| BLOOMINGTON — In high school, Stephanie Hope Smith would pray that God would help her to see people as He sees them. As she grew older and began training for a career as a medical provider, her prayers focused on how God could open her heart and mind to see people His way in order for her to deal effectively with people in her particular field.
Years—and a move from Missouri to Minnesota—later, Smith is allowing God to place her in other people’s shoes and attempt to understand how they see and view and even feel about the world. This is taking shape in her work with First Nations communities in Minnesota.
Birth of an idea
The Bethel University graduate attended the 2002 Olympics, using her background in sports medicine to work with ice hockey competitors. While serving in Salt Lake City, Utah, Smith had the opportunity to see “firsthand how all these different nonprofit organizations were working with the faith-based community, working with government, working with the private sector to achieve this bigger-than-life thing—to pull off the Olympics,” she said. “It took everybody focused on this big thing to distract from the petty things that they had against each other.”
When she returned to her home in Bloomington, Minn., after the Games, she described an “ah-ha” moment she had, thinking: “What if we could create that kind of relationship on an ongoing basis? What would unite people together?”
Fort Snelling and American Indian concerns
Her time spent wrestling with this question ultimately led her to the Fort Snelling property, a historic Minnesota fort built in the 1820s that is the center of much regional history. Smith looked at Fort Snelling because she began to think “about a location where lots of different groups could be brought together that have a collaborative mindset to work on a big project or something that they already have in common,” she recounted.
After determining the location of the potential project to help institute what she had learned and desired—what she calls the Global Athlete Village—Smith began to attend public forum meetings regarding how to restore some of the historic buildings on the site.
Smith and her husband, Ross, are also involved with The Northern Lights Junior A Hockey Team, and both organizations hope to mobilize athletes to interact with communities in constructive ways and also to prevent Type 2 Diabetes.
“It was at [one of those] meeting[s],” she said, “where I heard my very first indigenous elder stand up and ask about the 1805 treaty. I didn’t even know what to think.”
According to the Minnesota Historical Society website, the 1805 treaty, negotiated by Zebulon Pike, resulted in the Dakota ceding 100,000 acres of land near the present-day site of Fort Snelling. Although seven American Indian leaders were present at the negotiations, only two signed the treaty.
“The long series of forced and broken treaties culminated in the US-Dakota Indian War, which led to forced removal and genocidal policies in Minnesota in 1862,” Smith said. “Much like speaking to descendants of the Jewish Holocaust, many in the indigenous community today speak of generational trauma and deep wounds even 150 years later.”
Smith might not have known what to think when she first heard talk about the 1805 treaty, but she left the meeting determined to discover more about Fort Snelling and any unresolved American Indian issues related to the lands around the Fort.
While doing research on the issue and attending meetings, Smith kept hearing from Dakota elders on how the land in that area has special meaning to them and any development on the site should include their voice.
Spending time
As opportunities arose, Smith began to volunteer as medical staff for pow-wows and various other events, spending time in the American Indian community and offering what she calls “bulk, unhurried time.”
While she quickly points out that she is just an everyday person trying to integrate her faith in an important issue and not a historian, Smith believes it’s important just to spend time with people, and she counts it a blessing to hear the stories and concerns of indigenous leaders.
“My faith is what drives everything,” she said. “It’s not about a project, it’s not about accomplishing something; it’s about a value. Because we’re so busy in society, we often overlook each other and fail to acknowledge the dignity that God has placed in each other. That value is what has ordered my steps.”
By “affording the dignity to each other,” Smith has been able to walk alongside many American Indians and has begun to learn their history and how they view use of their homeland that holds special value to them.
“I still benefit from the land that was taken from the Dakota,” she said. “It’s not about what my ancestors did or didn’t do. At first blush, I think it’s easy to mentally check the box and categorically deny any connection or responsibility to their present situation because my ancestors were not from Minnesota and were not directly involved in these dark days of the United States’ history. This is not just an American Indian issue; rather, it’s about how we see humanity as a whole. We need to ask how would I want my family to be treated.”
Nomination for Nobel Peace Prize
Part of Smith’s work mediating American Indian sacred site issues involves using the Four-Way Test, which has been translated into more than 100 languages and was instituted by Rotary International. The test applies the questions: Is it the truth; is it fair to all concerned; will it build goodwill and better friendships; and will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th Keeper of the Sacred Buffalo Calf Pipe and leader of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota (Sioux) Nation publicly announced Smith’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in March and recently introduced her as a nominee during World Peace and Prayer Day held in Minnesota.
Smith led the mediation process that drafted the Bdote (pronounced Bdoh-tay) Peace Accord that was signed by several international leaders. The signers committed to four years of dialogue using the Four-Way Test applied to sacred site issues, beginning with Bdote where the Mississippi and Minnesota River meet.
“Instead of focusing on the things that divide, the signers will focus on Type 2 Diabetes prevention, and in this process we hope to build stronger relationships across cultural lines, racial lines, spiritual lines,” Smith said.
In the end, Smith said when people interact with an important topic, eventually they will reach a tipping point, where they will ask, “What can I do to help?”
That’s the place where she was at when she discovered the specific and important concerns of American Indians in her own back yard.
ACTION POINT: The Nobel Committee will announce this year’s Nobel winner in October; the official ceremony recognizing the winner will take place December 10 in Oslo, Norway. For more information on the Nobel Peace Prize, visit www.nobelprize.org. To check out Smith’s blog, visit www.hopefulpeacemaker.blogspot.com.
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