The Council of Elders and Guardians of the Otoma’a, Olmec, toltec, Teotihuacan Tradition International Indigenous University have issued a worldwide call The Indigenous Peoples, Nations, Communities and Organizations of the World and all Humankind for a Planetary Ceremony For the Healing of Mother Earth and Ensure Pace and Life, Feb. 26 and March 26, through 8,000 Sacred Drums.

With the vision of the Elders, Guardians of the Earth and the Ancestral Wisdom, we are dedicating our life for this great Planetary Harmonic Connection. In order to solidify this, it is required to unite all our energies full of love. Thank you for your blessings.

The Black Drink...

Ever wonder how prehistoric man survived without coffee? Millions of Americans depend on a morning cup of coffee to jump-start their day.  Florida’s own Timucua Indians had something just as good - the Black Drink.  It came from a plant called Yaupon Holly, in Latin - llex vomitoria. How could a plant with a name like that rival modern coffee?

Yaupon holly is one of the few plants native to North America that contains the all important ingredient: caffeine. This is concentrated in the leaves when they are first growing in the spring. The Timucuas collected these leaves and roasted them (as we roast coffee beans today) to increase the caffeine’s solubility in hot water. Yaupon usually grows in coastal areas, so local Timucuas traded the leaves inland for valuables including chert (raw material for projectile points) and clay (raw material for pottery).

Yaupon provided more than just trade value. Due to its chemical properties, it served an important cultural role. Caffeine is a diuretic; it helps you sweat. In the Timucua belief structure, this sweating allowed the drinker to remove physical and spiritual impurities from his system. Only adult men could partake of the black drink. These men sipped at the black drink in morning gatherings while they discussed things of importance. Sound familiar?

But there were other uses of the black drink that stemmed from its emetic properties. If you drink several cups of any hot liquid quickly, especially a caffeinated hot liquid, you’re going to get sick. The Timucuas used this as an extreme form of purification. If the men were going on a very important hunt or to battle, they needed a lot of luck. Finding luck required them to be ritually pure. So the men chugged the black drink and vomited profusely or struggled to hold it down. . After that, they were so wired from the caffeine that they often succeeded in their endeavors. Would three cups of coffee before a big presentation work the same magic for us?

This evergreen holly tree is widespread in coastal Florida. Its tiny wavy-edged leaves and red berries make it a popular choice as an ornamental. At SJRPP’s E. Dale Joyner Nature Preserve, these hollies are common near the marsh edges. School groups and other visitors learn about the black drink right in front of the tree.

Submitted with thanks to Jim Path Finder Ewing

Puyallup Need Help...

Labels for Indian Education

The Labels for Education programs trades labels from specific products for educational equipment (PCs, AV-equipment, etc.).  The Puyallup Tribal School, Chief Leschi, is a participant in the program.
 
There's an extra need for labels now due to the recent earthquake in Washignton State.  The tribal headquarters building has been red-tagged and the infra-structure of the tribe is scrambling to find places to get back into business.  This is particularly significant because the building itself is one that was 'occupied' by the Puyallup and was the beginning of rebuilding our land base.  It had first been an Indian hospital...a four-story brick monster. Then it became a TB hospital and later Cascadia...a juvenile jail.  Washington State decided it was too costly to operate and maintain and decided to sell it.  As it had been Puyallup trust land and was given up (?) to become an indian hospital, the Puyallup people decided they wanted it back.  It took occupying it to do so.  We used it originally as tribal offices and our first tribal school.  The building was in such bad shape, that eventually the school portion was condemned. We now have a great new school building, but are terribly short on basic equipment and furnishings.  With the tribal building now red-tagged due to the earthquake, we both grieve the loss of this symbol...old and decrepit as it was...and the enormous task of what to do now.  FEMA will not help in repairs or removal (remember, we're talking a huge four-story brick former hospital).  The cost for the tribe to remove and rebuild is out of the question.  Having such a small land base, we're going to have to lease space.  All this means, is less monies going to support tribal services...such as the school.
 
So, if you have any of the labels I've listed below hanging about your house, please consider sending them to Tami Cooper, Chief Leschi Schools, 5625 52nd St. E., Puyallup, WA  98371.  These labels WILL make a difference.
 
Cambells:  All soups, tomato juice and recipe mixes.
Pepperidge Farm:  Breads, croutons, rolls, stuffing, cookies, goldfish, snack mixes, frozen garlic breads, cakes, turnovers, dumplings & puff pastry.
Swanson:  Broths and poultry.
V8:  vegetable jice, Splash, Healthy Request vegetable juice
Franco-American: Gravies, Speghettio's and pasta
Prego:  Pasta sauces
Pace:  Salsa, picante & Picante ConQueso and food service products
General Mills: Box Tops for Education (on lots of cereal boxes, etc.)
 
You can visit Chief Leschi online at http://www.leschi.bia.edu 

Storm Reyes
http://nativenewsonline.org/natnews.htm 

When asked by an anthropologist what the Indian called America before the white man came, an Indian simply said, "Ours" - from Vine Deloria

Snowdance Phenomena Sweeps Western Ski Areas -
"Skiers Can Thank Tribes for Snow at LA Ski Dazzle Show!"

"I'd like the thank the tribes if they are responsible for this early fluke snow storm that dumped two to four feet in the San Bernadino Mountains, and put them on our staff," announced Fritz Coleman, KNBC LA's weatherman. " I made a few calls and found the tribes were at the bottom of it. And on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the LA Ski Dazzle Show at their Convention Center (1201 South Figueroa St), skiers have a chance to thank the Southern California tribes... for the ceremony that brought economic lifting snow to the mountain communities," reported Olympic skier, Suzy Chaffee, the tribal event host.

Rene Doctor, a Tahitian married to Louis Doctor (Navajo/Dine), who was a part of the ceremony, told Chaffee that, "At dawn on November 15, members of Chumash on Mt Wilson and other tribes, like the Cabizon, praying independently, and as well as an Abenaki and Lakota, united with the other brilliant colors of humanity - Whites, Blacks, and Yellow - totaling 200, and performed a Big Bear Medicine Wheel Ceremony, singing sacred prayer songs in the eight cardinal points encircling the San Bernadinos, with Big Bear at the center."

"Following the devastating fires last year, the purpose," said ceremonial leader, Bennie LeBeau (Shoshone), "was to help the drought-ridden region, especially the trees and springs. Lakota Kim Langbecker, who brought the Bushmen of the Kalahari, LeBeau and the Big Bear Community together at a September "Journey of the Heart Gathering" there. "I honor the White People of the Big Bear Community for doing most the work to inspire these snow blessings," said LeBeau.

The LA show is the finale of a national "Salute To America's First Caretakers" at Ski & Snowboard Shows/Expos in Denver, Seattle, and Sacramento. In appreciation for the ski areas sharing the skiing with tribal youth, their spiritual leaders have led snowdances in each of those regions, which resulted in some of the best early snow in America ever! This year, California's snow, ("thanks to Creator," say tribes), both in the San Bernadinos and Mammoth, (first to have a Native ski program in schools), has been the most abundant and early.

At Saturday's ski show presentations at 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., a united group of some of Southern California's most magnificent dancers, singers, drummers (many skiers), representing the San Manuel and Pala Tribes, as well as Shoshone and Doctor's Rock Pine Drum, led by Akima Castenada (Coastal Band Chumash), along with LaBeau, will share their earth-honoring dances and sustainable wisdom. This dream of partnering ski areas with California's First Caretakers, came out of Chaffee's honoring Akima (and Santa Barbara) last April, for being a father of Earth Day as a junior high school student. A star on "Dr Quinn Medicine Woman" and California Ventures' "Golden Dreams" story of the First Californians with Whoopie Goldberg, Castenada became NVF's West coast leader, hoping to inspire the same gracious opportunities for tribal youth here. Ski areas have been call "models" of the President's Healthier US Initiative on behalf of the Indian Country, by Indian press, which Native Voices Foundation (NVF) was chosen to spearheaded.

Leading LA's Salute to "California's First Caretakers" will be a team of "Environmental Champions," led by Gary Petersen of BioConverter, who is exploring a collaboration between Governor Arnold's Hydrogen Highway and the California Tribes, including discussions with fellow saluter William F. Cody (Blackfeet), a descendent of Buffalo Bill. Penny McCoy, (Chaffee's Olympic teammate), now a Mammoth Mountain owner and author, will also be speaking from the heart, and signing her eye opening book, "Winning is Everything, But..." Plus there may be surprise salutes by other eco activist stars as well as Olympians, who want to coach Native kids in skiing and all sports, including at the San Diego Olympic Training Center, announced Passadena-based Olympic Alumni Association President John Naber at the Utah Games.

This Ski Show Tour happened thanks to Olympic skier Billy Kidd (Abenaki) who suggested that Chaffee, NVF co-founder, organize a Ute snow ceremony at last year's Denver Expo in appreciation to ten Colorado ski communities for sharing skiing/boarding with their tribes. Many "snow farmers," like Aspen, were blessed with up to 15 feet of economic-lifting snow, which made believers out of over 100 U.S. ski areas who want to Salute their first Americans this season.

This translated into NVF's heart-warming Thanksgiving world announcement that U.S. Ski Areas are welcoming their tribes back to over a quarter million acres of their beloved, exquisite ancestral mountains to ski and snowboard. "This partnership with the tribes is strengthening the future of skiing and helping keep 'winters cool,'" said Michael Berry, President of the National Ski Areas Association, who authored their "Sustainable Slopes" ski program.

Another bulletin: "I just came from the Laguna and Acoma Puebos, where they were expressing gratitude for the snow blessings that are lifting their drought-challenged lands and ski areas in Arizona and New Mexico, " said Coleen Lloyd (Cherokee), designer of the hot Native American "Homeland Security" t-shirt.

"The tribes, especially youth, are thrilled with Ski Dazzle producers Judy Gray and Jim Foster are making this an "awesome" celebration by offering complimentary ski show tickets to tribal members at "will call" on Salute Saturday," said Chaffee. NVF's Salute is made possible by the Paiute Tribe (near Mammoth), "Mercury in Retrograde" documentary producers (free mercury testing at NVF booth near climbing wall), NUTIVA (nutritional hemp alternative to fish), Crystal Springs Golf Resort & Spa (near NYC), TPTs/Westwindworld.com T-shirts, and SweetLeaf Stevia (discovered by Brazilian tribes, keeping much of world lean and diabetes free).

For more information: www.nativevoices.org  suzynativevoices@aol.com 970-404-0687

HISTORY CORNER...

Ralph Waldo Emerson's Letter. . .
To Martin Van  Buren President of the United States
1836

Sir:
The seat you fill  places you in a relation of credit and nearness to every citizen. By right and  natural position, every citizen is your friend. Before any acts contrary to his  own judgment or interest have repelled the affections of any man, each may look  with trust and living anticipation to your government. Each has the highest  right to call your attention to such subjects as are of a public nature, and  properly belong to the chief magistrate; and the good magistrate will feel a joy  in meeting such confidence. In this belief and at the instance of a few of my  friends and neighbors, I crave of your patience a short hearing for their  sentiments and my own: and the circumstances that my name will be utterly  unknown to you will only give the fairer chance to your equitable construction  of what I have to say.  

Sir, my communication respects the sinister rumors  that fill this part of the country concerning the Cherokee people. The interest  always felt in the aboriginal population – an interest naturally growing as that  decays – has been heightened in regard to this tribe. Even in our distant State  some good rumor of their worth and civility has arrived. We have learned with  joy their improvement in the social arts. We have read their newspapers. We have  seen some of them in our schools and colleges. In common with the great body of  the American people, we have witnessed with sympathy the painful labors of these red men to redeem their own race from the doom of eternal inferiority, and to borrow and domesticate in the tribe the arts and customs of the Caucasian race.

And notwithstanding the unaccountable apathy with which of late years the Indians have been sometimes abandoned to their enemies, it is not to be doubted  that it is the good pleasure and the understanding of all humane persons in the  Republic, of the men and the matrons sitting in the thriving independent families all over the land, that they shall be duly cared for; that they shall  taste justice and love from all to whom we have delegated the office of dealing  with them. 

The newspapers now inform us that, in December, 1835, a treaty  contracting for the exchange of all the Cherokee territory was pretended to be made by an agent on the part of the United States with some persons appearing on  the part of the Cherokees; that the fact afterwards transpired that these deputies did by no means represent the will of the nation; and that, out of  eighteen thousand souls composing the nation, fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-eight have protested against the so-called treaty. It now appears that the government of the United States choose to hold the Cherokees to this sham treaty, and are proceeding to execute the same. Almost the entire Cherokee Nation stand up and say, “This is not our act. Behold us. Here are we. Do not mistake that handful of deserters for us;” and the American President and the Cabinet, the Senate and the House of Representatives, neither hear these men nor  see them, and are contracting to put this active nation into carts and boats, and to drag them over mountains and rivers to a wilderness at a vast distance beyond the Mississippi. As a paper purporting to be an army order fixes a month from this day as the hour for this doleful removal. 

In the name of God, sir,  we ask you if this be so. Do the newspapers rightly inform us? Man and women  with pale and perplexed faces meet one another in the streets and churches here,  and ask if this be so. We have inquired if this be a gross misrepresentation  from the party opposed to the government and anxious to blacken it with the  people. We have looked at the newspapers of different parties and find a horrid  confirmation of the tale. We are slow to believe it. We hoped the Indians were  misinformed, and that their remonstrance was premature, and will turn out to be  a needless act of terror. The piety, the principle that is left in the United  States, if only in its coarsest form, a regard to the speech of men, forbid us  to  entertain it as a fact. Such a dereliction of all faith and virtue, such a  denial of justice, and such deafness to screams for mercy were never heard of in  times of peace and in the dealing of a nation with its own allies and wards,  since the earth was made. Sir, does this government think that the people of the  United States are become savage and mad? From their mind are the sentiments of  love and a good nature wiped clean out? The soul of man, the justice, the mercy that is the heart’’ heart in all men, from Maine to Georgia, does abhor this business.

In speaking thus the sentiments of my neighbors and my own, perhaps  I overstep the bounds of decorum. But would it not be a higher indecorum coldly  to argue a matter like this? We only state the fact that a crime is projected that confounds our understanding by its magnitude, a crime that really deprives us as well as the Cherokees of a country for how could we call the conspiracy that should crush these poor Indians our government, or the land that was cursed  by their parting and dying imprecations our country, any more? You, sir, will  bring down that renowned chair in which you sit into infamy if your seal is set  to this instrument of perfidy; and the name of this nation, hitherto the sweet  omen of religion and liberty, will stink to the world. 

You will not do us the  injustice of connecting this remonstrance with any sectional and party feeling.  It is in our hearts the simplest commandment of brotherly love. We will not have  this great and solemn claim upon national and human justice huddled aside under  the flimsy plea of its being a party act.  

Sir, to us the questions upon which  the government and the people have been agitated during the past year, touching  the prostration of the currency and of trade, seem but motes in comparison.  These hard times, it is true, have brought the discussion home to every  farmhouse and poor man’s house in this town; but it is the chirping of  grasshoppers beside the immortal question whether justice shall be done by the  race of civilized to the race of savage man, whether all the attributes of  reason, of civility, of justice, and even of mercy, shall be put off by the  American people, and so vast an outrage upon the Cherokee Nation and upon human  nature shall be consummated.  One circumstance lessens the reluctance with  which I intrude at this time on your attention my conviction that the government  ought to be admonished of a new historical fact, which the discussion of this  question has disclosed, namely, that there exists in a great part of the  Northern people a gloomy diffidence in the moral character of the  government.  On the broaching of this question, a general expression of  despondency, of disbelief that any good will accrue from a remonstrance on an  act of fraud and robbery, appeared in those men to whom we naturally turn for  aid and counsel. Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?   

We ask triumphantly. Our counselors and old statesmen here say that ten years  ago they would have staked their lives on the affirmation that the proposed  Indian measures could not be executed; that the unanimous country would put them down.  And now the steps of this crime follow each other so fast, at such fatally quick time, that the millions of virtuous citizens, whose agents the government are, have no place to interpose, and must shut their eyes until  the last howl and wailing of these tormented villages and tribes shall afflict the ear of the  world.  

I will not hide from you, as an indication of the alarming distrust,  that a letter addressed as mine is, and suggesting to the mind of the Executive the plain obligations of man, has a burlesque character in the apprehensions of some of my friends. I, sir, will not beforehand treat you with the contumely of  this distrust. I will at least state to you this fact, and show you how plain  and humane people, whose love would be honor, regard the policy of the government, and what injurious inferences they draw as to the minds of the governors. A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood. The potentate and the people perish before it; but with it, and its executor, they are omnipotent.  

I write thus, sir, to inform you of  the state of mind these Indian tidings have awakened here, and to pray with one  voice more that you, whose hands are strong with the delegated power of fifteen  millions of men, will avert with that might the terrific injury which threatens  the Cherokee tribe.  With great respect, sir, I am your fellow  citizen,

Ralph Waldo Emerson

January Reprint

GRANDMOTHERS COUNCIL ESTABLISHED

"We honor our grandmothers for their knowledge, strength of spirit and the 'great beauty way' they bring to Manataka," said Charles 'Doc' Davidson, interim chair during his motion to create a new body within MAIC.  The motion received the unanimous approval of the Elder Council.  

Four leading grandmothers were also nominated to establish the new group, each to represent one of the four sacred directions.  Jocelyn Von Grund of Russellville, Dottie Little White Dove Furr of Hot Springs, Helen Red Wing Vinson of Memphis, and Judy White Feather Filmore have accepted positions. 

Sharon Kamama Baugh, past chairwoman and founder of the Women's Council was also honored as the "Most Honored Grandmother".  

Each woman was praised for their teaching skills, dedication and work for Manataka, and love for American Indian ways. 

The Grandmothers Council will advise the Elder Council in all matters of importance, but will not have a formal vote (who could refuse to listen?).  They will guide other MAIC groups in their activities and counsel with members and their families. The Grandmothers will decide their own projects, if any, and will serve in positions of honor during all Manataka ceremonies and events.  

"This is a very positive and traditional way to provide the people with the wisdom of our beautiful grandmothers.  It is also a way where we can continually honor those who have given so much," said Lee Standing Bear Moore.

Tsunami Adds to Belief in Animals´ ´Sixth Sense´

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami, adding weight to notions they possess a "sixth sense" for disasters, experts said Thursday.

Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed tens of thousands of people along the Indian Ocean island´s coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.

"No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening," H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka´s Wildlife Department, said Wednesday.

The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka´s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. "There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven," said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.

"Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds ... there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters," said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.

Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal "sixth sense" -- or some other mythical power -- is an enduring one

The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7207207

[Editor's Note: American Indians have known for thousands of years that animals, birds, fish and even insects have special gifts of the Creator.  People of the world might well follow our lead and start listening to our cousins and Mother Earth.]

SHARED SOUL RELATIONSHIPS

by Tamarack Song

In a Shared Soul Relationship, one does not Make Love to someone. Love is a shared experience — it is made with someone. I also stress the fact that it is made—it is co-creation.

The process of co-creating breaks down the distinction between self and other. When flour and yeast join, they become bread. This absorption of self into other gives rise to ecstasy. Like the smell of fresh-baked bread wafting through the house, the ecstasy of Matedness carries through to all aspects of shared life. How could it not—how can one not be in a kind, Honorable, Blissful place when one is continually Making Love?

This Relationship-of-the-Now is self-fulfilling and self-nourishing. In the words of my Mate, "To carry you Within me So Poignantly that the ache and the soothing of the ache, the yearning and its fulfillment, the thirst and the water, all exist side by side." This is possible in a Shared Soul Relationship because we are In Love with that which we are not. Yeast and flour are quite different from each other, and yet they are magic to each other. That which is different than us brings us perpetual newness and challenge. Therein lies fulfillment. Therein lies Ecstasy.

If we were to Love someone just like us, i.e. that which we already are, we would be enacting Love of self. That would give us nothing new, only a mirror, a clone. Yeast mixes well with yeast, and yet we have only yeast.

– from Matedness: Two Hearts, One Fire by Tamarack Song

See more from Tamarack Song at 

Speak Out to Protect Yellowstone's Endangered Grizzly Bears!

While grizzly bears slumber through the coldest and shortest days of winter, Wyoming's Game and Fish Department is developing a grizzly management plan that would shrink the area where bears can roam freely outside Yellowstone National Park and increase the number of bears that may be killed each year. When completed, the plan will be incorporated in the Bush administration's proposal to remove, or "delist," the Yellowstone grizzly from the endangered species list next year.

Premature delisting would allow grizzly bears to be hunted in the three states around Yellowstone, and permit energy and other development that would destroy their habitat. Today only 1000-1500 grizzlies survive in the lower 48 states, a 99 percent reduction of their former numbers.

The Yellowstone grizzly already suffers from excessive killing by humans, in Wyoming, mostly from avoidable causes such as habituation to garbage and encounters with big game hunters. Wyoming's proposal to allow more grizzlies to be killed would only exacerbate current bear mortality problems. In addition, in the future the bears will need more, not less, Wyoming wilderness habitat to compensate for the projected loss of other habitat resulting from diseases in key native foods and from energy production, rural sprawl and other development.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is accepting comments on its proposed plan
through January 14th.

What to do

Tell the Wyoming Game and Fish Department not to reduce Yellowstone's grizzly
habitat or allow more bears to be killed.

Contact information

You can send an official comment directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at
http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information and sample letter
below to send your own message.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department
Att'n: Grizzly Bear Occupancy Plan
5400 Bishop Road
Cheyenne, WY 82006-0001
Email:  WGFGRIZZLY@wgf.state.wy.us

Sample letter
Subject:  Draft Wyoming Grizzly Occupancy Plan

Dear Wyoming Game and Fish Department,

I urge the state of Wyoming to allow grizzlies to freely use all suitable remaining wildland habitat in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, including the Wyoming and Wind River ranges. In the future these lands, which contain ample bear foods and are remote from people, will be increasingly important to the grizzly to compensate for the anticipated loss of key foods from disease and from energy and other development. As the state with the largest share of
remaining habitat for Yellowstone's grizzlies, Wyoming has an especially important role in the survival of this species, which serves as a barometer of the health of the whole ecosystem.

I also urge you to maintain current limits on grizzly mortalities rather than increasing them. Wyoming should redouble its efforts to reduce bear deaths caused by careless handling of garbage and big game hunting. The state also should develop community teams to resolve human/bear conflicts and reduce bear deaths. These measures would go a long way to ensuring the safety and well-being of bears and people alike.

Until these steps are taken and grizzly numbers increase, with bears occupying suitable habitat in Yellowstone and lands between grizzly ecosystems in the lower 48 states and Canada, I oppose removing their endangered species protections.

Wyoming is critical to the fate of the grizzly bear, a wilderness icon and symbol of the West. The state's actions will affect not just the bear, but also people from around the country and the world who cherish the wildlife and wildlands in and around America's oldest national park.

Sincerely,

[Your name and address]

News Clips...

OWNER PREPARES TO SELL WHITE BUFFALO

[WHITE BUFFALO RANCH, ARIZONA] 12/20/05] It's a full house at the White Buffalo Ranch, located 20 miles northeast of Flagstaff on Highway 180, where six white buffalo are waiting out a snowy winter. Their owners and caretakers, Jim and Dena Riley, will probably not be waiting with them. After three hard years toiling to turn the five-acre spread they bought in 2001 into a recreational attraction for visitors wanting to see the buffalo, the Riley have reluctantly decided to sell the ranch and the animals. The property went on the market New Year's Day. The Year 2004 was not a good one for the Rileys. Dena was in a major car accident in April and almost died. Potential buyers for the ranch or the herd should call local realtor Portia Ryan at 928-699-5032.

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=101103 

Beautiful Words...

There Once Was A Little Girl

By Sam Farnsworth

There once was a little girl

With bright blue eyes and

Dark brown hair

Who lived on a farm

With out any cares

She loved the trees,
Mountains , streams
And bears

All the animals she loved with care

For she was a princess
Oh so fair
This little girl       
With blue eyes and brown hair !

Now this little girl so lovely and fair
Loved to walk in the woods without any care
Her mother would worry when she was there
Because she loved her so and yes she was kind of scared
For you never know what you might find
Out in the woods at any time

But she need not have worried because you see
The little people are there to watch over you and me
       
Now the little girl did not know that they were watching her
In the woods so close and dear
Tell the day it happened that she got lost and became very scared
For it was getting dark and she could not find her way
And she needed her mommy to keep her warm and safe

Shivering and cold she started to cry
And fell a sleep in the night
On the ground full of fright

Her mother found her sometime later
Warm and cozy covered with leaves
And flowers in her hair

Little foot prints were all around
And the little people stood by until she was found

Now this did not stop the little girl  
From going into the woods to play
For she was back there right away
But she never forgot that offal day
When she got lost while she played

Then one day she walked along
Quite as a mouse and she saw
The little people playing out side on a log
       
When they saw her they all disappeared
But the little girl was not even scared
She called to them with out any fear
Until they finally did reappear

She tried to tell others what she saw
But the grown ups wouldn't believe her at all
       
Even the other children her own age
They only laughed and called her names

And as she got older she was not sure
That she really did see them, things just weren't that clear

But she can not forget them or what she saw
The little people, the fairies ; she did love them all

They were her friends when she was young
And they did play together and have fun

Now just so you know
Once you have seen them they will not go
They will stay with you always and be your friends
For you must be special to have seen them

For even though you are grown and have forgotten me
I was one of those who played in your trees

And believe it or not you are still special to me.

 Sam White Eagle

MANATAKA ORGANIZATION MESSAGES

NOTICE 1:     CHRISTMAS MAY BE OVER....BUT  people are hungry often throughout the year.  Please bring or send non-perishable food items. 

NOTICE 2:     ENCAMPMENT & POWWOW EVENTS NEED VOLUNTEERS

Call 501-627-0555 to volunteer for the April 22-24 Encampment and the September Powwow.  The job is tough but FUN!! 

NOTICE 3:    REGULAR MEMBERSHIP MEETIN'S

Always on the 3rd Sunday of each month at Gulpha Gorge - bad weather at Phil's Restaurant.  

NOTICE 4:    WOMEN’S COUNCIL MEETINGS - 11:30 a.m., 1st Saturday each month.   Contact: Judy White Feather Filmore

NOTICE 5:       PAID YOUR DUES?
Now is a good time to support the many programs, services and events of MAIC. We can always use a small donation. Now you can pay by check or credit card online. It's easy, secure and fast!   Click Here  Or...