Tuesday, March 29, 2011

To Be Human

We are human beings. It is time for us to recognize that we are human beings.

As human beings, we have intelligence and it is through this intelligence that we manifest our power.

As human beings, how we use our intelligence to perceive reality dictates how we will use the power of our intelligence.

As human beings, we have a responsibility to use the power of our intelligence clearly and coherently.

As human beings, we find ourselves in a dimensional reality where we feel powerless to deal with the various situations we find ourselves in.

As human beings, it is time to take responsibility for the power of our intelligence and use the power of our intelligence to think clearly and coherently and create solutions to the problems we are confronted with.

Simply put, as human beings, we are asking that human beings think.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Lewis Bennett (Deerfoot) (1828-1897)





Athlete

A member of the Snipe Clan of the Seneca Indians, Lewis Bennett showed extraordinary capacities as a long-distance runner in his youth. In fact, on the Cattaraugus Reservation in New York State, where he perfected his skills under his nation's traditional system of physical training, his speed and endurance gave rise to the legend that a horse had died of exhaustion after being outpaced by him for some thirty or forty miles. By the mid-1850s, Bennett was running professionally, and in 1861 he went to England to compete with the best runners in the British Isles. He lost his first contest there, but was soon winning on a regular basis and finding himself lionized in sporting circles. In the spring of 1863, his times for ten-to twelve-mile runs set new records that lasted well into the twentieth century. This photograph was taken in England at the height of Bennetts' fame there. As this picture indicates, Bennett reveled in reminding his English fans of his Indian origins, and he ran his races clad in wolf skin and a feathered headband. He is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY next to the grave of the Seneca orator Red Jacket. For generations, Native Americans have taken pride in running and in being fleet of feet. The Song of Hiawatha, attributed to the 19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, described these traits:
Out of childhood into manhood,
Now had grown my Hiawatha,
Skilled in the craft of hunters,
Learned in all the lore of old men.
In all youthful sports and pastimes,
In all manly arts and labors,
Swift of foot was Hiawatha.
He could shoot an arrow from him,
And run forward with such fleetness,
That the arrow fell behind him.

My brother Ric & I on June 21, 2010

See the Woman

 
She has a young face
An old face
She carries herself well
In all ages
She survives all man has done

In some tribes she is free
In some religions
She is under man
In some societies
She’s worth what she consumes

In some nations
She is delicate strength
In some states
She is told she is weak
In some classes
She is property owned

In all instances
She is sister to earth
In all conditions
She is life bringer
In all life she is our necessity

See the woman eyes
Flowers swaying
On scattered hills
Sundancing calling in the bees

See the woman heart
Lavender butterflies
Fronting blue sky
Misty rain falling
On soft wild roses

See the woman beauty
Lightning streaking
Dark summer nights
Forests of pines mating
With new winter snow

See the woman spirit
Daily serving courage
With laughter
Her breath a dream
And a prayer
by John Trudell

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Grand Canyon of the East

 
This ancient Seneca Council House stood at Ga-o-ya-de-a 'Where the Heavens Rest Upon the Earth' on the Genesee River in days antedating the American Revolution. In it gathered the war parties 'that fought in the defense of their country.' Before it prisoners ran the gauntlet. Around its council fires sat famous warriors and chiefs. It was rededicated Oct. 1, 1872 by the last Indian Council of the Genesee."

"Brothers: I will say a few words. We have come here as representatives of the Seneca Nation to participate in the ceremonies of the day. In this ancient Council House, before its removal to this spot, our fathers, sachems and chiefs, often met to deliberate on matters of the moment to our people in the Village of Ga-o-yah-de-o 'Caneadea'. We are here to rake over the ashes of its hearth, that we may find perchance a single spark with which to rekindle the fire, and cause the smoke again to rise above this roof, as in days that are past. The smoke is curling upward and the memories of the past are enwreathed with it.

Brothers: When the Confederacy of the Iroquois was formed, a smoke was raised which ascended so high that all the nations saw it and trembled. This League was formed, it may be, long before the Kingdom of Great Britain had any political existence. Our fathers of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee were once a powerful nation. They lorded it over a vast territory, comprising the whole of the State of New York. Their power was felt from the Hudson to the banks of the Mississippi, and from the great basins of sweet water in the north to the bitter waters of the Mexican Gulf. We have wasted away to a remnant of what we once were. But, though feeble in numbers, the Iroquois are represented here. We have delegates from the Mohawks, who were the Keepers of the Eastern Door of the Long House; and the Senecas, who were the guardians of the Western Door. When the big guns of General Sullivan were heard in this valley, we were one people. But the tribes of the Iroquois are scattered, and will soon be seen no more.

Brothers: We are holding council, perhaps for the last time in Gen-nis-he-o. This beautiful territory was once our own. The bones of our fathers are strewn thickly under its sod. But all this land has gone from their grasp forever. The fate and the sorrows of my people should force a sigh from the stoutest heart.


Brothers: We came here to perform a ceremony, but I cannot make it such. My heart says that this is not a play or a pageant. It is a solemn reality to me, and a mockery of days that are past and can never return. Neh-hoh, that is all."


Continuing up the river from this ancient council house the warriors passed many ancient fort and village sites of the old Iroquois. They visited the site of the Seneca Village called, Ga-o-ya-de-a 'Where the Heavens Rest Upon the Earth'. On a stone monument marking the site was the inscription: "Here in 1782 Major Moses Van Campers, a soldier of the Revolution captured by the Senecas, Keeper of the Western Door of the Iroquois Confederacy, ran the gauntlet thirty rods west to their ancient Council House, which is now preserved in Letchworth Park. This boulder was placed by the Catherine Schuyler Chapter N. S. D. A. R. 1908."


From this ancient village site the warriors headed north-east over the hills to the City of Batavia where they were once again on the main Iroquois Trail. Not far from there they headed north, their destination, the Tonawanda Seneca Reservation where they visited friends. At Tonawanda they saw a marker that was erected near the site of the Homestead of Ely Parker. The inscription on this marker was: "
Homestead of Ely Parker, Secretary to General Grant, born in 1823, died 1895 - Sachem of the Wolf Clan - Seneca title, Do-no-ho-ga-wa."
 
At this council Ga-yeh-twa-geh 'Nicholson Parker' gave the opening address on the 1st of October 1872

My Great Great Uncle Eli

A son will be born to you who will be distinguished among his nation as a peacemaker, he will become a white man as well as an Indian. He will be a wise white man, but will never desert his Indian people. His name will reach from the east to the west, the north to the south. His sun will rise on Indian land and set on white man's land. Yet the ancient land of his ancestors



Notice General Eli Parker(Seneca, Wolf clan) behind General Grant.

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Sacred Tree


To the center of the world you have taken me and showed the goodness and the beauty and the strangeness of the greening earth, the only mother — and there the spirit shapes of things, as they should be, you have shown to me and I have seen. At the center of this sacred hoop, you have said that I should make the tree to bloom.
With tears running, O Great Spirit , Great Spirit, my Grandfather — with running tears I must say now that the tree has never bloomed. A pitiful old man, you see me here, and I have fallen away and have done nothing. Here at the center of the world, where you took me when I was young and taught me; here, old, I stand, and the tree is withered, Grandfather, my Grandfather!
Again, and maybe the last time on this earth, I recall the great vision you sent me. It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds. Hear me, not for myself, but for my people; I am old. Hear me that they may once more go back into the sacred hoop and find the good red road, the shielding tree! - Black Elk Speaks

Monday, March 07, 2011

Wasi'chu

"My name is Wasichu. I know thee, I have found thee, & I will not let thee go."
0949 est, October 11, 2004
Barnard, Vermont

The first people who lived on the northern plains of what today is the United States called themselves "Lakota," meaning "the people," a word which provides the semantic basis for Dakota. The first European people to meet the Lakota called them "Sioux," a contraction of Nadowessioux, a now-archaic French-Canadian word meaning "snake" or enemy.
The Lakota also used the metaphor to describe the newcomers. It was Wasi'chu, which means "takes the fat," or "greedy person." Within the modern Indian movement, Wasi'chu has come to mean those corporations and individuals, with their governmental accomplices, which continue to covet Indian lives, land, and resources for private profit.
Wasi'chu does not describe a race; it describes a state of mind.
Wasi'chu is also a human condition based on inhumanity, racism, and exploitation. It is a sickness, a seemingly incurable and contagious disease which begot the ever advancing society of the West. If we do not control it, this disease will surely be the basis for what may be the last of the continuing wars against the Native American people.
...excerpt from Wasi'chu, The Continuing Indian Wars,
Bruce Johansen and Robert Maestas
with an introduction by John Redhouse

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

From a Mined Mind


"Technologic religious system programs the mind how to perceive reality. I think they are mining our minds, it is a process.

As human beings our DNA, bones, flesh, and blood are made up of the metals, minerals, and liquids of the earth. That is human. 

Then we have Being, the sun, sky, and universe. Literally, sun light brings the life that we take this earth form, but our being comes from sun, sky, universe. 

All things of this earth are made up of the same DNA as us, just the form is different. All things of the earth have the same relation to the sun, sky, universe.

Like with fossils, through the mining process we take out energy.  It's the same as how they imprint our perception of reality through the energy from the intelligence of human beings is how they run our system." 
- John Trudell