CARYN HACKER’s ethnic lineage is Sicangu Lakota Oyote.   She was a student at (and now graduate of) Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.  During the summers of 2009 and 2010, she served as a Place and Native Voice intern and seasonal interpretive staff member at Mato Tipila (“Bears Lodge”), the Lakota name for Devils Tower National Monument.

In preparation for both her interpretive program at the Monument and her contribution to Sustainability and the Sacred, Caryn traveled extensively in the western Black Hills region of South Dakota and Wyoming, and conducted many interviews among elders of the six major indigenous culture groups that have strong historical and cultural affiliations with the site.

As demonstrated in her presentation in Chapter 3 of S&S, she focused both on the diversity of these cultures but also on the commonalities the all share in terms of the centrality of  Bears Lodge and the surrounding landscape at the western edge of the Black Hills.  For it is this shared sense of rootedness in these places that continues to provide a sense of shared purpose in maintaining their cultural ties to these places.  Caryn’s work therefore provides a contemporary example of this multi-cultural intention.

To view Caryn’s PowerPoint presentation of her project, click here.