Astrophysics and the Lakota
The surprising relationship between two parties you'd have thought might be in conflict
If you follow me on social media, you may know that a few weeks ago I was at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota, located a mile underground inside the former Homestake Gold Mine in the Black Hills.
This is in a part of the country where just about every other town and park is named in honor of George Custer. You can imagine how well this sits with the Lakota First Nation people. The entire region is historically their land, and the Lakota remain one of the largest demographic groups.
You can also imagine how the Lakota felt about the Homestake Mining Company creating a massive open pit mine and tunneling 8000 feet underground to dig out $2.5 billion in gold (in today’s dollars). It’s not exactly how they feel their sacred Black Hills should be used.
But when the National Science Foundation selected the site as the location for a new underground neutrino detector, and the mine closed, and more science experiments moved in, attitudes among some of the Lakota began to change.
I am not remotely an expert on Lakota culture, so take anything I say on the subject only as a jumping-off point for further reading into authoritative sources on your own. A good source is The Spirit and the Sky by Mark Hollabaugh.
The Lakota feel a keen connection to the stars and the cosmos, and the field of ethnoastronomy seeks to understand such relationships. In Lakota tradition, the stars are “the holy breath of the Great Spirit.” Their knowledge of basic astronomy was sufficient for them to use it to guide planting seasons, among other things. Meteor storms have a permanent place in their history. In every sense, the Lakota (like many other First Nation people) felt their connection to the cosmos was real and physical — as, of course, modern science now confirms.
And so when SURF began using the Black Hills to physically characterize phenomena such as dark matter and neutrinos, some Lakota began seeing the facility not as an exploitation of their sacred land, as the mine was, but as complementary to their knowledge of and connection to the stars.
In you visit or work at SURF, their relationship with the Lakota is literally the first thing they teach you (it is required learning to set foot there). It is something you keep in mind every step you take underground. Science need not be at odds with traditional beliefs, and in the best cases like this one, the two can harmonize beautifully.