In 1903, Wind Cave became the first cave in the world to be protected as a national park. It was only the 6th national park established in the US (after Yellowstone, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mt. Rainier, and Crater Lake), pre-dating the National Park Service by 13 years. It was “discovered” by Tom and Jesse Bingham in 1881 and has had quite a storied history as explorers and researchers and tourists have become entranced by its endless caverns.
I wanted to be one of those tourists. I love cave tours and was looking forward to seeing the boxwork calcite formations unique to Wind Cave. But that was not to be on this trip. The elevator down to the cave floor was broken and under a major refurbishment. And they wouldn’t allow tourists to go down the natural entrance on a rope like the early explorers did! The visitor center did a great job creating a cave-like atmosphere and showcasing elements from the cave (including boxwork). But it still didn’t feel like we really got to see the heart of Wind Cave on this trip.
Or did we?
An Emergence Story
The Lakota people native to the region encompassing Wind Cave hold the natural entrance in sacred regard. Their creation story tells of people who lived in the spirit world, waiting for the Creator to lead them to the earth’s surface when it was ready for them. Some were tricked into coming too early and became the first herd of bison. But those who waited were finally led to the surface through Wind Cave, emerging at the place where the earth breathed through the rock. (I recommend participating in the oral tradition in this telling by a Lakota park ranger.)
There’s a scientific reason for the 53-degree air blowing in and out of Wind Cave. It has to do with equalizing the air pressure within the cave. It’s quite fascinating, but not as enchanting as the Lakota emergence story. This place is where a culture of people recognized a natural phenomenon and over time told stories that helped them make sense of the world and their place in it. To them, the spirit world and the physical world were connected, and Wind Cave was the passage between them. The breathing hole in the rock reminds them where they came from, that their home is both on earth and with the spirits.
Creation Myths
I love this story, but it’s all too easy for my logical, realistic mind to call it a myth, to equate it to Aesop’s Fables that are clearly made up to explain something or teach a lesson. No one actually believes the Creator spirit turned disobedient people into a herd of bison, or that the faithful were led from the spirit world to the earth through a cave, do they? What if they did? Does that make them gullible or less intellectual than I am?
But is that actually the point? Does a member of the Lakota tribe have to believe their ancestors came out of the cave to be a “real” Lakota? Or is it more about the story – the sense of connection to the earth and to the spirit world, of obedience and patience, of a shared heritage among people and animals? In these ways, the story rings of authenticity. “Did it happen?” is a completely different question from, “Is it true?” I would posit that the latter is a far more important one to ask.
The Garden of Eden
In my own Christian tradition, we share a creation story (dare I say, myth) with the Jewish and Islamic faiths. Chances are you are familiar with the basic plot – God created the world in six days, culminating with humanity in the form of Adam and Eve. They were given a paradise to live in harmony with all the creatures and plants created before them. They were told not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but upon being deceived by a serpent, they did and as a result were cast from the garden.
I was told this story time and time again, at church, at home, at school, in books – it was taught not just as truth, but as historical fact. At one point I even had the first chapters of Genesis where the story is told memorized. Of course I believed it actually happened because that’s what the Bible, and thus God, said. To think otherwise would bring to question the foundation of my Christian faith.
Common Threads
I have since moved well past believing the Adam and Eve creation and fall story is historical. Interestingly, it has not shaken my faith at all; in fact, it has strengthened it in ways I could not have foreseen. Letting go of the need to make perfect sense of an inerrant – and even infallible – Bible has lifted the burden of cognitive dissonance that lived under the surface of my faith for so long. “But snakes don’t talk!” “What about the geological record that tells a different creation story?” “Why are there two stories in Genesis that are completely different?” These and many more questions that I was for so long scared to give voice to became points of curiosity, not facts to explain.
In moving beyond historicity, the story gained for me an authenticity it didn’t have before. Like the Lakota emergence story, I saw in Genesis a sense of connection between humans, God, the earth, and everything on it. I found warnings against deception and disobedience. There was a record, told orally across countless generations before being written down, of ancient people trying to make sense of the world and their place in it. This is our shared heritage – we are God’s people, formed together with the cosmos by his hand, and brought to life by breath.
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