Spring's New Hope

 

Behold, my brothers, the spring has come, the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!

Every seed is awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors,

the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.

Yet, hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race - small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take tithes[taxes] from the poor and weak to support the rich who rule.

They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. That nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path.

We cannot dwell side by side. Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that away from us. My brothers, shall we submit or shall we say to them: "First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland[home]..."

- TATANKA YOTANKA, SITTING BULL, HUNKPAPA TETON SIOUX 

Neil's Old Guitar

 

This old guitar ain't mine to keep

Just taking care of it now

It's been around for years and years

Just waiting in its old case

Its been up and down the country roads

Its brought a tear and a smile

Its seen its share of dreams and hopes

And never went out of style

The more I play it, the better it sounds

It cries when I leave it alone

Silently it waits for me

Or someone else I suppose

This old guitar

This old guitar caught some breaks

But it never searched for gold

It can't be blamed for my mistakes

It only does what its told

Its been a messenger in times of trouble

In times of hope and fear

When I get drunk and seeing double

It jumps behind the wheel and steers

This old guitar ain't mine to keep

Its mine to play for awhile

This old guitar ain't mine to keep

Its only mine for awhile

This old guitar

- NEIL YOUNG

Mother is Sore

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?" - CHIEF SEATTLE

Prayer for the Day

 

 

Dear Father, 

I am blessed today to be one of your children.  I appreciate Your handiwork in all that You have created.  I stand in awe that You made it

all for mankind so that they might enjoy it and be blessed in it.  Thank you for the beauty of the mountains, the glorious sunsets and the blue skies with

those patches of little white clouds on a nice day. Thank you that I have eyes to see all of Your great artistic work in the creation of the earth. Lord,

forgive me when I am tempted to complain about anything.  I really have nothing to complain about when I have the Creator of the whole universe as my Father

and friend.  May I be a good friend to You and serve You faithfully every day of my life.  Use me today to bless and help others.  I ask this in Your Son's name
 Amen.

When God Made Me

 

Was he thinking about my country or the color of my skin?

Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion, and the way I worshipped him?

Did he just create me in his image, or every living thing?

When God made me.

When God made me.

Was he planning only for believers, or for those who just had faith?

Did he envision all the wars that were fought in his name?

Did he think there was only one way to be close to him?

When God made me.

When God made me.

Did he give us the gift of love to say who we could choose?

When God made me.

When God made me.

Did he give me the gift of voice so some could silence me?

Did he give me the gift of vision not knowing what I might see?

Did he give me the gift of compassion to help my fellow man?

When God made me.

When God made me.

When God made me.

When God made me.

- NEIL YOUNG

Did you ever consider why Neil would pen a song about God? I mean Neil's a 'rock 'n' roller, isn't he?

I mean I've followed his music since the 60's when he was with the Buffalo Springfield and protesting the way our country was headed back then. I really think that his mission has matured since those days. But he still writes songs that stir the soul and make you think. Have you listened to him lately or thought that he was dead. Have you ever thought about why God made you? I have... - YO:NIH ONONDAWAGA, SENECA

A Beautiful Message

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation. - ISAIAH 52:7 NLT

  People need hope. They try to find it in many things, but the only real and lasting hope is in God. That is why it is wonderful to be his representative. Most people have a distorted perception of God - either as a controlling taskmaster or an impersonal being that does not bother to intervene.

  Yet you know who he really is - the God who gives Joy and Eternal Life. Today, tell others the beautiful message of the God of hope so that they can experience his peace and salvation as well. You will find their gratitude is utterly overwhelming when they finally meet and embrace the God they've longed to know.

Dear God, I praise you for your beautiful message. Help me to repeat it to those who need hope so they may know you as well. Amen 

This Kind of Love

 

You speak to me through a broken window
You are alive in an old oak tree
You hold me close when the winter wind blows
I hear your footsteps on the street

I feel your prsence in the early mornin'
I dream of you in the darkest nite
You call to me without a warning
I see your face in the fires lite

This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love it has no shame
This kind of love is never old
This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love you cannot tame

You found a way through all my secrets
And made my proud defenses fall
This kind of love it has no distance
This kind of love it knows no walls

This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love it has no shame
This kind of love is never old
This kind of love you cannot hold
This kind of love you cannot tame
This kind of love is without blame

- BILL MILLER

The Oldest Living Participatory Democracy On Earth

 

Oh Eagle, come with wings outspread in sunny skies.

Oh Eagle, come and bring us peace, thy gentle peace.

Oh Eagle, come and give new life to us who pray.

Remember the circle of the sky, the stars, 

and the brown eagle, the great life of the Sun,

the young within the nest.

Remember the sacredness of things.

- PAWNEE PRAYER

 

American Creed

Patriotism which leaps over the fence of party prejudice. Religion which jumps over the law of intolerance. Brotherhood which climbs over the mountain of national separations. - UNKNOWN

  THE GREAT LAW OF PEACE
Article 24^*

          The chiefs of the League of Five Nations shall be mentors of the people for all time. The thickness of their skin shall be seven spans, which is to say that they shall be proof against anger, offensive action, and criticism. Their hearts shall be full of peace and good will, and their minds filled with a yearning for the welfare of the people of the League. With endless patience, they shall carry out their duty. Their firmness shall be tempered with a tenderness for their people. Neither anger nor fury shall find lodging in their minds and all their words and actions shall be marked by calm deliberation.


^* As translated in Akwesasne Notes, 1977

Forgotten Fathers by Bruce E. Johansen 

Nature

There is no word for nature in my language. Nature, in English, seems to refer to that which is separate from human beings. It is a distinction we don't recognize. The closest words to the idea of nature translate to refer to things which support life. It is foolish arrogance for humans to think themselves superior to all the life-support system.. How can one be superior to that which one depends for life? Humans have invented marvelous technologies. The result has been that parts of the world live in unneccessary and debilitating surplus while people in other parts of the world are dying for lack of food, clean water, and shelter. Priorities need to be redirected so that people who have plenty need not feel shame while others hunger and die. There should be no homeless or hungry people anywhere in the world. Those in power need to address this deplorable situation. We are fellow travelers on this earth...We live in an era when far too much money is expended on the military. Even as we enter a time of increasing potential for peace among the major powers, military expenditures remain grotesquely high. The purpose of these high military budgets must be the anticipation of violence. As a mother I demand that our sons not be raised to die in war. War is irrational, its causes suspect. If we are to live on this planet we must eliminate warfare, which is harmful to all living things.I would urge the whole concept of nature be rethought. Nature, the land, must not mean money; it must designate life. Nature is the storehouse of potential life.of future generations and is sacred. Human societies already possess the technologies neccessary to provide food, clothing and shelter for everyone. The organization of distribution of wealth needs to be repaired, for that imbalance destroys both contemporary and future human life and nature. Western society needs to prioritize life-supporting systems and to question its commitment to materialism, Spirituality should be our foundation... -AUDREY SHENANDOAH, ONONDAGA

Praises

I praise you for the rivers the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
I praise you for my children the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
I praise you for my people the mountains and the streams
I praise you for the eagle, the visions and the dreams
 
The visions and the dreams, the visions and the dreams

- Bill Miller, First Nation Grammy Recording Artist
Bill Miller's Music 

Listen to Me

If I Took Away Your Shelter, Put You On the Street
If I Took Away Your Table and Chairs, Threw Away Your Meat
Stole Away Your Wife and Child, See How Lonesome You Would Be
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me

If I Took Away Your Legs and You Could Never Walk
If I Took Away Your Words and You Could Never Talk
Blinded Your Eyes and You Could Never See
Locked You Up in Shackles and You Were no Longer Free
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me...

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear
I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under
You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me..

If I Gave You a Blanket, You Could Be Warm
If I Gave You a Roof to Stay Under
Would That Save You From the Storm
Gave You All the Money You Could Ever Spend
Do You Think That Means Your Troubles Would Finally End
Is That What It Would Take For You to Listen to Me

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear
I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under
You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me

I Give You the Seed Dig Your Roots Deep in the Land
Here's a Blade to Turn the Soil Grow Somethin' in the Sand
I Give You All Me Blessings, My Blood Runs Through Your Veins
I Will Stand Beside You, Even When It Rains
My Son Listen to Me

Listen to Me, I Am the Thunder You Refuse to Hear

I Am the Rock You Can't Hide Under

You Have Nothing More to Fear
This Is a Time For Healing, the Scars Upon the Land
My Son, Listen to Me..

- Bill Miller

From the Father to the Son

Native Ammerican Bill Miller accepts Grammy

Making Peace

"If your enemies are hungry, feed them...and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you." Don't let it get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good. - ROMANS 12:20-21 NLT

 

 WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE, 1890

 There may be people in your life that no matter how accommodating and nice you are - will not return your friendship. It can be frustrating. You want to have peace, but they prefer conflict. If you respond in anger, there will never be harmony between you. However when you continue to treat them with kindness, eventually you prevail over whatever feelings they have against you. You don't have to surrender your principles - you must simply assert them with gentleness and wisdom. The only way to sway your rivals is to pray for them and be kind. You will find that as you were busy making peace, you were also making a friend.

"The meek shall inherit the earth."

 

Monday's Good Words

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of the forests, plains, pueblos or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belonged. — Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota

Our Town

 

"All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being."
- Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued. 

- ROBERT FROST

No New Light

What we need is not new light, but new sight; not new paths, but new strength to walk in the old ones; not new duties but new strength from the Creator to fulfill those that are in plain sight before us. - UNKNOWN

Today's Sunrise Medicine #6

The sheep in the Shepherd's arm looks only into the face of the Shepherd and not to the wolves nearby. - UNKNOWN

The White Man's Trail

I will follow the white man's trail. I will take him as my friend, but I will not bend my back to his burdens. I will be cunning as a wolf. I will ask him to understand his ways, then I will prepare the way for my children. The Great Spirit has shown me...a day will come when they will outrun the white man in his own shoes. - MANY HORSES

Natural Law & Spiritual Law

`When you become afraid or when you become weak or when you become not able to carry,' he says, `it's the spiritual law that will stiffen your spine.' He said, `That's where your strength is. So you must make your laws in accordance with those spiritual laws and then you will survive.' - Oren Lyons, 1991

"What law are you living under? United States government law? That's Man's law. You break Man's law and you pay a fine or go to jail - maybe. That's the way it is with Man's law. You can break it and still get around it. Maybe you won't get punished at all. Happens all the time. People figure they can get away with anything and half the time they do. But they forget there's another law...Natural law prevails everywhere. It supersedes Man's law. If you violate it, you get hit. There's no judge and jury, there's no lawyers or courts, you can't buy or dodge or beg your way of it. 

 

If you violate this Natural law you're going to get hit and hit hard. One of the Natural laws is that you've got to keep things pure. Especially the water. Keeping the water pure is one of the first laws of life. If you destroy the water, you destroy life. That's what I mean about common sense. Anybody can see that. All life on Mother Earth depends on pure water, yet we spill every kind of dirt and filth and poison into it. That makes no common sense at all.

Your legislature can pass a law saying it's OK, but it's Not OK. Natural law doesn't care about your Man's law.Natural law's going to hit you. You can't get out of the way. You don't fool around with Natural law and get away with it. If you kill the water, you kill the life that depends on it, your own included. That's Natural law. it's also common sense." - Oren Lyons, Onondaga

The Faithkeeper

World Bank Speech, 1995

Historical Timeline of GOP Expansion Plans

Today's Good Words

Good words do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay for my dead people. Words do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for my horses and cattle. Good words will not give me back my children. Good words will not make good the promise of your War Chief. Good words will not give my people good health and stop them from dying. Good words will not get my people a home where they can live in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes to nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. - Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, 1840-1904

When Love Shines In

Jesus comes with power to gladden, when love shines in,
Every life that woe can sadden, when love shines in.
Love will teach us how to pray, love will drive the gloom away,
Turn our darkness into day, when love shines in.

When love shines in, when love shines in,
How the heart is tuned to singing, when love shines in,
When love shines in, when love shines in,
Joy and peace to others bringing, when love shines in.

How the world will grow with beauty, when love shines in,
And the heart rejoice in duty, when love shines in.
Trials may be sanctified, and the soul in peace abide,
Life will all be glorified, when love shines in.

Darkest sorrow will grow brighter, when love shines in,
And the heaviest burden lighter, when love shines in.
’Tis the glory that will throw light to show us where to go;
O, the heart shall blessing know, when love shines in.

We may have unfading splendor, when love shines in,
And a friendship true and tender, when love shines in.
When earth’s vict’ries shall be won, and our life in Heav’n begun,
There will be no need of sun, when love shines in.
- Carrie E. Breck, 1874

When Love Shines In

The Greatest Strength

I myself have no power. It's the people behind me who have the power. Real power comes only from the Creator. It's in His hands. But if you're asking about strength, not power, then I  can say that the greatest strength is gentleness. - LEON SHENANDOAH, SIX NATIONS CONFEDERACY

Honor Mother Nature

Mother Nature is not for us, she is part of us, and we, like everything else that lives and breathes upon her, are her children. Your own direct connection with Mother Earth is to be encouraged daily. Paint her portraits, swim in her waters, tend to her flowers, stroll through her glorious forests, and care for her many children, all plants, people and animals.
We must live according to her principles and choose not to pollute her body. The alternative is death to our mother and death to her children.

The Great Spirit is our father, but the Earth is our mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us, and healing plants she gives us likewise. If we are wounded, we go to our mother and seek to lay the wounded part against her, to be healed. - BEDAGI(BIG THUNDER), WABANAKI ALGONQUIN, 1900's from 365 Days Walking the Red Road, Terri Jean

http://www.amazon.com/365-Days-Walking-Red-Road/dp/1580628494 

Letter to Mom

Digging through an old box of letters I discovered a gem that I would would like to share with readers of my blog. The poem was written by a unknown Seneca and I thought my mom would appreciate it as she was 54 years old at the time. 'My oh my', the things that crossed my mind at 32. To think of my dear mother so young and vibrant in those days and now she is gone and I am a young 'lol' 62 years of age.

Today's Sunrise Medicine #5

Is your love patient and kind? Is it able to suffer long, to endure every strain placed upon it in human relations, and still love? Is your love steadfast in pointing to the Creator's love as is the needle of the compass in pointing to the north? 
Is your love un-discouraged even by repeated ingratitude and recurrent failures on the part of others? Patience and kindness are the fruits of having Christ live in you. Are you nourishing your life upon His life by prayer and worship and studying His word? 
If so, the fruit of patient and kind love will grow and will be available for the healing of other lives. - Wings of Silver compiled by Jo Petty
http://theshackbook.com/

Running In the Woods

When someone, an Indian, gets caught between the Longhouse religion and Christianity, when they don't follow either one or the other, we say, 'They're running in the woods.' They don't have a home either here or there, either in the Indian's world or White Man's world. They don't pay attention to the Creator, so they've got to keep running, even though they've got nowhere to go. That's a terrible thing." LOUIS FARMER, ONONDAGA
Wisdomkeepers by Steve Wall & Harvey Arden 

One Does Not Sell Our Mother

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 civilizing 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, NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIVE

The Sauce for Farm-Raised Bison Ribs

Try Cuz's Recipe On Ribs of Choice

Free Leonard Peltier

American Indians share a history rich in diversity, integrity, culture, and tradition. It is also rich in tragedy, deceit, and genocide. As the world learns of these atrocities and cries out for justice for all people everywhere, no human being should ever have to have fear for his or her life because of their political or religious beliefs. We are in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown, and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her. Never forget that. - LEONARD PELTIER, NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

The Spiritual Fire Still Burns

"The spiritual heritage of Native American people is here, it has not been extinguished. I believe the spiritual fire still burns and is beckoning for America, indeed the world, to come closer, to listen, to learn, and to share in its warmth and comfort. I, as a spiritual  Indian man, am convinced that it is time to reach out to my white brothers and sisters and to share with whomever wishes to partake of what we, the indigenous people of this land still have. It is time that the buckskin curtain be drawn back. It is time, I know it." - Eddie Benton-Banai, Ojibway, from Wisdomkeepers by Steve Wall & Harvey Arden

Medicine Men

"You want to know who's a real medicine man? He's the one who doesn't say 'I'm a medicine man', He doesn't ask you to come to him. You've got to go and ask him. And you'll find he's always there among his own people. He doesn't go off to the city and open an office. Once a medicine man leaves his own territory, he loses most of his power. All the sacred plants he knows are where he comes from. He doesn't know the plants of other places. The Creator gave him his gift so he could serve his own people, not somebody else. The people he's supposed to help are people where he's from. So he stays home and helps them. That's who a real medicine man is."  - Louis Farmer, Onondaga, Wisdomkeepers by Steve Wall & Harvey Arden

http://www.amazon.com/dp/158270158X/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=3828491751&ref=pd_sl_8xr745dq7_b

Bugs in the Global Trade

 

Perched on a platform 50 feet above the ground in a big hemlock named Fern, Geoff Elliott points to an unwelcome Asian import: a little bug known as the hemlock woolly adelgid.
Small fuzzy white nymphs cling to the undersides of hemlock branches throughout the grove of trees. Both nymphs and adult adelgids can work quickly to destroy hemlocks 150 feet tall.

"This tree is believed to be somewhere between 200 and 300 years in age and can be taken out by the adelgid in as little as two to four years," says Mr. Elliott, a tour guide for Adventure West Virginia Resort LLC, which operates zip-line tours through the treetops. The company is trying to educate visitors about the dangers of the invasive insect as it diminishes the landscape the business relies on.
"Without any action we could lose the species," said Mark Whitmore, a forest entomologist at Cornell University. He described the hemlock as a "keystone species," because it provides shade that cools streams so fish can survive as well shelter for birds and animals. Losing it would be like "having all your front teeth fall out," he said.

As global trade has mounted, more goods are coming in from overseas, sometimes bringing with them the accidental cargo of destructive bugs and plants. An estimated 500 million plants are imported to the U.S. each year, and shipments through one plant inspection station doubled to 52,540 between 2004 and 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today, about 30 new invasive insects are discovered annually in the U.S., up sharply over the last decade, the USDA says.

by Kris Maher
Friday, January 15, 2010


Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com

Lost In Thought

"An old friend I spent some time with one afternoon. He helped me make an important decision and perhaps I helped him with one too. I'd like to think so, but I think he is much wiser than me."

Photo & Verse by my friend - Ken Vaughan

Sharing Today's Sunset Medicine

O Great Spirit whose voice I hear in the winds, I come to you as one of your many children. I need your strength and your wisdom. Make me strong not to be superior to my brother, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy- Myself. - Chief Dan George, Coast Salish, 1899-1981

Today's Sunrise Medicine #4

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun warm your face,

And the rain fall soft upon your fields,

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Office Hours - Anthony Buono

http://www.anthonybuono.net/#sharehttp://glassonion8tracks.bandvista.com/

Nostalgic and fresh are words that come to mind when I first heard online cuts of Anthony Buono's Office Hours. He, Doug, Mike & Ted got our toes tapping this Saturday morning to I Need You (you'll swear it's John Lennon) &  Bound To Love shades of David Gates and Bread! Nicely produced and executed guys. Here's an excerpt from Anthony's album site:

Now is the Time

http://www.lordnelsons.com/gallery/frontier/griffing/main.htm

"The American Indian is the vengeful ghost lurking in the back of the troubled American Mind." -Gary Snyder, Earth House Hold, 1968

"But now is the time for a destructive order to be reversed, and it is well to inform other races that the aboriginal culture of America was not devoid of beauty. Furthermore, In denying the Indian his anscestral rights and heritages the white race is but robbing itself. But America can be revived,  rejuvenated, by recognizing a native school of thought. The Indian can save America." - Luther Standing Bear, Land of the Spotted Eagle, 1933

SenecaWolf To Host Karaoke

SenecaWolf the DJ & Karaoke Host is inviting wannabe singers to his show at the East Side Seafood & Raw Bar on US Route 50(Millwood Pike) 1.5 east of Winchester this Friday 15th January night from 8-11:30pm. Bring your friends and come out for the fun. A great crowd came out last friday & we expect a bigger turn-out on the 15th.

Hope to see all my friends there.

Today's Sunrise Medicine #3

It is unsettling to peer into the abyss from this point. Senses are up-ended and the stomach floating with fearful anticipation of the fall into the black misty hole. You look into the eye of this lion and you will be scared.  This is the spot that my ancestors spoke of. - SenecaWolf, 2010


http://www.webwinds.com/yupanqui/iroquoisdreams3.htm 

The Niagara Falls, or Nee-ah-gah-rah (Thundering Waters)  are the most sacred waters of the Iroquois people, and a focus of many of their legends and myths. For centuries, the Iroquois believed that the sound of the waterfall was the voice of the mighty spirit of the waters. Until the mid 18th century, they sought the favor of the Water Spirit by sacrificing a maiden to the Falls each year - sending her in a white canoe decorated with fruits and flowers over the brink of the falls. To be sacrificed was the greatest honor, and insured special gifts and happy hunting grounds in the afterlife. 
In 1679, when LaSalle visited the Iroquois, he condemned their practice of yearly sacrifice, but then attempted to convert the Iroquois to Christianity, and to convince them of the value of the sacrifice that Christ made for humanity. The Iroquois, of course, could not understand how their form of sacrifice could be viewed as bad, but Christ's sacrifice as good.
At this time, in1679, Chief Eagle Eye's daughter Lela-wala was chosen for the sacrifice, even though his wife was dead, and she was his only child. Not until the time of the sacrifice did he reveal the extent of  his grief. He disappeared into the woods, then  darted out in his own canoe following her through the rapids and over the Falls.
The Iroquois believe that "After their death, they were changed into pure spirits of strength and goodness. They live so far beneath the falls that the roaring is music to them." He is the ruler of the cataract; she is the maiden of the mist."

Sharing Today's Sunrise Medicine #2

They Will Return

MY FRIEND,

They will return again.

All over the Earth,

They are returning again.

Ancient teachings of the Earth,

Ancient songs of the Earth.

They are returning again.

My friend, they are returning.

I give them to you,

And through them You will understand.

You will see.

They are returning again upon the Earth.

CRAZY HORSE, Oglala Sioux (1842-77)

Sharing Today's Sunrise Medicine #1

Civilized people depend too much on man-made printed pages. I turn to the Great Spirit's book which is the whole of his creation. - Tatanga Mani, 1871-1967

Manitou

THE WORLD of the Native American, spiritual and otherwise, is not to be understood by assuming that it can be described easily in the English language, and in religious terms. What we now think of spirituality was not a religion in the commonly accepted definition of the word. It was their way of life, which is to say that it permeated their lives to such an extent as to be inseparable from everyday living....Manitou was not a supreme being, but rather a way of referring to the cosmic, mysterious power existing everywhere in nature. - Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D., Penobscot

Being a believer in Jesus Christ, of German/Scot heritage & a Sovereign member of the Seneca Nation, I embrace beliefs
that are hybrid based in Nature & Christianity. - SenecaWolf

http://www.curledup.com/viewfrom.htm

The Great Spirit is in all things

He is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us... - Bedagi (Big Thunder), Wabanki Algonquin, 1900's

Washita Cuts Mother to the Bone

It disturbs me greatly to witness first-hand 12 tractor-trailer loads of timber clear-cut from the forest of our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains & foot-lands every working day. That's 60 trucks a week, 3,120 yearly for over the recent 2-years I have lived on US route 50. Stop it NOW! - SenecaWolf, 1/10/2010

"I feel pain and anger that in your rush toward development. the fabric of this globe has been rent, and what you call the biosphere, or ecosphere - but which my people more simply call Mother - has been so neglected and hurt....Our elders tell us we have to do more than save what is left of our traditional homelands. We need to contribute to an overall change of mind...so that human-kind can begin to initiate strategies which will preserve and sustain the environment that all cultures and nations share." - Ruby Dunstan, Lytton Indian Band