World of Hate

John 15:18: If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19: If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20: Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21: But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22: If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. 23: He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24: If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25: But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 26: But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.- Jesus

Wolf Clan

 

CLAN AND FAMILY STRUCTURE

The Iroquois tribes were organized into eight clans, which were grouped in two moieties: Wolf, Bear, Beaver, and Turtle; and Deer, Snipe, Heron, and Hawk. In ancient times, intermarriage was not allowed within each four-clan group, but eventually intermarriage was only forbidden within each clan. Tribal affiliation did not affect clan membership; for example, all Wolf clan members were considered to be blood relatives, regardless of whether they were members of the Mohawk, Seneca, or other Iroquois tribes. At birth, each person became a member of the clan of his or her mother.
Within a tribe, each clan was led by the clan mother, who was usually the oldest woman in the group. In consultation with the other women, the clan mother chose one or more men to serve as clan chiefs. Each chief was appointed for life but the clan mother and her advisors could remove him from office for poor behavior or dereliction of duty.

Read more: Iroquois Confederacy - History, Relations with non-native americans, Key issues, Acculturation and assimilation, Traditional culture http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Iroquois-Confederacy.html#ixzz0qRji4GpR

Sovereign North American Citizens

The Iroquois see themselves as a sovereign nation, not as merely another ethnic group within the United States population, and gaining further recognition of that status is a major objective. They have asserted their position in interesting ways. For example, when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the

Iroquois Confederacy issued its own independent declaration and claimed status as an allied nation in the war effort. In 1949 a Haudenosaunee delegation attended groundbreaking ceremonies for the United Nations building in New York City. Iroquois statesmen and athlete suse Haudenosaunee passports as they travel around the world.
Protecting the land is another priority. Since the 1940s, the Haudenosaunee have been involved in land issues involving projects as varied as the Kenzua Dam project, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Niagara Power Plant. After New York state attempted to condemn a portion of the Seneca's land for use in building a highway, a federal court ruled in the 1970s

Read more: Iroquois Confederacy - History, Relations with non-native americans, Key issues, Acculturation and assimilation, Traditional culture http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-La/Iroquois-Confederacy.html#ixzz0qMe9sn00

Spiritual Happiness

"It is not enough that man be just happy in the flesh, but he must also be happy and joyous in spirit. For without spiritual happiness and rapture, life is shallow. Without seeking the things of the Spirit, life is half lived and empty. And by spiritual life I do not mean just setting aside one hour of one day of one week for worship, but to seek the things of the spirit every moment of every day. I ask you, then: What did these people do to seek spiritual enlightenment and rapture? Did they just give in to a life that was little more than work? They were given a choice every day of their lives-as you will be given a choice to seek the rapture of the Spirit or to resign yourselves to a life of meaningless work. The end result is always the same: forgotten graves and forgotten dreams of forgotten people. It is not important that anyone notice or remember, but that you work to touch God and affect in a positive way the consciousness of the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, thus bringing the consciousness of man closer to the Creator." - Grandfather

Crazy Horse

 

Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say

Too many people
Standing their ground
Standing the wrong ground
Predators face he possessed a race
Possession a war that doesn't end
Children of god feed on children of earth
Days people don't care for people
These days are the hardest
Material fields material harvest
decoration on chains that binds
Mirrors gold the people lose their minds
Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
Today is now and then
Dream smokes touch the clouds
On a day when death didn't die
Real world time tricks shadows lie
Red white perception deception
Predator tries civilising us
But the tribes will not go without return
Genetic light from the other side
A song from the heart our hearts to give
The wild days the glory days live

Crazy Horse
We Hear what you say
One earth one mother
One does not sell the earth
The people walk upon
We are the land
How do we sell our mother
How do we sell the stars
How do we sell the air

Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
Crazy Horse
We hear what you say
We are the seventh generation
We are the seventh generation

- John Trudell

American Indian Athlete

"Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw." - Dwight Eisenhower

The History of Storytelling

Because we are old, it may be thought that the memory of things may be lost with us, who have not, like you, the art of preserving it by committing all transactions to writing.

We nevertheless have methods of transmitting from father to son an account of all these things. You will find the remembrance of them is faithfully preserved, and our succeeding generations are made acquainted with what has passed, that it may not be forgot as long as the earth remains.

Kanickhungo - Treaty negotiations with Six Nations

Grandfather, Aba, Great Spirit, Yahweh, Creator, God, Johovah...

Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you — the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, the wings of the air and all green things that live. You have set the powers of the four quarters to cross each other. The good road and the road of difficulties you have made to cross; and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in and day out, forever, you are the life of things. - Black Elk, Oglala Lakota Holy Man

True Peace

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka , and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men. - Black Elk, Holy Man, Oglala Lakota

Walking the Talk

                    It is said that those who walk in oneness with Creator are people of few words.  We understand that we have nothing to prove and are not living in a state of lack.  Creator provides all its children with everything we need.  These needs are being fulfilled even before we have the presence of mind to ask.  Nothing exists beyond the realm of Creator or Great Mystery.   This is why in the Seneca Tradition; all ceremonies are based first and foremost on thanksgiving.  Walking in thankfulness is a way of being; a way if understanding the great love Creator has for all of us.  It is an essential part of this tradition to remember our oneness with Creator.  

  If we forget, our Elders remind us for they have had many life experiences that have guided them home to this Sacred Unity Within.  There is no separation between Creator and ourselves, only the one we imagine is there.  The truth is that all creature beings, we included, are equally as valuable and important in the eyes of Creator.  This is why we speak of them as our family.  We say that they are all our relations and we give thanks for their wisdom.  It is only humankind that has forgotten our true identity.  When we bring our questions to Creator and ask for guidance, or the best way to live every day, we are walking as one with Creator.  When we follow our inner guidance through our unity with Creator, our actions become blessed with wisdom.  Our thoughts, words and actions become infused with truth.  Each action is carefully laid out, step by step, for the health and well being of the next seven generations.  In this way we walk our talk and fulfill Creators’ Dream of Peace. 

Published in Koraal Magazine, a Journal of Indian Shamanism, Vol. 5, First Quarter 2000 Pg12 DA NA HO Lee Nitsch

Spiritual Belief

  

Some years ago, a good man...came to us.  He talked me out of my old faith; and after a while, thinking that he must know more of these matters than an ignorant Indian, I joined his church and became a Methodist.  After a while, he went away, another man came and talked, and I became a Baptist; then another came and talked and I became a Presbyterian. 

  Now another one has come, and wants me to be an Episcopalian... All these people tell different stories, and each wants me to believe that his special way is the only way to be good and save my soul.  I have about made up my mind that either they all lie, or that they don't know any more about it than I did at the first.  I have always believed in the Great Spirit, and worshipped  him in my own way.  These people don't seem to want to change my belief in the Great Spirit, but to change my way of talking to him. - Chief Lewis Downing, Cherokee

Picket Fences

"I learned in school there were no indians; they were visages of the historical past who rode painted ponies and attacked wagon trains...we were expected to identify with white American images of Dick and Jane and Spot and Puff and homes with white picket fences."
  - Simon Ortiz, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico

We are what we imagine.

The native vision, the gift of seeing truly, with wonder and delight into the natural world, is informed by a certain attitude of reverence and respect. It is a matter of extrasensory as well as sensory perception. In addition to the eye, it involves the intelligence, the instinct, and the imagination. It is the perception not only of objects and forms but also of essences and ideals.- Contemporary American Indian Leaders, by Marion Gridley, Dodd Mead, 1972
 Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of the moon and all the colors of the dawn and dusk. - The Way to Rainy Mountain, University of New Mexico Press, 1976

Responsiblity & Freedom

In a matrilineal society, when I married, my last name would change, not my wife's. Indigenous people the world over, specifically in the western hemisphere, never gave a new-born child the name of someone else, because that would not respect that someone else, and because you want that child, who just came into this earth, to have their own personality and individuality, their own freedom. It's respecting the individual. This country was based on the clan system. The United States of America doesn't have founding fathers. That's an insult to our ancestors. This country, the United States of America, has founding mothers, and they were primitive ones at that. The Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy used to be called at that time the Five Nations. The men didn't have the right to vote. It was the women who picked the leaders and removed them if necessary. It continues today among those people. That's the basis of this country. If the white man was really telling the truth, he would talk about the founding mothers. But women had no rights when this country was founded, black people were counted as three-fifths of a human being, and we weren't considered human beings. - Russell Means, lecture at Navajo Community College, 1995

Cultural Stereotypes

 

Creating Positive Cultural Images: Thoughts for Teaching about American Indians.

Excerpt by Gerry D. Haukoos , Archie B. Beauvais, Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 73, 1996  
  
  Most children enjoy stories and school lessons about American Indians. They often find something inspirational about the lives of Chief Joseph, Crazy Horse, Geronimo and other great American Indian leaders. Although it is important to learn about these great American leaders, it is even more important for children to construct positive images of present-day Native people to prevent racial or cultural stereotypes from becoming part of their beliefs. 
  American Indian people are among the many different peoples and cultures that live on the American continent. While we all are much more alike than different, it is the differences that too often compel us to erect barriers of misunderstanding. Consequently, we must learn more about each other. Educators especially require knowledge of other cultures, races and ethnicities. Otherwise, they may unknowingly spread their misunderstandings as stereotypes to students. 
  Two decades ago, Heinrich (1977) addressed Native and non-Native interracial issues when she published a list of "what not to teach about American Indians." Its purpose was to help elementary school teachers correct common errors. Although the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force (1994) found significant change in Native education since the mid-1970s, many of Heinrich's recommendations are as relevant today as when she first proposed them. This paper will revisit those suggestions, and then encourage teachers to rethink how they portray American Indian people. 
  The authors hope to advance classroom teachers' understanding by providing current explanations and viewpoints from the Native community. Restructuring the Knowledge Base 
* Teach children that American Indian people prefer to be identified by their nation name. The name "Indian" was a white man's invention and still remains largely a white image, if not a stereotype. It was first used by members of Christopher Columbus's party when, upon landing in the Americas, they erroneously believed they had landed in India. Most Europeans, however, called Indian peoples "Americans" until immigrants from Europe appropriated that name (Sando, 1972). The term "Native American" also was derived from non-Natives, originally used by the United States Government to designate all Native peoples of the continent.  Today, by most accounts, it includes American Indians, Alaska Natives and all Native peoples from the United States's territories and possessions - American Samoa, Baker Island, Howland Island, Guam, Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, Johnston Atoll, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Wake Island. 
  These appellations, however, do not distinguish Apache from Inuit or Samoans from Mohawks. As a result, federal dollars typically budgeted for American Indians and Alaska Natives have now been reallocated to all peoples who declare themselves to be Native American. This interpretation increased competition for federal dollars and, in some cases, reduced treatied funds for those peoples originally identified as Native Americans. Most American Indian and Alaska Native groups have therefore moved away from calling themselves Native Americans, and instead use the names of their original nations (e.g., Navajo Nation, Menominee Nation, Seneca Nation). Most electronic databases and publications edited by Native scholars now use the term American Indian (e.g., Journal of American Indian Education, American Indian Quarterly, American Indian Culture and Research Journal) when referring to Native peoples as a collective group. 
  Although use of "American Indian" may suggest a return to the old image, those who choose American Indian terminology believe it more clearly identifies Native people 'of America as uniquely indigenous to the continent. 
* Teach children that American Indian people do not live in tribes. Although the United States Government has used the term "tribe" as an official designation for identifying different populations of American Indian people, most Native people prefer to be recognized as belonging to a particular nation of people rather than a tribe. 
  While "tribe" or "tribal society" may be acceptable to some Native people, others believe the words suggest primitive or nomadic peoples - a classification most modern populations would find offensive. 
  When the term "tribe" is used in anthropology, it generally refers to a kin-based society (Winthrop, 1991). Seymour-Smith (1986) defined it as ". . . a group which possesses social institutions but not political ones" (p. 281).
   A nation, on the other hand, is defined as having political organization and a differentiated administrative structure (Berndt, 1959; Winthrop, 1991). Although kin-based social units are common in most Native communities, American Indian societies today are nations that have been organized around democratic authority..."Teaching Children Accurately

Government Run Amuck

True, the white man brought great change. But the varied fruits of his civilization, though highly colored and inviting, are sickening and deadening. And if it be the part of civilization to maim, rob, and thwart, then what is progress?
          I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things, was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.Chief Luther Standing Bear, 1933, From the Land of the Spotted Eagle, p.515

Fear, Unhappiness & Loneliness

 

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles."  - Anne Frank, The diary of a young girl

Livin' Like A Dog

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
Let others know when they've invaded your territory. 

Take naps.
Stretch before rising.
Run, romp, and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass. On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree. When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body. No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout ... Run right back and make friends. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough. Be loyal. Never pretend to be something you're not. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.

And never trust anyone until you have sniffed their butt.

Imperfect Men

It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far! - John Muir

One Love

We all flow from one fountain— Soul. All are expressions of one love. God does not appear, and flow out, only from narrow chinks and round bored wells here and there in favored races and places, but He flows in grand undivided currents, shoreless and boundless over creeds and forms and all kinds of civilizations and peoples and beasts, saturating all and fountainizing all. 

- John Muir