logistics - probably. While there isn't anything wrong with that, as a site, the difficulty of such a broad scouting mission over half the country, paired with the fact that much of our family must arrange their transportation (at least to the general area) with more than two weeks' notice, makes this kind of process untenable, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think the solution is simple - Vision Councils proceed as they always have, in July, and if multiple states remain as candidates, then each state is written on a slip of paper, tossed in a hat, and then a random or impartial person pulls out one slip from the hat, and that's it. That's the state. Then we actually have a year of lead time, as we should, and the scouts can find us much better sites, with much less effort, expense and burnout, and family can make their travel arrangements well in advance, cheaply, and without the stress of an extreme time crunch.
Just my two pebbles.
Pebbles, The problem is that every year Industry and the ants in it keep making gathering habitat smaller and smaller as the family gets bigger and bigger. it is getting to the point where some states just don't have the space for a gathering our size. It's a problem. And what if we pull the same state from the hat two years in a row? I appreciate your sentiment.
DeleteOh, it seems like I was misunderstood. I'm saying only if there is no single-state consensus at Vision Council, and only the states that are still being considered would be in the hat. So for example, last July, SD, VT, MI, NH etc. would each get a pebble or slip of paper or whatever, and then out of the handful of remaining states, one would be chosen.
DeleteI honestly think it's a good idea, I hope that it's clear, now.
I've been active in recent Vision Councils . This year was to be a spirit of adventure in scouting . Central and N.Eastern Regional forests that had been thought of as improbable for a national gathering got another look .
ReplyDeletehello and thank you, I have been to several gatherings and don't understand why South Dakota is still being considered if there is a fire ban. How will we cook and keep warm? The gathering has never been in SD and that is probably for a reason. Is spring council aware of a burn ban? It was in Michigan in 2002, I think we need to rethink this, not to mention the horrible backlash I am reading from the Sioux Nation. I believe this is also a sacred time of the year. I will not feel right trying to poop in a trench that is potentially a burial ground. Yes I know, ALL of the land could be considered sacred to some degree but I have been in those hills and they ARE sacred. I will not come home if it is in South Dakota and this brings me to tears!
ReplyDeleteJune 10th : Black Hills Area . Posted ... Fire danger is only MODERATE . Extreme is several levels above that .
ReplyDeleteHave any of the people that say they won't go to SD thought about the good that may come of a gathering there? Isn't it in all of our hearts to help? I'm going early to see what I can't do for some of the most impoverished people in the country. Maybe stop thinking about the past, and lets look toward a brighter tomorrow. :)
ReplyDeleteI read the fire prohibition and it expired on may 28, 2015... Is there a new one in place?
ReplyDeleteShine your light
ReplyDeleteI have spoken with feather Four times over the years at National Vision Councils with the following recommendation:
ReplyDeleteLook at Annuals as three bio-regions instead of four. 1. Rocky Mountain States, 2. States West of the Rockies, 3. States East of the Rockies. Then implement this pattern: one year, East, next year Rockies, next year West, next year Rockies and so on. Yes this does put half of the Annuals in the Rockies but, the Rockies are where we started, the Rockies are beautiful, many of the easiest going Gatherings have been in the Rockies and the big plus, accessibility and proximity issues, that is the Rockies are in the middle of all three regions so it makes sense that the most people could actually make it to gatherings in the Rockies and thus make it too more Nationals more often (it is the best compromise region that everyone can get too).
Now, granted, I may be a bit biased because I live in the Rockies and I have been trying to get as much Family as possible to permanently relocate to the Rockies as it appears to provide geographic safety in the case of a global nuclear altercation. (call me a kook, I call it getting prpared and better safe than sorry). That is my vision for future National Gatherings schedule. East, Rockies, West, Rockies, East, Rockies, West... you get it. I pray that this comes to pass.
Loving you soooo much!
Peace
***[10650 w. deerfield rd. hill city, sd 57745]*** is the 'GOOGLE MAP ADDRESS' for the described site. From Rapid City, SD, take Hwy 16 south west to Hill City, South Dakota (about 30 miles)...... spring council june 17.... From Hill City, South Dakota go west 20 miles on Hwy 17 (Deerfield Road). Continue past Deerfield Lake 3 miles to the Intersection of 110 & 17. Go 12 miles up Castle Creek to the intersection of 117 & Castle Creek. You have found the spring council site .***[10650 w. deerfield rd. hill city, sd 57745]*** is the 'GOOGLE MAP ADDRESS' for the described site. dhb .......
ReplyDeleteread what is posted on a Lakota website..>>
ReplyDeleteLakota Issue Notice of Complaint to Rainbow Family; Deny Black Hills Entry
June 16, 2015 Strong Heart Warriors
Hill City – The Lakota Tetuwan Judiciary Council and the Cante Tenza Strong Heart Warrior Society of the Independent Lakota Nation have issued a Notice of Complaint to the Rainbow Family and the Rainbow Gathering denying them entry into the Sacred Black Hills.
Using Article I of the 1868 Treaty of Ft. Laramie known as the “Bad Man Clause”, Lakota warriors will exercise sovereign jurisdiction over their traditional territory to remove any encampments and hold the Rainbow Family in custody until they can be handed over to United States officials for treatment. Monetary damages will be sought.
The Cante Tenza Strong Heart Warriors and the Tetuwan Judicial Council are also pointing a finger at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Oglala Sioux Tribe Government who once again illegally refused to consult traditional elders before entering into negotiations with the Rainbow Family group.
This action highlights the complete breakdown of government with Pine Ridge Reservation resulting in one government for those connected to the BIA system, and additional poverty, violence, and lack of representation to traditional and grassroots Lakota people.
The United States Forest Service and the Department of Justice are also being scrutinized for their failure to recognize and protect sovereign Lakota lands in the Black Hills- especially during ceremony time when so many Lakota are traveling and participating in Sundance and other ceremonies necessary for Lakota health and survival. A gathering of the Rainbow Family may have over 20,000 people and is known for the rampant nudity and drug use that accompany such gatherings. This would disrupt and dissuade Lakota ceremonial practices in the Black Hills.
Just now · Like
https://cantetenza.wordpress.com/.../lakota-issue-notice.../
Lakota Issue Notice of Complaint to Rainbow Family; Deny Black Hills Entry
Hill City - The Lakota Tetuwan Judiciary Council and...
cantetenza.wordpress.com
I know both these groups and they're only exploiting this issue that really is a non issue for popularity. They are not able to enforce the "Bad Man" clause of the Treaty either. Only the Treaty Council can do that. There are some places that are "Rainbow" sacred to us as Lakota's that I would have a problem with for the gathering but really don't have a problem with gathering here. I knew Slow Turtle the Wompanag that started the gatherings. I did offer an alternative on private land that is more than sufficient but no one cared to reach out to me. A pity because I do know the working dynamics of my Lakota people very well. I hope this all works out. Peace and safety to all.
DeleteAny land that has a proprietor (private) means that the owner has much greater say than anyone else. That is why we are limited to public land. And we need certain other aspects for it to work, water, parking, etc. We have always sought to be in out of the way areas so as not to be put in a position of disturbing too many other campers or events.
DeleteThere is no such "Judiciary" Council" I wish there was. The many illegal occupations of settlers and settlements and NPS would not be there if this were true. UUWS AND CANTE TENZA mean well but mot representative of all us Lakota People. They ought to pick on someone (and there are many) that live here who don't give a hoot about what we mean when we say Mitakuye Oyasin.
ReplyDelete