The four directions were represented by red, yellow, black, and white flags placed in earth-filled bowls to form a square in the middle of the cabin. Love God, Wakan Tanka. You pushed persons only so far in Dakota society and they could retaliate. All within the lodge are introduced to the onlooking spirit world through the west power. I was participating to honor my pledge taken in Fools Crow’s Yuwipi Ceremony held for me before I had gone off to war. I took the stone from Eagle Feather and put it in my medicine bundle. In good Lakota tradition, I made my own pipe bag and have begun the decorations that may take years to complete, and will in themselves be an expression of my spiritual growth. Fools Crow (the Sun Dance chief), Bill Eagle Feather, and Ben Black Elk were huddled in a conversation while I was toweling myself dry from the morning sweat lodge before dressing for the Sun Dance. This was before the young rose up, and there were but a few of us. My circle had begun. In my college years, I was a union ironworker and a certified welder, an occupation at which many Native Americans are gifted. I have learned this lesson well and I have a very successful career that depends on my ability to segment myself. Yes, you can certainly learn from them, and the best way to do that is to assist them in ceremonies and consequently spend time with them. I was fortunate to meet a group of people who are spiritual leaders in their own right. The crane operator, who had been his close friend, took the rest of the afternoon off to console me and help me pack for my trip back to the funeral. To me, Fools Crow had acknowledged what Jamie is doing: standing up for native spirituality and listening deeply in order to preserve the past. “This Indian boy [Black Elk as a youth] was saying there is a shining point where all lines intersect.” Campbell: “That’s exactly what he was saying.” Moyers: “And he was saying God has no circumference¿” Campbell replied: “There is a definition of God which has been repeated by many philosophers. Fools Crow. You want to get the rocks hot, and with elm and oak for firewood you get a good hot fire, but it takes a little longer to get started. The west power, Wiyopeyata, gave him a bow and then spoke first. But of course these practices, as well as other outright illegal acts, were never publicized outside of the reservations, and the recipients of the acts did not have the means to stop them. He is born to the parents he has chosen and named Steven by his greatgreat-aunt, One Who Helps. We now need to learn how to find and how to perceive the Great Spirit in nature and humankind. It had rained all night. BEGINNING A RAINBOW CLAN Clans have existed down through time. If you are not aware of and do not become familiar with certain realms, you cannot enter into them. Just because organized Christianity put a stop to natural beseechment in most parts of the western 79 80 / Rainbow Tribe hemisphere does not mean that European descendants should be held back from natural beseeching in a simple lodge that they choose to construct. At the time I was an atheist. Then they left and I was alone. Had they been familiar with and respected the powerful philosophy behind Mitakuye oyasin (We are all related), that tragedy might never have happened. Each has been tested through the fires of transformation, and they’ve come out tempered and stronger, like fine steel. The Sun Dance symbolized a return of the old Sioux spiritual customs; for many, its return is also believed to be a means for stimulating universal harmony among diverse peoples around the globe. The Lakota values help you to do this.” Fools Crow said he realized the world was changing and that life was not like it used to be, but modern problems must be dealt with through cooperation and without losing sight of the old ways. Compared to the North Vietnamese troops, with their combat zeal and staying power, the South Vietnamese troops were unreliable. I watch the first stone forked on top of the others. I was also a student pilot, having gotten my license when I was seventeen. ed. Sound traveled up to me from the river very clearly and with a sense of harmony and melody. In a sacred manner I am walking. New York: Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, 1976. We are fortunate that the Native Americans are available to reach into that “sacred Source” of which Mary Lou Skinner Ross speaks. JOIN THE TRIBE. I was too weak to walk very far. To her, I had probably come across the flight jacket in a surplus store and had added some patches to complete the impersonation. Every day I think about what it means Ed McGaa / 73 to be a warrior and how that applies to me. In between giant maples and a few oaks, by an old fallen log, the setting was found. (This statement is based on a study conducted by Senator Inouye of Hawaii.) Let us picture a Vietnam veteran in a wheelchair in his living room holding up his own personal wotai stone to the rising red dawn. He was a very shy Sioux named Arvol from the family that keeps our Sioux Sacred Pipe Bundle back on the Hunkpapa reservation. I took it to be a confirmation and I felt much better. Rather, these men appreciate this new balance. I couldn’t seem to get away from the question. Misty at first but gradually taking shape, the moon was coming from behind the rocks on the eastern side of the butte, and the sounds of the ancients’ chanting entered my consciousness. I felt acknowledged. This is a big, big world and, from a practical perspective, most people will not have access to a peace pipe any more than they will have easy access to a Sun Dance. My advice to them is, Don’t be looking over your shoulder all the time. He said that he himself would probably never come close to conducting a Yuwipi Ceremony but that he had been experiencing some strong spiritual evidence in the sweat lodge. The wall makes memories so strong, it even carries me back into the times that directed my destiny toward the fields of war. He is very tired and probably will sleep for a couple of hours.” The three of us began walking over to the empty sweat lodge to see what was needed in the way of stones and wood in case we would be able to use the site later. No printed circulars. This was surely home for him, and soon his mate peered through the brushcovered cliff. As the two in the front seats drove and managed the defrost and windshield wipers, the two in the back threw tobacco offerings out the windows and said prayers honoring Wakinyan, the thunder beings. This is the most visible star image in the western hemisphere. After the Harmonic Convergence was all over with, some of the news media never did fully comprehend it, if one is to judge by their inaccurate and distorted reporting, so we decided our initial denseness wasn’t so bad after all. I surely would have scared her, had I spoken. From the Deep Woods to Civilization. He was called Mahtogi, Brown Bear. 170 / Rainbow Tribe Some ceremony that is unplanned can also bring forth spirit appearances. Indian tradition always felt right. The darkness represented ignorance and the unknown. The degree of hell experienced will be the degree to which we have caused innocent beings to suffer. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980. I’ll be back at ten o’clock, the day after tomorrow morning.” I hoisted my seabag to set off for the nearest intersection to hail a cab. It is a sad commentary that the non-Indian Vietnam veteran has had to undergo such a hard time from an unappreciative country—because you are just as dead from a bullet in the jungle as in the desert. I understand that people seldom recover from it. I’ll make a few more or a lot more, so I don’t care to be placed in one of these infallible roles that society loves to assign people just because they might have done a ceremony or two. Don’t you know¿ When the water is held back, more of it evaporates into the sky and you get more rain!” Maybe the huge black machine in my vision is an earth-mover to fill back the drainage ditches. A conventional scientist might have called his theory something like “biological cybernetic system with homeostatic tendencies,” but Lovelock had enough sympathy with ordinary mortals to call it “Gaia,” after the Greek goddess of Earth. DeLoria, Vine, Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins. Tell the spirit people that I offer myself for the Sun Dance. Standing Bear, Luther. Soon afterwards, the gift of sleep rested my mind and body. Another powerful thought you might formulate as you look up at the skies from a mountaintop or other isolated spot is based on the stars. Secondly, he said that he’d had the top come off the sweat before, but never the bottom! I went to the west part and beseeched the power of the black west, asking the spirit beings of this sacred medicine wheel to join my circle and to give me thoughts during my journey of the good red trail I should follow in the future, and to guide me in my spiritual-awakening journey. So, after a two-day journey and a half-day tour, the lady of our party had had enough. I did not have to wait long. So what do you say¿” my matriarchal mother demanded. After a correspondence courtship, she left Paris and they were married. Your fasting—going without eating, feeling the initial hunger pangs—is a giving up of something that you can offer in return. I don’t believe you have to be a medicine man or a holy man to simply beseech or acknowledge God, the Great Spirit, or a Higher Force. The woman was a powerful spirit woman and had been sent to the Sioux by the Great Spirit to give the people the object in the bundle—a red peace pipe. Bards kept alive for people their identity and history, creating a communal imagination that wove together the past, present and future. I am not asking them to give up their religion, but since we Native Americans have been such unfortunate victims (and the Jewish people as well), I hope we are allowed to speak forth on this very important matter. The old native tradition of taking only what you need and leaving everything as you found it is important. That power was now influencing my life, for I had read Black Elk Speaks several times and was able to identify spiritually with my natural surroundings through the vision of the old seer Black Elk. The Rainbow Tribe is very appreciative of Molly’s extended stay because she has been a sagacious Grandmother to many. As we neared the battlefield the intensity pushed me against the car door. Make time. I did not want to pass the wall again, although that would have been the shortest distance to my seabag. I am what I am. But Fools Crow did not hold my inability against me. Many Indians are reluctant to trust the newfound interest in their culture by outsiders. For me the Natural Way has always been a part of my life; ever since the umbilical cord to my physical mother was cut, my umbilical cord to Mother Earth has been nourishing me just as it nourishes all my relatives. Leah was first thrust under the reality television microscope when her teen pregnancy was documented on MTV’s groundbreaking series, 16 and Pregnant. A Rainbow friend named Jim, who came from the East to distribute new coats and jackets to Indian children for the winter, stopped and told me that he had had strong indications of Fools Crow much of the time that he was traveling toward the Sioux reservations. After the award, we veterans all danced in a circle formed by twenty-two drum singer groups, and many people came forward to shake our hands. Jamie presented Fools Crow with 144 red tobacco ties, and he held them to his heart while she held his hand. The spirit woman established that harmful acts would be severely punished. I knew that now I had done all the activity that I had to do for the rest of my stay. 6. My daughter Margaret and I * This particular view is not shared by the author relative to these modern times. With a full moon in force, it was a perfect time to set up the Sweat Lodge Ceremony from an astrological as well as a Native American perspective. At one point, I touched my eyes to be sure that they were open and I was not dreaming. She is within my age range and is without doubt the most fiercely loyal to, and the most respectful toward, Indian tradition and people, of any person I have met, red or white. In the study of history, we should all search for the truth, not attempting to color history simply because of a cultural or ethnic mind-set or a particular religious persuasion. I felt solid, confident, and good. The true mythology for this land was in existence and was right for this place at that time, the time before the Europeans came across the waters. We Indian people have suffered severely from rule-making religious institutions that set themselves up as God, and I believe that we ourselves should never fall into that way of thinking. On his way to Spirit Mountain, he had stopped at an Indian gift store and found a medicine wheel. I think he would have appreciated the many good Rainbows who lack prejudice and have a rich spirituality that is far more rewarding than the loneliness and emptiness of bars and nightclubs. Comment Report abuse. Campbell replied: “The best example I know which might help to answer that is the experience of Black Elk” (referring to Black Elk of Black Elk Speaks).1 After Campbell explained a portion of Black Elk’s vision to Moyers, Moyers interpreted. Soon I learned to be as proficient at spotting as my father. It seems that the more familiar one becomes with these basic ceremonies, the more “power” or “spiritual intuition” one seems to acquire. I was a chief of the Mdewakanton Sioux. Wakan Tanka and Ina Maka are now common terms in many non-Indian households. What can most effectively curtail the past practices of human and environmental destruction It is simple: the conveyance of knowledge about the best spiritual and cultural qualities of the Natural Way. “I’d ride all day if I could.” “Come up to the house over there, say, at eight tomorrow morning.” He got in his truck and started to back up. I was always more cautious, more likely to set a goal and persist and endure. When the coastline passed below, the pilot banked the aircraft before engaging the automatic pilot button. There it was, the monument, the twentieth-century mark of remembrance. A president of Christian educators stated, “Our jobs are to evangelize [and] our schools are the battlegrounds.” Another missionary group intends to “raise up Holy Ghost swat teams on every campus who will lead every campus to God.”2 Look at the expected progress after the civil rights movement. But I still was ready for a little warmth from the sun. We only keep them and get more by giving them away, and if we do not give them away we lose them…. They invited me to sit with them and offered fresh hot coffee. Their culture managed to survive despite the Ed McGaa / 5 relentless assault perpetrated upon the Lakota/Dakota (Sioux) descendants, who were corralled into captivity by a biased and materialistic society. Then, I awoke. Growth comes through tolerance for the infinite variety of ways in which Great Spirit, the Infinite, may express itself in this universe. This is the basis of what we call “earth-centered wellness.” When we switch to eating foods that are free of pesticides, preservatives, and so on, we create a demand for food produced by agricultural methods that do not harm the earth. Albert, the elder, joined us and the conversation took on a more serious note as he began to talk about his experiences in boarding school. A year before, we had walked in black bear tracks along a rhododendronshrouded Forest Service road up a beautiful wild valley. But, as the dog held the frog out to me, its changes were stopped in all four directions—it was totally stiff, certainly not a power for watery cleansing. They are learning from what is directly revealed and from what they can taste, touch, feel, observe, and study. Many Rainbow Tribe people have learned that the truly powerful holy persons of the Sioux tribe deplored the use of any and all hallucinatory substances. 46, 48. I acquired a red stone pipe made by Big Eagle, and also a red stone arrowhead made by Betty at the Little Feather Indian Center in Pipestone, Minnesota, on Saturday morning. We’d both gone through the Vietnam War, he as a fighter pilot, I as a meteorologist giving weather data to pilots. Rainbows abhor a spiritual hierarchy, especially an all-male priesthood. We had a blue tarp with which we were going to cover the sweat lodge. It was an equality in which each felt comfortable. They also do ceremony and have found a closer connection to the created entity all around them. Mother Earth Spirituality attempts to teach that nature-based ceremonies intertwined with tribal cultural knowledge can weave human perception, four-legged and winged example, and a living Mother Earth into a spiritual relationship. Waters, minerals, energy, I am. When I started it was sunny and a little windy, but by the time I had finished, clouds had obscured the sun and it was blowing hard and cold. I was promptly distracted during one of my sapling forays by a tall stand of sumac. Blue, for the life-giving rains, often represented the west also. After taking a few steps, I turned and told them to bring four solid-colored pieces of cloth—red, yellow, black, and white. I first met Bright Earth Warrior in a Native American cultural seminar. I had attended the same high school as they and we had loosely kept in touch. As long as I could remember, my dream was to be at this great battlefield. Their lack of courage teaches me why the old-time Sioux declared this virtue (courage) one of the four cardinal virtues needed to be a truly beneficial two-legged on one’s earth journey. Earthen mounds of dirt and wood were found everywhere west of the Alleghenies—over ten thousand in the Ohio River Valley alone. 126 / Rainbow Tribe “Just looking around this beautiful country. During the smoking of the pipe after the sweat, we all stood motionless, passing the pipe between us, the crackle of the campfire awakening us to the evening’s stillness.

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