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