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Reactions to the Statement of Arvol Looking Horse Greetings I am so honored that I have the good fortune of being a person who has Sundanced With The Lakota people. I am for ever grateful. That by the Lakota offering, Those tribes of us that needed more of a structured and traditional Life a way to come home so to speak it has been good. when I first started dancing our dance was for Native people only. After a time it was decided that there were Hunka's and other people who had come and supported us in good way's that if they wanted, should be allowed to come in with us. This caused some hard times for us for a time. But I thought we had worked it out. Guess I was wrong! I must say that in my heart it was a strong dance when we were just Indians. But after dancing and praying with all my brothers both Pink and Red , (after 4 days in the sun they turn pink) for many years now. I look at things through different eyes. These Brothers and Sisters prayers are as strong and valid as any of mine. Spirit does not care, It just does not care. Mitakuye Oyasin is fact not just words. The Lakota offered this concept also or an understanding of it anyway, plus the words are beautiful in themselves. How can we say to people. You cannot use Our Sacred Ways. You cannot Use a Pipe and in the Next breath say We are All Related. We are So Nobel we stand before groups of people from all around the Earth and say, We see the colors of Humankind in the Circle. There are four colors in there and we as Native People see each race of man. Wakan Tanka has made this so, not us and we know we are related to all things in Creation. We say these things, we take people into our lodge we share with them a way of life. Most of the people who have come to the tribes seeking a spiritual teachings have done so because they had Nothing in their life to hold on to. They have found it within us. How could they we are acting like children ? We should be honored that people would come to us, "Nation's of oppressed Men, Women and children are we" but we have offered a gift of relationship to all. Now we say You need to go back and find your own spiritual way. Can anyone say what that is? I am a Sundancer I will always be a Sundancer no One can take that from me. I do not dance to become a medicine man or Spiritual leader. I do it for the understanding that I have of it. So that our people will live, so that we will have good health in all forms. Now I am faced with the fact of this proclamation. If the statement had been worded to say. We as the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota Nations have decided through MUCH PRAYER and ceremony that our Sacred rites should be closed to all but members of the 7 Council Fires then I would say . That is good! many of our Relatives in the South West are closed to even members of their own tribe if they are outside of a certain clan, this is an old and traditional thing for them. If this is what was stated then I think folks would feel better about things. "But it is not" It targets Non-Native people and weather they will say it or not they mean White People!! So therefore in my own Eyes this says that this is a Racist Statement, something we have fought hard and long to overcome as Indian People. And as a Native Man I am ashamed please forgive us. We are truly in hard times in this country folks we need to be strong. Yes there are those who will abuse our ways, there are those who go away thinking because they do these things then that makes them Medicine people. There are those within our own tribes who go out and set up teaching lectures and teach our sacred songs in weekend workshops, we are all guilty of being Human. These so called false things will go away, our ways will not be diluted by them, they can't be, Spirit gave us those ways and they will each stand long after we are all gone. I say this with all the humility and respect in the world. You cannot steal Spirituality, Our ways have survived, they have changed. Some old things have been lost, or taken by spirit, not by man. We gain New things and we lay down the things that are not for the time we live. Don't you think it is time to put down Hate, Bigotry and Racism also? We have gone through these things before they are not new. Every few years something comes along and cause's us to act this way. Perhaps the Inktomi Stories need to be retold. Perhaps we should look again at the reason we were given the teachings of Inktomi and Coyote and Raven and many others. They taught us not become as they, they are our mirrors, we can either be the pitiful one looking back or the Caretakers of the Earth and each other. It is our choice. May the Maker of all things grant us clear minds and may Spirit cause us to see with our soul,
I am Jeff Tucker Tsa La Gi "When we say Mitakuye Oyasin, many people don't understand the meaning of those words. The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin - "All Our Relations" - has a bigger meaning than just our blood relatives. Mitakuye Oyasin means more than our family, more than our Nation, more even than all of humankind. Our Mother Earth herself, Ma-ka Un-c'i, is our relation, and so is Grandfather Sky, and so are each of the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, those that swim, those that fly, the root nation, and the crawling beings who share the world with us. Mitakuye Oyasin refers to the interconnectedness of all beings and all things. We are all interconnected. We are all One." The above taken word for word from a book titled White Buffalo Teachings. Page 35. The author? - Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Lakota, Dakota & Nakota Great Sioux Nation. Copyright 2001 by Arvol Looking Horse Looks like he forgot his own words huh? What is Religion for Native Americans? Among the 250 Native American languages spoken today, not one has a word for "religion." Since religion is not a separate aspect of life for Native American peoples, it is an assumed basis of all words. The Native Americans today have to carry a card that states they are Native American by a certain percentage of blood. Many can not get such a card because the Nations have closed their rolls and will not let those that can prove their heritage in. Does that make the non-card holder any less a Native American than the card holder? Does the white man have to prove his blood quota to call himself white? The African Americans, the Germans, the French, the Mexican, the Chinese, etc.? Being Native American is not just blood quota. It is in the heart. New Age? New Age is what the younger people have to fall on because they are not being taught by the Elders the traditional ways of the People. If those like Arvol are concerned with the traditional ways being lost then they need to get up off their butts and teach the traditional ways and quite complaining about the "New Age". Our young can not practice something they know nothing about. AHO! Let me open my comments by saying that it saddens my heart to learn that the people who shared with me a path to which I have dedicated my life over the past few years, the Red Road, now look down upon my following of this path and wish for me to stop because I am not full-blood Native American. I am a Creek descendent with white skin, blue eyes, and blond hair, although the fact that I am part native has nothing to do with my following the Red Road. I was raised in the Roman Catholic religion. As a youngster, and for many years as an adult, I felt out of place with this Christian way of thought. I did not believe what I was taught. For a portion of my adolescence I lived in South Dakota, and felt more at ease and seemed to fit in better with the native peoples there than I did with the white people with whom I grew up. It wasn’t until recently, a few years ago, that I was invited to a Sweat Lodge ceremony. It was during this lodge that I felt the initial stirrings of my own spirituality. For some reason this ceremony, and the teachings that accompany it, made me believe in a higher power. Soon afterward I was asked to help tend fire for Sweat Lodge ceremonies. I strove to do this work in a good and honorable way and with a true heart. It was hard work, but it was respectable work that served a higher purpose, and I was happy to do it. I think my pride in keeping fire, and my efforts to do it in the right way, was recognized by a Medicine Bundle Keeper from Pine Ridge because he soon rewarded me with an eagle feather. Some time later my first Chanunpa was given to me by a man who called himself an important medicine man and a leader, but soon the truth came out. He was not what he said he was and seemed to look for people that he could use to his own benefit. I was emotionally hurt and disillusioned by this man, and wondered if I had been wrong in deciding to follow this road. But the Medicine Bundle Keeper from Pine Ridge told me that I should follow the road, not the man, and I took his teaching seriously and after many prayers my faith was restored; I overcame the disillusionment in my mind and my heart was healed. Now I know that there are many more out there who seek personal gain at the expense of those who seek to learn, but I also know that there are even more who hold true to tradition and share their culture with a good heart. Soon after the trickery incident a Blackfoot friend of mine gifted to me a piece of catlanite. For months I held and prayed over it. Then one day I had a dream and the shape of my Chanunpa was revealed to me. After this revelation I dared to cut the catlanite, and with much prayer to the Creator to guide my hands I was able to carve my Chanunpa. I’ve seen lots of them for sale, but I couldn’t buy one. I feel that one should not buy something as important as a Chanunpa; that a person’s decision to carry one should come from the heart, and that it is a gift from the Creator and not a possession to be bought or sold. Every time I attend a Sweat Lodge I try to assure myself that it is done in the most pure way that it can be done. If I feel that it is not then I tell the Pourer that I cannot participate. I have been to Sweat Lodge poured by the Pine Ridge Medicine Bundle Keeper and a ceremony any less pure than that would not be acceptable to me. I hold the Sioux tradition very dear to my heart, and my own ancestors would not allow me to do less. By blood I am not Sioux, and I am not full-blood native anything, but my heart is dedicated to the Red Road, the Sioux way of being, and to lay down my Chanunpa would be almost like death. The Chanunpa and the lodge are now my way of life and will remain so until the end of my days. Mitake Oyasin (ALL my relations) Your Comments Here? please send to wakinyan_wakan@hotmail.com Please go to the following page to get the reactions of the Little Feather Center and other members. (4) E-Mail: wakinyan_wakan@hotmail.com |
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Photo
of daffodils taken by Gloria in her garden in England this week. Thought
you might like to see a touch of spring
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