In April of 2019, I led a youth and adult delegation from the local congregation I serve on a service-learning trip to Pine Ridge, South Dakota. We engaged in a year-long series of learning sessions about Native American history, with an emphasis on the history, spirituality, teachings, and practices of the Lakota people.

Our time at Pine Ridge began with a tour of important sites on the reservation. I wrote this after returning from Wounded Knee, site of the 1890 massacre of nearly 300 Lakota people by the United States Army. I was reminded then that our interdependence transcends not only place but also time—and that in order to make a better future we must learn about and atone for the sins of the past.

Forgive Us Our Trespasses

(Pine Ridge Reservation, 4.14.19)

How do you prepare
to visit the site of genocide?
Where the soil has been stained
with the blood of innocents?

If you’re Jewish, perhaps
you find a small, smooth stone
and carry it reverently
to place on the grave of
Lost Bird, infant survivor,
kidnapped and sold and displayed
like a trophy.
We remember you, you might say.

I took a walk with friends
up a steep, snowy hill
to pray,
to see the sun set,
to feel close to the Earth.
Along the muddy path
the meadowlarks trilled and chirped
from their hidden nests
amidst the dry grass
blessing the journey
with their song.

At Wounded Knee, we listened.
First to an oral history of a people who survive, told
with sage burning for purification,
eyes closed in memory of
the inherited trauma of generations.

And then,
after the stories,
to the meadowlarks.
The lost birds singing
through time
across borders
announcing the holiness
of the ground on which we stood.

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Rev. Dr. Michael Tino

Lead Ministry Team at Church of the Larger Fellowship

Michael Tino (they/them) is a minister with over 20 years experience in congregational and denominational work. Michael has served the UU Fellowship of Northern Westchester as its minister since 2007, and before that served six years as the UUA Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry. Before becoming a UU religious professional, Michael was a cell biologist; they hold a Ph.D. from Duke University in that field. Michael’s service to our faith has included a term on the UUA Board of Trustees, where they led the Board’s work to have our Association repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, and leadership roles in Allies for Racial Equity, the Southeast UU Summer Institute, the Ohio River Group minister’s study group, and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, on which they currently serve. Originally from New York City, Michael now lives in Peekskill, NY, with their husband Eric and their seven-year-old daughter, Nora.

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