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TO
WHOM IT MAY CONCERN My grandfather's name was written in the book at the turn of the 20th century. My grandmother was Martha Little of the Southern Cheyenne Tribe. I was told she was of the Hat Clan. She was taken from her parents when she was a small child, from the Indian Territory, to a place in Texas, where she was then adopted out to another family. She was then called Martha Little Fitzpatrick. I was born in Missouri, not raised on a reservation. I have been given papers from the Cherokee Tribe, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, but I have not signed them or been compelled to do so. I don't know how they figure blood rights. I know my spiritual rights. I know that my spirit is Red and my spirits name is OO WA, of the Bear Clan. No man can deny me my spiritual right to pray in the ways of our ancestors, our grandmothers and grandfathers. I will not show any official papers or official I D card. I do not need any man's permission to walk the Good Red Road, in a good and sincere way. I have been blessed with ancient teachings from some respected and wise elders and teachers. I believe I have been taught in a good and proper way, with protocol, from these spiritual leaders among the Native Americans. My teachers and guides are not all from one tribe. They are from different tribes. They have bestowed upon me, knowledge meant to be passed on. Out of respect for them, and some understanding I have, that is why I am writing a response to your proclamation. The Great Spirit chose me, and it was the Great Spirit to tell me and also show me my path, the Good Red Road. I was taught to pray in the way of the Lakota. I have been blessed, to be accepted and even adopted by several elders. I am a son, a brother and an uncle to all our relations. I have been blessed to have family on and off reservations from coast to coast and border to border. My brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and most of all...our ancestors have shared much with me. I have carried the Wankan Chanupa for many years now. I have always tried to carry my prayer bundle in a good and humble way, with respect. My prayer pipe is very humble, not at all like many of the show pipes I have seen. When I pray with the Sacred Chanupa, it is done with good intent. I have also been able to help some of my Kola's, brother's and sister's alike, on many prayer fasts and vision quests. I have been a helper on Bear Butte for several years. I am compelled to be a helper to all my relatives, helping them to find their path to the Great Spirit. I believe the Great Spirit has shown me this, through signs and visions. This is what I am meant to do, be a helper. If Arvol Looking Horse, after giving me his blessing, in a ceremony that he performed, should say that I am to be excluded because I am of mixed blood, then this seems to be denying the Spirit. The words of Arvol Looking Horse should not deny the Spirit. If the Great Spirit brings me back to Bear Butte, S D as a helper or to do a prayer fast, then I pray that no man deny me my right to pray, and that I may be invited into a lodge for preparations, as has always happened in the past. I pray that I am not turned away. I feel that to deny me my right to pray on Bear Butte would be to deny the Bear Spirit. I say this with conviction. Also, I will say, I have helped both full blood and non-natives, male and female, brother and sister, all our relations. I don't choose whom the Great Spirit may bring to me to help. I don't judge another by their color or nationality. It is not for me to judge who will walk up the hill. I have been shown how to go up the hill in a good way, with respect and humility, and how to also help others go up in the same way, the way of the Lakota. To honor my grandmother, I choose to camp and pray on the Cheyenne area of the Butte. However, I have helped with the Lakota camps as well. All sacred places are, I believe, for all people. Mitakye Oyasin. I was also given my alter in a good way, as with my Chanupa. My prayer feathers were gifted to me by a respected Elder of the Eagle Clan, one who guides initiates, and is also a Kachina. He has adopted me. It is with these feathers I pray. Everything in my prayer bundle has come to me in the same way it was given to the old ones. (Nothing was bought nor is for show). All my sacred prayer items have been gifted to me, by those who had the eyes to see who I was. That is the way of our ancestors, our grandmothers and grandfathers, and all those who have gone before us. Once I was questioned by a man on Bear Butte who was aware of my Hopi influence and my adopted father. He wondered if I was mixing the teachings. I was sent on a journey for sacred salt by an elder of the Fire Clan, Hopi. I was blessed in getting my salt by a medicine man who was Zuni, who offered the Spirits a sacred Paho. I have been given my alter by a man who is Lakota. When I am asked to pray with any of my Pueblo families, and I give my offerings, they have told me to pray in the way of the Lakota, out of all due respect. The same also goes, when I do a prayer fast, my prayer ties and alter are in the way of the Lakota. When I help on Bear Butte, I do it in the way I was taught at a lodge I attended for four years, a Sundance Lodge. At this Lodge, where Arvol Looking Horse attended, leading the ceremony when he was there. Arvol has personally told me that we were being taught in a good way and the man who was giving me my alter, was a good man to teach me. I don't think, for one moment, that when I place my prayer feathers on my alter, (which I received from a Eagle Kachina) or use my sacred salt in the manner I was shown, (which I received from my Hopi & Zuni Elder's), that I am mixing. I must do what my wise Elder's have taught me, with all respect and without fear or judgment. When I use these prayer items, it is for the good of another...all my relations. My intent is pure of heart. I have made a vow with the Great Spirit to do no harm. I try to live in a manner that does no harm to any being. I try to be a helper. When I help to place another Kola on the hill, I am trying to hold him or her up and say..."Here is my Kola, please help him or her to receive the blessings to be gifted by the Great Spirit". It could be said that I have helped some who were seen by others, not to be worthy. It could be said that I am not worthy as a helper. I say we should not judge or discriminate. I support the keeping of the ceremonies, sacred. I support protocol and the ways of the old ones, as they too were taught. I support the non-natives place within the lodge during prayer and ceremony. I feel, also, the leaders of the ceremonies should be with correct teachings, as I have seen some are not. The Great Spirit does not belong to the Red man, alone. He is here for all two-leggeds. There are two kinds of people, those who believe and those who don't. The only thing that should be required is that he or she be a believer. It is hard to be able to decipher, but it is also not man who should judge or discriminate. That is for the Great Spirit to do. We are all just helpers. I have witnessed the non Indians and full bloods alike, being disrespectful to protocol and also ceremony. I have witnessed people doing things, that I know, has offended the Great Spirit. I do agree that this needs to be addressed. We all play an important role in this. I am speaking mostly of the concern for Bear Butte, ceremonial grounds. As for Sundance and other ceremonies, I have never been to one without invitation first. I have not danced, because the Great Spirit has not told me to do so. I will not dance until the Great Spirit tells me that I am to do so. I have had the honor of being fire keeper, however, I was always prepared to dance, and for the whole year, I would attend sweats every month, sometimes more. Being prepared is important. At one particular Sundance, I had learned that some of the dancers had not done their Hambleceya or even a prayer fast. I saw Eagle feathers being given to people, by persons, that didn't even know the person that the feathers were being given to, until the time of gifting. I have had the honor of being invited to Hopi Kachina dances and also given a place to stay with the Bear Clan. I do not ever go to a lodge unless I have received invitation. Bear Butte, however, is different. I go there when I feel the Spirits are pulling me there. I still have something to do there yet. The Great Spirit has revealed this to me. I don't know the date nor the time. I will not be stopped or refused, and will be completely prepared before I go there. The non believers are offensive and to me, appalling. Yet, we must allow the Great Spirit to deal with them. If you must intervene and have someone removed, be careful to send someone who can tell the difference between who are the good people from who are the bad. Being Red does not make one good, nor being mixed blood or white, yellow or black does not make one bad. I will share with you some abuses made to me several years ago, by a Cheyenne couple and also a Lakota man, not knowing who I was or what I was about. I was camping on the Cheyenne area of the Butte. A young Cheyenne couple approached me, telling me I had to leave that area, because it was for Cheyenne only and that the people I was helping to do a prayer fast on the north side of the Butte had to be brought down. They did not introduce themselves as they rudely marched into my camp. They didn't even ask my name or where I was from. They had no clue, I am Cheyenne, one of their own people! They acted as if it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I didn't tell them who I was. As for leaving, I told them I was there to pray and also to help others pray. We would leave when we were done. The same day, I was approached again, this time, the man was Lakota, verbally assaulting me. He said he was Lakota, and that it was the Lakota Indians who fought in Vietnam, who made it possible for Bear Butte to be used for prayer fasts and vision quests, for the Lakota only, he said to me. This man was demanding that I leave. Again, not asking who I was or anything of that nature, I was offended at this point, I felt as though he wanted to assault me. I told him that not 10,000 little Indians would tell me when to leave. I told him that the Great Spirit would tell me when I was done, and that I would not leave before then. We were there five days, and were approached again by these same people. I disagree completely with the Lakota who had blood on his hands from Vietnam. It was Frank Fools Crow who opened the door to Bear Butte, for all two-leggeds. We left when we were done. I don't talk of these things often, but again, I will tell you what happened on the third night. The Thunder's came, just after sunset. It was a powerful storm, blowing trees down, a tornado had passed by the north side of the Butte, tea ring up Cheyenne fields and property was damaged. Myself and three other people were sitting on the north side of the Bear. We were not harmed, and after this storm had passed over, three of us came down, leaving one still on the mountain, staying for one more night to finish his commitment. This person was the only faster on the mountain on this night. The Cheyenne and the Lakota faster's were brought down and the Thunders put their fires out. Upon returning to the meadow, I found that the Lakota camp was wrecked. My little tent was spared. Everything was fine. Myself and the other's with my camp suffered no harm, as a matter of fact, we received great blessings. Those who know myself and my wife, Topeshka, know the blessing we had received on this night. Some of the people from the Lakota camp came to me and said that I had brought this "wrath" upon them. Here is what happened. I was with the Spirits when these "representatives" of these two different tribes approached me, in a threatening manner. When they each told me that I wasn't allowed to pray at Bear Butte, telling me that I had to leave, they were saying this to the "Spirits". They were telling the Spirits to leave. It was those people who brought this upon themselves. So, I say this to you, be careful whom you deny. The Spirits can leave, even the Lakota people. I was given my name during a prayer fast. It was a grandmother who spoke to me. She called me OO WA, The Bear. I was praying to know who I was. Who are they, who believe they can deny Bear Butte, to the Bear? That is why the Thunder's brought the tornadoes and the hail and rain as they did. My grandmother's and grandfather's have been traveling to Bear Butte, S D , past Devil's Tower, to the Medicine Wheel at Bald Mountain in Wyoming for thousands of years. The Cherokee in the old ways never showed papers or I D cards. Those who walk the Red Path in a sincere way should know another on the path, when they see them. Our world is in a state of change. All things change, which is truth. The winds of change are blowing across our country, and we cannot stop change, it is constant. We must move with it or be blown away. As for language, the Great Spirit speaks all language, a universal language. A language each individual on our Mother Earth, will understand. The Great Spirit will also speak to us in signs, those which we will understand and that will have meaning with us. If you can only speak English, you will be spoken to in English, and this goes for any other tongue on our Mother Earth. The Great Spirit does not speak in Lakota alone. Those who the Great Spirit brings should be welcomed, with open arms. If they don't know the ways, then we are to teach them, if they are to ask. We don't turn them away and deny them the understanding that some of us have been blessed with. We all know, not all are believers, but those who believe are the ones who should receive. Caution should be used in deciding who is shut out or being denied. Clearly those who tried to deny me, were chosen wrongly. The Elder's who have empowered them, brought the Thunder's, the Lightening and the winds and hail on that night. I have a feeling that some of these same people may be the ones advising Arvol Looking Horse. A gentle reminder, one man once said... THE POWER AND WAYS ARE GIVEN TO US TO BE PASSED ON TO OTHERS. Ceremonial Chief, Frank Fools Crow. I am OO WA of the Bear Clan and I say to Arvol, look twice at those who are advising you to discriminate and deny the blessings you have been given to give. O MITAKUYE OYASIN. AHO Please go to the following pages to get the reactions of the Little Feather Center and other members. Updates
complements of the Friends of Little
Feather Center, Pipestone MN. All copy in the interviews and letters are not the work of the Little Feather Center but the authors of each piece we are just collecting them in one place for educational purposes. |
