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...”