Manataka American Indian Council Volume XIII Issue 11 NOVEMBER 2009

SMOKE SIGNAL NEWS

Page 2 of 3 Pages

Contents of Page 2
Legends of Old:		Fish Dog Skins
Feature Story 3:		11th Annual Native American Music Awards
Letters to the Editor:		Keep the Faith Manataka
Organic Consumers:		Vanishing of the Bees
Elder's Meditations:		Rolling Thunder, Cherokee
Plant Medicine:		Stressed to be Sick
Fluoride:		Mercury Fillings Shattered! Conspiracy to Poison Children
Animal Rights and Wrongs:	A	Rambo the Sheep: My Greatest Teacher
Sacred Sites:		Goodbye Indian Mounds, Hello Sam’s Club

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LEGENDS OF OLD:

Fish Dog Skins

Blackfoot Legend

Some Indians from the West, over the mountains, (Rocky Mountains of Northern Montana and Southern Alberta Canada) came to trade with this Blackfoot band.

They were called "Snake Indians" as their designs were jagged and looked like a snake. Among there trading goods were some skins that looked like a dog, but had feet like a beaver and a kind of fish tail. When asked where these came from, they were told they lived in the Big Water where the Sun sets and some came up the Big River where they lived.

READ MORE >>>

MUSIC

11th Annual NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS
SENECA NIAGARA HOTEL & CASINO, NIAGARA FALLS, NY
October 3, 2009

READ MORE >>>

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...

SOUND OFF!

Manataka receives dozens of letters each week. Space does not allow us to publish all letters but we make a concerted effort to print letters that are representative of a majority. Let us know if there is a topic you feel needs to be addressed.

You Are Precious

Dear Manataka Friends,

You are a wonderfully divine expression of all that is good. You are the hope of the world because you carry hope in your heart. You dream of a better life for yourself and others because you know that it is possible. You have come here for this very purpose – to add your distinctive thread to the tapestry of life. As you unfold your potential and weave your story into this intricate fabric, everything becomes more beautiful.

Your personal insight and wisdom is essential in determining the next step in our collective evolution. Each rhythmic heart beat sounds your unique tone of love just as every imaginative thought you have reveals your creative essence. With every breath, love itself is animated and made real through you. Your very presence makes a profound difference on this earth and is a gift beyond measure. Nothing would be the same without you.

As you generously share the love in your heart, you are naturally fulfilling your destiny. It is the unconditional kindness you show towards yourself and others that makes love tangible. Your smiles and laughter bring lightness to the journey that would never be possible without you being present within it. You add a dimension that can never be replaced by any other part of life.

Each step you take is a courageous choice to explore the unknown. Your strength to move forward and discover potentials yet to come is felt by everyone. Others follow your lead to realize their own abilities, and together new pathways of possibility are opened to benefit all. Your light shines the way.

Your genuine compassion is the signal that love is manifesting in great abundance and that an age of grand and delightful expression is here. The trust you have for this potential is the reason it is happening and even possible. Could you ever imagine that this age of beauty we are entering into is all because of you?

You are precious and the world rejoices knowing you have come to share your love at this most auspicious time. Love, light and peace, ~Harold W. Becker, President and Founder, The Love Foundation, Inc.

Keep the Faith Manataka

Dear Manataka:

To those who care about Manataka, my name is Joe Pennell and I’m from the Columbus, Ohio area. I just found this site and must say I never knew of the Manataka area. I find the information exciting and sad at the same time. I am always interested in Native American history, Spirituality and Prophecies and enjoy reading information that parallels my own beliefs. I then visited several Hot Springs sites to find them telling how they "improved the area" which made my heart sad. They try to "improve" on what the Creator has made and at the same time trample under foot His Sacred grounds. We have had similar acts of disrespect for Sacred lands near here such as building a golf course in the middle of the Octagon Mound or police trying to stop Sacred ceremonies at Flint Ridge.

I believe, along with the Church I belong to, that there is a time coming, probably in the near future, when a time of peace will be established on this land of America and the Native People will again be free as they once were. We also believe that there will be a leader, a Choice Seer if you will, that will come out of the Native American community and will unite the Tribes and those that will listen. There will be a gathering (you say a Great Awakening and Great Gathering at the Place of Peace) of many tribes. After reading about Manataka I believe it will play into the future somehow. In this cleansed land (for, unfortunately, there is a time of destruction coming (purification) before this peace is established) a new city will be built were people will gather and learn peaceful ways.

In the Iroquois Prophecy by The Peace Maker, of the battle of the three serpents, the Native People are in the mountains (perhaps Manataka) watching the following: "At the time they were watching the two serpents locked in this battle, a great message would come to them and make them ever so humble, and when they had become that humble, they will be waiting for a young leader, an Indian boy, possibly in his teens, who would become a Choice Seer. Nobody knows who he is or where he comes from, but he will be given great power and would be heard by thousands, and he would give them the guidance...”

Anyway, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ (not affiliated with the Mormons) and also serve as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for NAICCO (Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio). As I was reading about Manataka I could not help to see the parallels with what we believe and I hope someday to come see this area. Although I have no Native blood in me the Creator has opened my eyes to the Spirituality of the Native Americans.

You ask: Do you know why the nations sent their elders to Manataka? My guess is that they literally received visions and direction from the Great Spirit which would not surprise me but I'll probably have to visit Manataka to find out. Keep the Faith as better times are coming. Mitakuye Oyasin ~Joe Pennell

First Americans

Hello Editor:,

Anyone who has gone to a museum where Native American items are displayed will quickly realize that Columbus did not "discover" the "new world". Actually, what Columbus did was prove the earth was not flat.

For the past 25 years I have had the privilege of undertaking archaeological studies in Kentucky. The studies focus on finding/locating sites that were occupied by Native (Aboriginal) People in the pre-historic period. Once a site is located it is mapped, measured, pin pointed on a topographic map, and a site report is prepared and sent to the office of the state Archaeologist. As this study progressed it became very obvious to me that the people who occupied these sites were very special. They used what the Creator gave them to obtain food, build dwellings, make tools and survive in a world that was truly natural. They discovered plants that could cure illness and plants that would sustain them through all seasons. Many of the plants we use on a daily basis (the potato, tomato, corn, squash, pumpkin, peppers, and beans to name a few) were initially discovered by Aboriginal People and cultured to eventually produce an important food source.

It is with great respect that I say to all Native Peoples that you truly are the First Americans - The Discoverers of America. ~Matt Maley

Thanksgiving

Dear Manataka,

Hi, my name is Melissa and yesterday after school my 7-year old was telling me about Thanksgiving. I had just learned the true history of Thanksgiving about 2 weeks ago and I am sickened by what I learned. I am truly sorry for your loss over the hundreds of years. I don’t know what I was thinking but I asked my daughter if she wanted to hear the true history of Thanksgiving, I think because I couldn't stand listening to her talk about it like it was a grand thing. So I went on to tell her everything I had learned and I know it was a lot for her to take in but the only thing she asked me was if we were going to still have Thanksgiving dinner. I told her I didn't think so, but maybe we could turn a bad thing into a good thing. I am just writing you to tell you that I read your article and I am glad you are letting the world know about it. It has changed my life from this point on and I am kind of embarrassed that I never knew before. Thank you for taking the time to read my mail and I wish you peace and harmony this year and every year after. Sincerely yours, Melissa Greene

Spirituality of Native America

Hello Manataka!

Interesting piece regarding the Spirituality of Native America vs the Organizers of events. I found an interesting passage in the "Organizer's Bible" that should set to rest the claims for money for Spiritual and healing ceremonies. In reference to Spiritual and Healing see Mathew 10:8 "Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give." What does the Organizer not understand? It makes one wonder who is the "true" Christian...the one who talks, or the one who walks. Oneh! ~Norb Johnson

Thanksgiving -- Indian Style

Dear Manataka:

Here's my thanksgiving plans this year I think I'll discover Spain -- first I'll kill half the people with disease, enslave the survivors, kidnap the children and send them to boarding schools where they will be brutalized and murdered, burn down their churches and force them to follow my spiritual beliefs, then pollute the land and water, and lastly, hold a a big feast with all the food I have stolen and thank "god" that he gave me permission to do these things---sound familiar???

By Graywolf ~ Submitted by Daniel Benitez

Ceremonies for a Price...

Soy la lluvia que moja tu pelo
Dentro de tus pulmones Yo soy el Aire
Yo soy la Tierra bajo tus pies
Yo soy el fuego que te da calor
Yo soy la danza, Gran Misterio

Creemos que las creencias espirituales indígenas de América y la práctica no pueden ser intercambiados o vendidos a cualquier precio.

No cuesta nada entrar en el círculo sagrado, ya que no pertenece a nadie, es un don del Creador. No hay cuota de admisión a una Logia Purificación porque los mensajes, las visiones y enseñanzas de la logia no son propiedad de un ser humano, sino que procede directamente de la Gran Misterio. No hay precio monetario para pagar el honor de ir a un viaje imaginario por el Espíritu de Dios está allí. Cuando el dinero y la avaricia están presentes, el Espíritu del Creador está ausente y por lo tanto no puede haber una Visión. La conexión espiritual se ha roto.

Hace varios años, este miembro Manataka escribió en el artículo Falso chamanes "... Nuestras ceremonias, danzas, canciones y símbolos son sagrados. Deben ser protegidos contra el robo, la explotación y la profanación. Deberíamos alentar a todas las personas a buscar sus propias formas de de expresión espiritual, las costumbres de sus antepasados, y no a una utilización costumbres indígenas para encontrar la espiritualidad dentro de sí mismos ... "

Nuestra creencia no ha cambiado ni está en peligro de verse comprometido después de muchos años de bombardeo y asalto de los que quieren imitar las costumbres espirituales indios americanos, y por otros de la sociedad en general que simplemente no entienden. La mayoría de los individuos de estas personas que tratan de justificar "donaciones voluntarias" o un "intercambio de la abundancia" y de otro intento de forzar la aceptación de dinero en el comercio para las ceremonias son inteligentes y de otro tipo de cuidado. Sin embargo, se encuentran nuestra filosofía muy simple difícil de entender. Puede ser la codicia que las nubes de su pensamiento, o puede ser una falta de respeto por las creencias de los demás o una actitud displicente hacia la nada no nace del pensamiento eurocéntrico. No sé por qué les resulta difícil entender que aceptar dinero para las ceremonias sagradas, no es aceptable - independientemente de cómo se organizan, cómo está redactado, o cómo se logró. ¿Podría ser que no les importa tomar el tiempo o hacer el sacrificio necesario para comprender la profundidad y amplitud de esta filosofía antigua?

Nuestras ceremonias son sagrados. No somos propietarios de ellos. Los mensajes, visiones, curaciones, conocimientos, enseñanzas y milagros dado durante las ceremonias no se originan en el psiquismo humano, o incluso el alma humana, vienen sólo por la gracia de Dios - el Creador de todo. No podemos vender lo que no nos pertenece. El hecho de aceptar dinero a cambio de ceremonias sagradas es una admisión de la persona que realiza la ceremonia es el propietario y por lo tanto lo que pasa es que no nació por la gracia de Dios. YaoCuauhtli

Hey!

Get on the ball!

Sign me!

The Manataka American Indian Council supports:

ALERT UPDATE OF THE MONTH

Preserve Organic Integrity: Safeguard Animal Welfare! Stop Labeling
Fraud! Ban Nanotech!

At the November 3-5 meeting of the USDA's National Organic Standards Board in Washington, DC, the Organic Consumers Association will be presenting your demands for stronger organic standards. Please let the NOSB, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan know that you want them to:

Stop personal care and cosmetic companies from advertising their products as "organic" unless they are USDA certified!
Keep nanotechnology out of organic!
Improve the living conditions of organic poultry and livestock!

Alert Update of the MONTH

A New Chance to Stop the Toxic Pesticide Methyl Iodide!

The U.S. EPA - which had, under Bush, approved the carcinogenic new pesticide for use despite protests from scientists around the country - just indicated that it plans to re-consider methyl iodide, pending the results of California's independent Scientific Review Panel.

This chemical is so toxic, and so consistently carcinogenic, that scientists who use minute amounts in the lab are required to take extraordinary precautions in order to avoid exposure. If used as a fumigant, methyl iodide would be released as a gas at rates up to 175 lbs. per acre. The pesticide would likely contaminate groundwater while putting farm workers and nearby communities at serious risk as the invisible chemical moves with the wind.

TAKE ACTION

Movie of the Week and Call to Action

Vanishing of the Bees

A new documentary seeks to unravel the mystery of why billions of honey bees have been disappearing from hives across the United States.

"Vanishing of the Bees" follows a group of U.S. beekeepers hit by Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which first struck in 2004 and made U.S. headlines three years later.

Countless bees would suddenly vanish, leaving an empty hive but few bodies. While the cause has yet to be established, the film suggests there is a link to Bayer's "Gaucho" insecticide.

ELDER'S MEDITATION

All life is a circle." --Rolling Thunder, Cherokee

The atom is a circle, orbits are circles, the earth, moon, and sun are circles. The seasons are circles. The cycle of life is a circle: baby, youth, adult, elder. The sun gives life to the earth who feeds life to the trees whose seeds fall to the earth to grow new trees. We need to practice seeing the cycles that the Great Spirit gave us because this will help us more in our understanding of how things operate. We need to respect these cycles and live in harmony with them.

Great Spirit, let me grow in knowledge of the circle.

http://www.whitebison.org/meditation/index.php

By Don Coyhis

PLANT MEDICINE...

Medicine for the People

By Walks With Hawks Harvey

Stressed to be Sick

Stress is ignored so much in our life and sometimes it seems normal to be stressed out. Stress to me is an everyday affair if you think of the events that upsetting to you or your loved ones and even your animal friends. All people and animals friends can discover each day what we are generating from our energy fields or spiritual signatures. The bottom line is that just about everything that is not a common factor with each individual becomes stress from our environment.

Western civilization really got off to a wrong start by adopting the idea from Descartes for many years since he taught that the body is here and the mind is there, and one does not affect the other. We know that is a mistake now since everything the mind does affect the body. Studies have shown a very high measurement of stress in the years shortly before the development of cancer. Just a few years ago a major story on stress indicated researchers who were quoted as saying, “It is as if the immune cells themselves were expressing grief.” The human body is such an intricate piece of work that it is necessary for it to operate as a wheel of balance: just like the web of life and circle of life ( Hoop of Life). Studies were done on dental students before an exam and the white blood cells of the stressed subjects had significantly reduced function to fight infections.

We know that stress is intimately involved with higher stomach acid levels (ulcers), higher adrenaline levels (hypertension and heart disease, faster heartbeat), reduced hormone function, and now it is said to accelerate wrinkles in the face (faster aging). You still want to be stressed out; let’s not worry so much about things that we cannot alter in our family or walk through life.

READ MORE >>>

FLUORIDE WATCH...

Mercury Fillings Shattered ! FDA, ADA Conspiracy to Poison Children

with Toxic Mercury Fillings Exposed in Groundbreaking Lawsuit

by Mike Adams

(NaturalNews) The FDA has, for decades, ridiculously insisted that mercury fillings pose no health threat whatsoever to children. While dismissing hundreds of studies showing a clear link between mercury amalgam fillings ("silver fillings") and disastrous neurological effects in the human body, the FDA denied the truth about mercury and effectively protected the mercury filling racket that has brought so much harm to so many people. For over a hundred years, a cabal of "mercury mongers" made up of the American Dental Association, mercury filling manufacturers and indignant dentists have reaped windfall profits by implanting toxic fillings into the mouths of children, all while insisting that mercury -- one of the most toxic heavy metals known to modern science -- posed no health threat whatsoever.

Today, that reign of toxicity is about to end. Thanks to the tireless, multi-year efforts of people like Charles Brown, National Counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice (www.ToxicTeeth.org), the FDA has now been forced to acknowledge a fact so fundamental that, by any measure of honest science, it should have adopted the position decades ago. What position is that? Simply that mercury is toxic to humans.

Why the FDA has to be sued to do its job of protecting consumers

The FDA's stonewalling on this issue has been nothing less than a circus of politically-motivated denials, much like the Big Tobacco executives swearing under oath that "Nicotine is not addictive." In similar style, the FDA insisted for decades that "Mercury is not toxic." Both statements, as any sane person can readily conclude, are the outbursts of lunatics. Sadly, those lunatics somehow remain in charge of our nation's food, drugs and cosmetics (and dental care), meaning that any real progress to protect the People must come from outside the FDA.

READ MORE>>>

FUNNY BONES

No offense intended for any individuals or tribes.

A Cheyenne man goes into a grocery store, and asks for a package of toilet paper.

The clerk offers him 3 kinds, Charmin, Best Brand, and Generic. The Cheyenne man takes the generic.

He comes back in a week later, throws the remainder of the toilet paper at the store clerk and says,

"I don't want no cheap John Wayne toilet paper!"

The clerk laughs and says, "It's not John Wayne toilet paper, it's GENERIC toilet paper."

The Cheyenne guy tells him, 'You can call it whatever you want, but it's rough, tough, and won't take crap off nobody!"

ANIMAL RIGHTS... AND WRONGS

Rambo the Sheep: My Greatest Teacher

by Kathy Stevens

Rambo the sheep arrived at Catskill Animal Sanctuary (CAS) in January of 2002, one of eighteen animals who'd been confined in a single filthy stall, thrown the occasional moldy bagel by his" owner." We'd won our first cruelty case against her, a notorious hoarder whom the entire region feared for her predilection for lawsuits. From the start, Rambo announced himself. While his cellmate friends--a 2,500 pound Holstein steer, an orphaned calf, a goat and fourteen sheep--initially cowered when we approached, Rambo lowered his head and came at us, driven by testosterone and rage.

Yes, Rambo was angry. Angry and unneutered. The day he was legally surrendered, we scheduled his neutering; unfortunately, his rage remained intact. Whenever we entered his stall, he charged . . . .The ewes were quickly adopted out, and cows Molly and Samson integrated themselves into our herd without incident.

Rambo? We couldn't consider adopting him out. We gritted our teeth, protected our legs with plywood cutouts and learned never to turn our backs to him.

After a year without progress, we were deeply discouraged. Consulting sheep breeders exacerbated the situation . . . . One breeder was alarmed that we had Rambo and advised us to put him down for our own safety.

READ MORE >>>

See an amazing film about Austrailia's Aboriginal peoples.

Traditional Whale Dreamers http://www.whaledreamers.com

SACRED SITES:

Goodbye Indian Mounds, Hello Sam’s Club
By Dan Whisenhunt for The Anniston Star via the Associated Press

OXFORD, Ala. (AP)—A stone mound on a hill behind the Oxford Exchange created by American Indians 1,500 years ago will soon disappear.

And whether Oxford's taxpayers wanted it or not, they paid for its destruction.

Workers hired by the city's Commercial Development Authority (CDA) are using the dirt from the hill as fill for a new Sam's Club. The project has angered American Indians who, along with a Jacksonville State University archaeology professor, say the site could contain human remains.

Oxford Mayor Leon Smith and City Project Manager Fred Denney say it was used to send smoke signals.


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Rambo the Sheep: My Greatest Teacher

Hello Manataka!

ALERT UPDATE OF THE MONTH

Preserve Organic Integrity: Safeguard Animal Welfare! Stop Labeling Fraud! Ban Nanotech!

Alert Update of the MONTH

A New Chance to Stop the Toxic Pesticide Methyl Iodide!

Movie of the Week and Call to Action

Vanishing of the Bees

Mercury Fillings Shattered ! FDA, ADA Conspiracy to Poison Children

with Toxic Mercury Fillings Exposed in Groundbreaking Lawsuit

Rambo the Sheep: My Greatest Teacher

by Kathy Stevens

Preserve Organic Integrity: Safeguard Animal Welfare! Stop Labeling
Fraud! Ban Nanotech!