Manataka American Indian Council Volume XI Issue 04 APRIL-MAY 2007
Manataka - Preserving The Past Today For Tomorrow
Faster download! The Smoke Signal this month is on 3 web pages.
WANNA BECOME A MEMBER OF MANATAKA?
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO JOIN!
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Aymara leaders passing 2nd Baston (Staff) - Bolivia Click on picture for details |
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Manataka Summer Gathering Click on picture for details
Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers |
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May 19, 2007
Celebration of Indigenous Peoples
Free with Museum Admission. Joanne Shenandoah and Ulali
Kaufmann and Linder Theaters, NY, NY
June 08 - 10, 2007
Strawberry Moon Gathering
Lily Dale, New York
June 14 - 22, 2007
June 22 - 24, 2007
Bald Eagle Mountain Park and Retreat, Hot Springs National Park, AR
October 08, 2007
Union of Polarities -- St. Croix Valley Area
November 05, 2007
Leave and Learn Seminars - Maya Journey
NativeGatherings.com lists hundreds of Native American events including concerts, seminars, conferences, sporting events, and more.
"Peace...comes
within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their
oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the
center of the Universe dwells WakanTanka, and that this center is really
everywhere, it is within each of us." -Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa) Oglala Sioux
If we are to know peace we must look within ourselves. In order to do this, we
must learn to
be still. We must quiet the mind. We must learn to meditate. Meditation helps us
locate and find the center that is within ourselves. The center is where
the Great One resides. When we start to look for peace, we need to realize where
it is within ourselves. When we experience conflict we need to pause for a
moment and ask the Power within ourselves, "How do you want me to handle this?
What would you suggest I do in this situation?" By asking the Higher Power for
help we find peace.
Creator, help
me to find peace.
SUMMER GATHERING AT MANATAKA
Bald Mountain Park & Retreat, Hot Springs, AR
JUNE 22- 24
Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers
Free Admission
FAMILIES & SINGLES WELCOME!
Friday Events A.M.
P.M.
Move-In - Set-up
Storytelling
Drumming and Singing
Saturday Events A.M.
Noon
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P.M.
Manataka Medicine Lodge Blessing Ceremony
Sweat Lodge - Mixed
Grand Entry Procession - Flag Ceremony
Fire Ceremony and Pipe Ceremony
Naming Ceremony - Making A Relative Ceremony
Honoring of Elders Ceremony
Special Presentation by Honored Elder
Vendor / Craft Presentations
Sweat Lodge - Men
Trade Blanket
Storytelling
Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers
Friendship Dance
Drumming and Singing
Indian and Mexican Food All Weekend
Sunday Events A.M.
P.M.
Prayer Service - Honoring Ceremony
Clean-up, Break-down
Your help is needed to insure we leave the land in better condition than we found it.
Children's Games & Activities - All ages welcome. Storytelling in the tipi, crafts, drumming, pipe teachings, Great fun for all the kids. This year's Summer Gathering will focus on honoring our relations with peoples of the South.
A food concession stand will be open all weekend.
Restrooms and shower on-site.
Free Admission - Parking $2 per day
Level green grass parking for camper vehicles. $10 per day.
Primitive Camping -
Bring camping gear, food, chairs. $10 per camp site per day.Motels and hotels nearby.
No alcohol or other drugs permitted. A security team onsite.
"We believe there should be 6.4 billion religions on earth.
There should be 6.4 billion political parties and an equal number of countries.
Maybe then we can achieve peace without man-make divisions that separate us."
~Lee Standing Bear Moore - March, 2005
APRIL-MAY WEBSITE UPDATES
A Message of Hope and Unity
Commentary by Marty Fire Rider, (Elaya Kayaka Hokshela)
It is the American Indian warriors, leaders and advocates that are taking the fight to the American legal and political system. It is hard to say when the governments Indian War policies will end, but it has not stopped since the Black Robes of Columbus.
Since arriving on our continent the dominate culture has assaulted the very existence of our native culture while forcing Indian people to be on the defense. Today Indian activists and leaders are offensively taking the battle to the dominate culture placing them on the defense. All across America our people are initiating numerous legal and legislative battles. As our people gain more educational opportunities to understand the legal and political system we become spiritually stronger as cultural warriors promoting and protecting our traditional ways. Understand; “Many people spend a lifetime wondering who they are, the American Indian does not have that problem.”
There will come a day when we will speak with one voice and be united as one people. For apathy serves only those who wish you to serve them. However, we need vision to move into this new century strong and confident while forging our own destiny by our own hands. That day will be the defining moment when the adversarial relationship with the U.S. Governments attitude changes from romantic belligerence to great respect. A binding covenant contract of sovereignty will be forged. Our united leadership will one day be the cohesive force that will heal a divide nation. Hope, tenacity and our spiritual culture has been our great strength that has survived 500 years of overt and covert genocide. Vine Deloria, said it right in 1968, The Sentinel, "We wish more tribes could realize that through UNITY and willingness to work hard together much can be done." Today we now live in a time of great hope when our young are proud of their Indigenous identity where the ceremonies and language are growing with renewed cultural interest.
A Reason, A Season or a Life Time
People come into your
life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you know which one it is, you
will know what to do for that person. When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you
through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you
physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they
are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any
wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do
something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes
they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their
work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to
move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to
share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an
unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real. But only for a season .
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build upon in
order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson,
love the person and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships
and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is
clairvoyant.
Thank those around you for being a part of your life, whether they are a reason,
a season or a lifetime.
~ Submitted by Elaine Ynobuko
New Website:
Earth Life Threats - Alarming Disappearance of Honey Bees
© 2007 by Linda Moulton Howe
"This is
certainly the worst die-off that I’ve seen in my experience working
with honey bees. It may be the worst die-off that has ever occurred with honey
bees
since they’ve been introduced into the United States since the 1620s."
- Maryann Frazier, Honey Bee Specialist, Penn State
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Western honey bees, or European honey bees (Apis mellifera), gather pollen from the blooms of fruits, vegetables, nuts, melons and many other food crops for the production of honey in wax combs. Millions of honey bees in 22 American states, Spain and Poland have been disappearing at an alarming rate with no explanation to date, threatening pollination of one-third American food crops. Bee image © 2007 by Gyoergy Varga, AP. Honeycomb image from Wikipedia. |
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February 23, 2007 Pennsylvania - Most people don’t realize that honey bees pollinate about one-third of our food supply around the world. Honey bees pollinate apple trees and berry bushes, vegetables, melons, almonds and many other food sources. Honey bees were originally brought from Europe to the United States in 1620. Periodically since then, there have been occasional die-offs of honey bees, mostly attributed to mites.
[But now, there is a more ominous, earth-threatening cause.... pesticides...and greed.]
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Sacred Council Fires (Elders)
The path that lead away from the Red Road.
For thousands of years indigenous people have held council fires. The Sacred Fire's are kept from one generation to another the wisdom passed on to our children and grandchildren. Our Elders, who spoke the wisdom, were revered and cared for as they were the heart of the people. If the Elders were not here to share the wisdom then our people and there ways will be forgotten as many Nations now are.
In times before the coming of the boat people we sat in peace, listening, to our Elders speak. The "words that come before all things" were held by the Keepers of the Wisdom. Great respect was given when the elders shared the sacred ways of life. Even down to the smallest child they learned to listen when the elders spoke.
This spoke wisdom was the Great Law that we all lived by, one of simplicity, honesty, and respect. All was in balance and all in peace within our land and our lives.
Soon this all changed and our ears were taken by the monster of ego and greed.
The selling of the land began; we turned our ears away from the Elders' voices. We followed the White mans religion and ways.
Now we see the same thing happening in the world of the Fat Takers they too are suffering from the same things our people have endured. The wars and greed of their leaders is taking them from the ways of wisdom. The greed has reduced their own children to drugs and drinking. The spirit of those people now suffers from the same disease they once spread over the land that they continue to destroy.
As we who remember, now return to the council fire, but our elders are not there, because they were not honored. During this time the prayers were forgotten, and the time of great sadness started to cover the Earth Mother. Many children were scattered from the Nation and walked the stone streets. The addictions of drinking from the bottle and taking drugs that destroy the mind, body and soul, took many of them home to spirit. They no longer spoke the language of the stones and the trees. What little that remained was sold by plastic medicine people and distorted in writings.
No offense intended for any individuals or tribes.
I dialed my Apache girlfriend's telephone number and got the following recording:
"I am not available right now, but Thank you for caring enough to call. I am
making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the Beep. If I do
not return your call, You are one of the changes."
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Aspire to inspire before you expire.
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From Grandmother Selma |
Death of an Eagle
by Brookie Craig
Recently, I went to the Warm Springs reservation in Oregon and then to the
Federal Eagle Repository in Ashland Oregon.
You probably never heard of Nathan Jim, Jr. He was a Yakima Indian who was arrested for illegal possession of Eagle Feathers and parts, by the Feds a couple years ago. He languished in fed jail for l4 months awaiting trial and was finally put on probation for this heinous crime. His lawyer appealed it under the new Religious Freedom act which guarantees Native Americans the right to eagle feathers to practice their religious ceremonies and again lost the appeal. He killed himself fearing that (in his mind) it would mean that the feds would re-arrest him and sentence him to jail again.
This so moved his prosecuting US Attorney that he grabbed a bundle of eagle feathers at the Fed Eagle Repository (yes, our tax dollars at work) and drove to the reservation so they can use them for Nathan's spirit sending ceremony (burial) but arrived too late so Nathan didn't even get a feather in death.
I decided to continue the challenge to the Feds and drove to Ashland Oregon where they keep dead Eagles (yes, its true they have a Eagle repository there) and with much dread and fear (we NA do not TRUST the feds, having felt their wrath many times in the past) and trembled my way through the door fully expecting the worst. I was met at the counter by a little old lady who is a volunteer there. While holding my Bureau of Indian Affairs ID
card in one hand and my Cherokee Tribal Registration card in the other, I tried to remember my Ancestors who would want my voice to be strong and proud. I stood a little taller and I said, "I want a Eagle Feather which is my right under the Religious Freedom Act." I expected a lightning bolt to come down but instead saw a gentle smile as she softly said, "Of course," walked over and handed me a a packet of federal forms to fill out with instructions to send in to the Portland office of the US department of Wildlife management.
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Beautiful Sisters and Brothers all over the world,
Many truths have been spoken, and been embraced into the deep silence, the knowledge of the all is always at hand, and the new worlds, are open for the ones who recognize the truths.
For eons, we have walked in the many worlds that show the way of the dance, and the dance leads us into the time space of all bonding of all understanding, of all love that becomes one.
It is a special time to stay connected to the spirit. It is time to embrace your own light; so shiny, so bright, that will become the path for the ones who follow the light. It is a special time when all the light people will be tested---- stay in the focus of the light no matter what! Do not look back.
The techniques are many. Many cultures have their own techniques to stay focused in the light. So many backgrounds, so many life times, so many experiences that take us into the bonding. Yet from all the backgrounds and all the cultures, love has been the place to hold on-- to make the light shine.
When you touch the love waves that come from the heart, and going deeper into love until is so strong, that the waters that clean and refresh come out from all your pores in your body. The tears of salty water that protects and directs, made that love so strong in a complete surrender. By doing that in your deepest silence you are dropping the pride, anger, frustration, and many other emotions that separate us -- what is left is the true gift that you born with, the love as the power to recognize all truths.
Go into your purification, and no sickness (separation) of any kind can touch you or your loved ones, purify your silence, your wind, fire, waters, earth. All inside and the doors of the new world will be recognized and easy to access. By vibrating into the purity of love you remove any ignorance or blockage from yourself-your other selves.
I am you, Magdala
Announcements & Upcoming Events
April 04 - 10 - Vision Embracing Ceremony, at the Temple near Harrison, AR. Reserve a space today!
April 11
- 12 - Moon Calendar Seminar, Harrison, AR.
Late April - Wisconsin and Minnesota.
May 18 - 20 - Women's Healing Retreat, Hot Springs, AR
Early June - Trip to Bolvia
June 22 - 24 - Summer Gathering at Manataka, Hot Springs, AR
June 26 - Moon Dance - Sisterhood Gathering, Harrison, AR
June
28 - Aug 6 - Boulder and Denver, Colorado Seminars. Denver
University and Hospital
July 14 - Ohio Seminar, we will go deeper into the feminine ways, we will continued decoding the Moon calendar stone, we will work with the tree of life and star knowledge, and what the mother will show us, for info email Patrice Lange at patricelange@hotmail.com
September - European Tour
Oct 8 - 9 Wisconsin and Minnesota Tour. Presentations by Mario Conroy
November - Yucatan, Mexico Tour. Info: Diane Davalos at www.expandedlearning.com. 800-622 5041
Donations of labor and building materials are gratefully accepted.
For seminar booking send an email:
For books, Sacredness of the Union of Polarities, I Am You, Sacred Sex...ancient teachings for women and Mayan Runes, find them at http://www.manataka.org
No offense intended for any individuals or tribes.
As a Cherokee, I was always taught to respect my elders.
The problem is the the older I get, it keeps getting harder to find one.
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Every morning is the dawn of a new error. ~Seneca
Proverb
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF "INNER PEACE"
A tendency to act and think spontaneously rather than on FEARS based on past experiences.
An unmistakenly ability to enjoy each moment.
A loss of interest in judging other people.
A loss of interest in interpeting the acti
