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

"In the beginning the world was covered with darkness. There was no sun, no day. The perpetual night had no moon or stars.
There were, however, all manner of beasts and birds. Among the beasts were many hideous, nameless monsters, as well as dragons, lions, tigers, wolves, foxes, beavers, rabbits, squirrels, rats, mice, and all manner of creeping things such as lizards and serpents. Mankind could not prosper under such conditions, for the beasts and serpents destroyed all human offspring.
All creatures had the power of speech and were gifted with reason." - Geronimo

Hiking to Nirvana

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail. - John Muir, Our National Parks, 1901

True Path Walkers

To bring back the natural harmony that humans once enjoyed.
To save the planet from present practices of destruction.
To find and re-employ real truth.
To promote true balance between both genders.
To share and be less materialistic.
To become rid of prejudice.
To learn to be related.
To be kind to animals and take no more than we need.
To play with one's children and love each equally and fairly.
To be brave and courageous, enough so,
to take a stand and make a commitment.
To understand what Generations Unborn really means.
To accept the Great Mystery
in order to end foolish argument over religion.

The Sioux at Prayer

 

As quietly as little rabbit's feet,
The morning glory sun arrives to greet
The Red Man as he worships in his way.
For this he asks the Spirit every day;
Before I judge my friend, O let me wear
His moccasins for two long weeks, and share
The path that he would take in wearing them;
Then, I shall understand and not condemn.

- Peggy Windsor Garnett

Mohawk Prayer

Oh Great Spirit, Creator of all things;              
Human Beings, trees, grass, berries.
Help us, be kind to us.
Let us be happy on earth.
Let us lead our children
To a good life and old age.
These our people; give them good minds
To love one another.
Oh Great Spirit,
Be kind to us
Give these people the favor
To see green trees,
Green grass, flowers, and berries
This next spring;
So we all meet again
Oh Great Spirit,
We ask of you.

True Love

Obeying the Lord and His Word brings health to our being -- spirit, soul and body. Knowing God brings peace to our mind, in spite of what might be going on around us. None of us really know true love until we experience the love of God, and we really cannot love one another purely without Christ's love in our hearts. We are all basically selfish until we ask Christ into our hearts. His Spirit then changes us so that we can love one another with the love of God.

Thunder Beings

"When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the West, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greener and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm. ... you have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping. ... as lightning illuminates the dark, for it is the power of lightning that heyokas have." - Black Elk Speaks

Inspiration for Avatar?

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

Giving Thanks

My grandfather is the fire
My grandmother is the wind
The Earth is my mother
The Great Spirit is my father
The World stopped at my birth
and laid itself at my feet
And I shall swallow the Earth whole
when I die
and the Earth and I will be one
Hail The Great Spirit, my father
without him no one could exist
because there would be no will to live
Hail The Earth, my mother
without which no food could be grown
and so cause the will to live to starve
Hail the wind, my grandmother
for she brings loving, lifegiving rain
nourishing us as she nourishes our crops
Hail the fire, my grandfather
for the light, the warmth, the comfort he brings
without which we be animals, not men
Hail my parent and grandparents
without which
not I
nor you
nor anyone else
could have existed
Life gives life
which gives unto itself
a promise of new life
Hail the Great Spirit, The Earth, the wind, the fire
praise my parents loudly
for they are your parents, too
Oh, Great Spirit, giver of my life
please accept this humble offering of prayer
this offering of praise
this honest reverence of my love for you.
- H.Kent Craig

Perfect Love

We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. - Sam Keen

Fear of the Light

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne Williamson

Friendship's Nest

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.  ~Henri Nouwen

The Song of Hiawatha

You shall hear how Hiawatha prayed
and fasted in the forest,
Not for greater skill in hunting,
Not for greater craft in fishing,
Not for triumphs in the battle,
And renown among the warriors,
But for profit of the people,
For advantage of the nations.

                                    "The Song of Hiawatha" - H.W.Longfellow, 1855

My Indian Boyhood

"The home of my tribe, the Western Sioux, was all that territory which is now called North and South Dakota, and all this land once belonged to my people. It was a beautiful country.In the springtime and early summer the plains, as far as the eye could see, were covered with velvety green grass. Even the rolling hills were green, and here there was a pretty stream. Over the hills roamed the buffalo and in the woods that bordered the streams were luscious fruits that were ours for the picking. In the winter everything was covered with snow, but we always had plenty of food to last through the winter until spring came again. Life was full of happiness and contentment for my people." - Luther Standing Bear from My Indian Boyhood, 1931

"I was not born in America, it was born on my land."

"The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there. Since they crossed the sea, I have given them room. There are now white people all about me. I have but a small spot of land left. The Great Spirit told me to keep it."

Chief Red Cloud - Sioux

Gulf Oil Spill Call to Consciousness

“Human beings are abusing one another as well as the planet they live on. The destruction of the natural world is a clear indication of mankind’s spiritual poverty...Hundreds of species of birds and animals have been utterly destroyed since the Europeans arrived in America...The forests have been leveled, the waters polluted, the native peoples subjected to genocide...Western technology and the people who have employed it have been the most amazingly destructive forces in all of human history....
Call to Consciousness

Code of Handsome Lake

When their poverty is urged as an argument against their religion and social system they assert that the true follower of the prophet will be poor and suffer much in this world but that his condition in the "new world above the sky" will be in direct contrast. They therefore esteem poverty, lowly surroundings and sickness as a sure indication of a rich heavenly reward and point to the better material surroundings and wealth of their brethren of the white man's way as an evidence that the devil has bought them.

The writer of this sketch has no complaint against the simple folk who have long been his friends. For a greater portion of his lifetime he has mingled with them, lived in their homes and received many honors from them. He has attended their ceremonies, heard their instructors and learned much of the old-time lore. Never has he been more royally entertained than by them, never was hospitality so genuine, never was gratitude more earnest, never were friends more sincere. There is virtue in their hearts and a sincerity and frankness that is refreshing. If only there were no engulfing "new way" and no modern rush, no need for progress, there could scarcely be a better devised system than theirs. It was almost perfectly fitted for the conditions which it was designed to meet, but now the new way has surrounded them, everything which they have and use in the line of material things, save a few simple maize foods and their ceremonial paraphernalia, is the product of the white man's hand and brain. The social and economic and moral order all about them is the white man's, not theirs. How long can they oppose their way to the overwhelming forces of the modern world and exist? How long will they seek to meet these overwhelming forces with those their ancestors devised but devised not with a knowledge of what the future would require? My Indian friends will answer, "Of these things we know nothing; we know only that the Great Ruler will care for us as long as we are faithful." Asked about the clothes they wear, the houses they live in, the long house they worship in, they reply, "All these things may be made of the white man's material but they are outside things. Our religion is not one of paint or feathers; it is a thing of the heart." That is the answer; it is a thing of the heart--who can change it?

A Host of Ghosts

“And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and his MEMORY among white men shall have become a MYTH, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe and when your children’s children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon highway, or in the silence of the woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude.

At night when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this Beautiful land.

The White Man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless.” - Chief Seath'tl, 1854 address to Gov, Stevens

Majestic Cathedral

There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky! He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud, there on the rim of the visible world where our Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening camp-fire, He who rides upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic rivers and inland seas -- He needs no lesser cathedral! - Charles A. Eastman, Santee Sioux, 1911

Indigenous Spirituality

The Soul of the Indian

 I have attempted to paint the religious life of the typical American Indian as it was before he knew the white man. I have long wished to do this, because I cannot find that it has ever been seriously, adequately, and sincerely done. The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.- Charles A. Eastman, 1911

Indian Blues

Crazy Horse

Prayer of the Day

Dear Heavenly Father,I am thankful that You are an "all seeing" and "all hearing" God, as this brings me great comfort to know You are watching over me at all times, and that You hear every word and prayer that I pray. You are a wonderful Father who not only loves me, but You love the whole world. I thank You that You are concerned about all the little things that concern me, as well as the things that I perceive as big things. Lord, to You, my concerns are never too small to miss Your attention, nor are they too big that You can not take care of them because You are sizeless!!

YOU ARE GOD!! Lord, may this truth be planted strongly in my spirit and in those that I pray for. Lord, meet the needs  of people who ask us for prayer. Touch them and meet their needs according to Your will. Let each of them know how much You love and care for them. I know You will come and save them from pain and sorrow! I ask this in Your precious son's name. Amen.

Giving Thanks

Western mind has come to believe for centuries that 'civilized' humans are above nature-that nature and its forces are something to be dominated and exploited rather than revered and cared for. And, we do so, violently. Do we consider the Earth a sentient being? Consider, then, the violent act of mining--drilling deeply and forcefully into the body of the earth. Consider, also, the violence when the endless mine shafts collapse, taking the lives of countless workers and devastating family members left behind. Woodlands are demolished in service of providing fortunes for developers who pack countless homes into tidy parcels of land to profit from consumers. Do we think about the bulldozed trees that, for decades, and sometimes for centuries, cleaned our air and maintained our soil, providing habitat for the many birds and squirrels. Do we consider the impact on the animal life disturbed as a result of this so-called progress? Countless animals are killed in the slaughterhouses. Do we think to thank them for the sacrificing of their lives for our sustenance at our table?

Red Jacket's Speech

Red Jacket's Speech Communicated 1822

Wasichu

"my name is wasichu. i know thee, i have found thee, & i will not let thee go."
0949 est, october 11, 2004
barnard, vermont 
 Wasichu 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

Are We Responsible?

The very nature of our Lord is to seek out the poor and help them. As God's children we are commanded to do likewise. When we give to the poor and help them with material assistance, it opens the door so that we might present the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is interested in every soul. As we reach out to others with His love and compassion, we are able to lead them to salvation. The word salvation in the Greek, takes on a fuller meaning than someone being born again and going to heaven. The Greek word for salvation encompasses the meaning of deliverance from sin, sickness, harm, danger, lack and poverty. Therefore, Jesus came to not only save us from our sin; but to save us from sickness, harm, fear, poverty and every other curse. Poverty comes from the devil, as do the rest of these things. Jesus came to redeem us from our sin, sickness and poverty.

Lawrence Red Feathers sits on his porch at Pine Ridge Reservation, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA. Photograph: Jennifer Brown/Corbis

As God's children, we are promised the blessing of abundance. This does not mean just abundance in material things; but is speaking of spiritual blessings as well, which are really more valuable than all material blessings. The Lord wants to bless us so that we can bless others. If we are poor we are not able to help others. We must learn how to receive our blessings so that we can pass those blessings on. The Bible tells us that when we reach out to help any one who is needy, poor, sick or in prison, it is the same as giving to the Lord Himself and the Lord shall reward us for it. However, the opposite is also true. When we fail to minister to the poor, hungry and sick, we also fail to minister to the Lord and shall be rejected by Him.

Appoint A First Nation American to the Highest Court in the Land

   "Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith," wrote Felix S. Cohen, an early expert in Indian legal affairs.
Political Poison

My Great Uncle

General Ely S. Parker: Military secretary to Union General Ulysses S. Grant
 
In an interesting twist of history, General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca Tribe, wrote the "articles of surrender" which General Robert E. Lee signed at Appomattox

Court House on April 9, 1865. General Parker, who served as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's military secretary and was an attorney, was once rejected for Union military service

because of his race. At Appomattox, General Lee supposedly remarked to Parker," I am glad to see one real American here," to which Parker replied, "We are all Americans."
Ely Parker: Chief, Lawyer, Engineer, and Brigadier General

Silence

“We Indians know about silence. We aren’t afraid of it. In fact, to us it is more powerful than words. Our elders were schooled in the ways of silence, and they passed that along to us. Watch, listen, and then act, they told us. This is the way to live. Watch the animals to see how they care for their young. Watch the elders to see how they behave. Watch the white man to see what he wants. Always watch first, with a still heart and mind, then you will learn. When you have watched enough, then you can act.”
Silence

Red Road to Peace

“We must try to use the pipe for humankind, which is on the road to self-destruction. We must try to get back on the red road of the sacred peace pipe, the road of life. We must try to save the white man from himself.

This can only be done if all of us, Indians and non-Indians, alike, can see ourselves a part of this earth, not as an enemy from the outside who tries to impose its will on it. Because we, who know the meaning of the pipe, also know that, being a living part of the earth, we cannot harm any part of her without hurting ourselves. Maybe through this sacred pipe we can teach each other to see through that cloud of pollution which politicians and corporate power hold up to us as “reality”. Through this pipe, maybe we can make peace with our greatest enemy who dwells deep within ourselves. With this sacred pipe we could all form, once again, the circle without end.”Source

The enemy is blindness to each other’s ways. Put your anger away, the
spirits said. Our earth is crying now, and we need to remove her tears.

Human Purpose

 

Regarding the meaning of our lives, Lame Deer tells us, in Lame Deer Seeks a Vision: “All creatures exist for a purpose. Even an ant knows what the purpose is--not with its brain, but somehow it knows. Only human beings have come to a point where they no longer know why they exist. They don’t use their brains and they have forgotten the secret knowledge of their bodies, their senses, or their dreams. They don’t use the knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this, so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere--a paved highway which they, themselves, bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big, empty hole which they'll find at the end...”

Native History

Lakota Elder speaking - in Neither Wolf Nor Dog: “Tobacco is like our church. It goes up to God. When we offer it, we are telling our God that we are speaking the truth. Wherever there’s tobacco offered, everything is wakan - sacred, or filled with power. We make a promise to speak the truth. That’s why we Indians got into trouble with the white man’s ways early on. When we make a promise, it’s a promise to the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka. Nothing is going to change that promise. We made all these promises with the white man, and we thought the white man was making promises to us. But he wasn’t-he was making deals. We could never figure out how the white man could break every promise, especially when all the priests and holy men were involved. We can’t break promises.

Leaders or Rulers

 “I’d like to talk to you about the difference between leaders and rulers. We Indians are used to leaders. When our leaders don't lead, we walk away from them. When they lead well, we stay with them. White people don’t seem to understand this. Your system makes people rulers by law, even if they are not leaders! Shields served as the pipe carrier, healer, or medicine man for the Crow Creek Reservation. We have to accept your way because you made us make constitutions and form governments. But we don’t like it and we don’t think it’s right. For example, how can a calendar tell us how long a person is a leader? That’s crazy! A leader is a leader as long as the people believe in him and as long as he is the best person to lead.

“In our past when we needed a warrior we made a warrior our leader. When we needed a healer when the war was over, a healer became our leader. Or maybe we needed a great speaker or a deep thinker. The warrior knew when his time had passed and he didn’t pretend to be our leader beyond the time he was needed. He was proud to serve his people and he knew when it was time to step aside. If he won’t step aside, people will just walk away from him. He cannot make himself a leader except by leading people in the way they want to be led. Selfish men and fools put themselves first and keep their power until someone throws them out.”

We see this clearly, today, in our U.S. government-there is no need to confirm with any second voice.

Eagle Chief Pawnee

In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn.. all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our mind we are two -- good and evil. With our eyes we see two things -- things that are fair and things that are ugly ... We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
- Eagle Chief (Letakots-Lesa) Pawnee

Remember What I Have Told You

 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you." Matthew 28:7 NLT

Christians and Wise Men

"Our wise men are called Fathers, and they truly sustain that character. Do you call yourselves Christians? Does the religion of Him who you call your Savior inspire your spirit, and guide your practices? Surely not. It is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke. Cease then to call yourselves Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy. Cease too to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than they. No person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthwhile action, but the consciousness of having served his nation. I bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly shake your hand."
Joseph Brant to King George III
Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), Mohawk - 1742-1807

Don't Forget Your Dreams

"My lands are where my people lie buried."

- Tushunka Witko, Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse Memorial 

Welcome Ghost Dancers

"You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. "You ask me to dig for stones! Shall I dig under her skin for bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. "You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men, but how dare I cut my mother's hair? "I want my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again. We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother."

Wovoka, Paiute

Circle of Life

You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as   ours... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. -Black Elk, Oglala