MANATAKA ORGANIZATIONAL MESSAGES

Health Watch...

DIABETES EPIDEMIC! 

Among American Indians

According to the National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse (NDIC),  "...diabetes  is a chronic epidemic among American Indians."  On average, they are 2.8 times as likely to have diagnosed diabetes as non-Hispanic whites of similar age.  For example, among the Pima Indians of Arizona, about 50 percent of people between the ages of 30 and 64 have diabetes.  From 1984 to 1986, diabetes was the sixth leading cause of death among American Indians and Alaska Natives.  Between 1986 and 1988, the death rate for diabetes in American Indians is estimated to be 4.3 times the rate in non-Hispanic whites.  Diabetes contributes to several of the leading causes of death in American Indians: heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, pneumonia, and influenza.

     Manataka is deeply committed to helping our brothers and sisters combat this terrible disease.  Here are two suggestions that will help:

1.  Fight the Cause: Stop eating government commodities - especially white flour, white sugar, white salt, white rice -- if it is white -- it ain't right!  

2.  Treat the Cause:  Take Diabeticine tablets daily for at least six months.   

Diabeticine™ is proven to be successful and goes to the cellular level to lower your blood sugar level, lower your insulin resistance, and increase insulin production. It contains all-natural ingredients, in its purest form, that are essential to making it gentle and effective, unlike prescription drugs that may have harmful side-effects to you. Diabeticine™ has been scientifically engineered and a partial list of the ingredients are:  

Banaba, Guggle, Bitter Melon, Licorice extract, Cinnamon herb powder, Gymnema Sylvestre, Yarrow, Cayenne, Juniper Berries, Huckleberry, Vanadyl Sulfate

Read More...

INSPIRATION...

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back -- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

~Submitted by Romaine Garcia

LETTER TO THE EDITOR...

AIHSC Unbelievable

Dear Manataka: 

I am not a Native American (those who were here first).  My relatives came from Europe four generations ago.  So, I can speak with no bias.  To me, the Aboriginal People, the Native Americans, the Indians deserve our respect and should be honored as the people who really “discovered America ”.  I was raised a Christian but have learned that the Native American beliefs and spirituality, in many cases, exceeds those who claim to be Christian.  We are all created by the same Great Spirit - God.   

It bothers me to hear of negative comments made by hate groups or individuals such as the AIHSC but there are such groups that at one time or another express hate for basically everything and everyone.   

Who would believe the AIHSC comments?  I would suspect that the people that believe the comments of the AIHSC are those who express the narrow minded beliefs of a minority of people who need to “hate” someone else so that they can overcome or justify their own shortcomings.   

For over 20 years, I have studied the pre-European cultures that have existed in the Ohio Valley and have developed a great respect for their abilities.  While I could only speculate on the cultural and spiritual aspects of these people, one must respect them.  As the ancestors of these First People, I feel the same respect for all Native Americans.  While I have only had the privilege to meet and speak with a few Native Americans, I always felt that they had something that the rest of us do not have.   

I appreciate the opportunity to have access to the Manataka newsletter and to learn more about those who really are the true and first Americans.   

With Respect, 

~M. Maley

LETTER TO THE EDITOR...

Manataka Exposes AIHSC Farce

Good response to AIHSC! They contradict themselves by stating that, in so many words-the different organizations do not fall under the legal term of fraud and have no evidence of any conviction, then they  provide the dictionary or legal term of fraud.  And then, like idiots, AIHSC says that these organizations are suspect of this without providing evidence. 

This is defamation and libelous. 

Also, how about the Arkansas Cherokee historical rendition about the Arkansas Cherokee Treaty being
executed "around 1817"- that is ridiculous!! You spoke my mind and did it even better. 

~T. Vickers

LETTER TO THE EDITOR...

Recapping Rachel

Hello Everyone,

I had my left knee replaced on the 6th of Sept. It all went very well and I made great strides in progress on recouping. I am doing so well in fact that the right knee will be replaced on the 25th of October.  It has been extremely encouraging to have these operations and now knowing that I will be well enough to be able to start Spring Session at the local Community College in 06.

I wish to Thank you all for your words of encouragement and well wishes. It means alot to me to have such fantastic friends who are family to me.

I will keep you all posted on the next operation and how that went as soon as I can.  I love you all and I miss each and every one of you.  If not for all of you, My world would be a very lonely and scary place.

Until later,  Namaste  

Rachel Flowers

POLITICAL FRONT:

To Kill  an  American

You  probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote the following to let everyone know what an American  is  ...  so they would know when they found one. (Good on ya, mate!!!!)

"An  American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish,  Russian or Greek. An  American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese,  Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An  American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache,  Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An  American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim.   In  fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them
chooses.

An  American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the  government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the  history of the world.  The  root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which  recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An  American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in  the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return. 

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago,  Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As  of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation  to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans  welcome the best of everything , the best products, the  best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.  The  national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your  poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.  These in fact are the people who built America.

Some  of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001  earning a better life for their families. It 's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So  you can try to kill an American if you must.  Hitler  did.  So  did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants  in the world.

But,  in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a  particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human  spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit,
everywhere, is an  American." 

~Author  unknown

Commentary...

FBI Assassinates Puerto Rican Freedom Worker

Filiberto Ojeda Rios crossed over to the Spirit World like a warrior

The assassination of the Puerto Rican Independentista movement leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios by the FBI and urges us to understand the parallels with our history and extend our solidarity to the Puerto Rican freedom fighters.

On Friday September 23rd, 2005, a day in which Puerto Rico celebrated the 137th anniversary of its independence from Spain, a day when the people renew their struggle against colonialism in all its forms, the US government sent its forces to strike at the heart of the Boriken people. 

As hundreds gathered to hear the recorded words of Filiberto Ojeda Rios exhorting all to unite for truth, justice and a better life for the hard working people of that beautiful island, the FBI executed a paramilitary operation, surrounded the Ojeda Rios home has he tended his garden in the mountains and started shooting hundreds of rounds.

He tried to defend himself and his family and was murdered by an FBI sniper. Colonial forces then blocked access to ambulances and anybody who could help so that Filiberto would bleed to death. 

There was no need to kill this man. The colonial courts had absolved him from any wrong doing in an alleged robbery incident. He was considered a fugitive only because he removed the electronic anklet used to track him.  The FBI targeted him because he wanted to lead the people towards freedom from colonialism and injustice. 

We need to  understand that this is the reality and it makes all of us who struggle for justice potential targets. Just as Don Filiberto called for the unity of the Puerto Rican independentista movement, we must also unite through the threads of our collective history of struggle.

We do not need to use our imagination to see that this is a long standing modus operandi of the US government and its leading paramilitary agency. The only difference is that today this terror is wanton and global. When will the American people wake up from the stupor of their indulgences and comfort to put a stop to this? They are the only ones that can rein in the monster that goes on killing and destroying in their name. 

The international community also has the responsibility to face the real criminals, the FBI and let them know their behavior is intolerable and must cease immediately.  After centuries of the same practices, our colonial oppressors should wise up and learn they do not work. Our thirst for justice is not placated through more injustice, the murder and imprisonment of our leaders, this only deepens it. Those of us who are left are guided by those brave spirits and so inspired. If they gave so much, how can we be in peace doing nothing?  Their call, from the Spirit World and from behind the iron bars is irrepressible. 

~Jose Fernandez Domingo Ruiz
Taino Survivalist

FUNIHAHAS...

Recording of the FBI at the Pine Ridge Reservation

The neighbor, "Hello, is this the FBI?"
"Yes, this is the FBI what do you want?"
"I'm calling to report my neighbor Billy One Foot, he's an Indian and he's hiding marijuana inside his firewood."
"Thank you very much for the call, sir."

The next day, the FBI agents descend on Billy One Foot's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but found no marijuana. They swore and cursed at Billy One Foot and left.
The phone rings at Billy One Foot's house, it's the neighbor, "Hey, Billy! Did the FBI come?"
"Yeah!"
"Did they chop your firewood?"
"Yep."
"Well Happy Birthday Buddy!"

IN THE NEWS... 

Bad Boy Russell Means In Trouble Again

By REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Affirming the sovereign powers of American Indian tribes, a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ruled the Navajo tribe may prosecute American Indian activist Russell Means even though he is not one of its members.

Means, a member of the Oglala-Sioux Tribe of Indians and one the best known American Indian activists, had sought to prevent the Navajo Nation from criminally prosecuting him for an incident on the Navajo Reservation.

The Navajo Nation wants to press misdemeanor charges against Means for allegedly threatening and battering his then-father-in-law and allegedly threatening a Navajo Indian at its reservation, which covers 25,000 square miles (64,750 km sq) in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.

Means challenged the authority of a Navajo tribal court, saying it did not have jurisdiction over him because he is not a member of the Navajo Nation.

Means also said his rights as a U.S. citizen would be threatened if he were prosecuted by a tribe that discriminated against him by barring him from joining it because of his ancestry.

The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said it found Means' equal-protection argument forceful. But writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld held that Congress by amending the Indian Civil Rights Act in 1990 allowed tribes to ``exercise inherent sovereign judicial power in criminal cases against nonmember Indians for crimes committed on the tribe's reservation.''

Means' lawyer, John Trebon of Flagstaff, Arizona, said he is inclined to request the full appeals court reconsider the case.

A leader of the American Indian Movement, Means led the group's 1973 protest against the federal government in a 71-day standoff with authorities at the Pine Ridge Reservation near Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where U.S. troops and Sioux Indians battled in 1890. The U.S. victory there essentially ended armed conflicts with tribes known as the Indian wars.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Ltd.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-rights-russellmeans.html

~Submitted by Helen RedWing

IN THE NEWS... 

When is an Indian not an Indian?
Arkansas schools are finding out the hard way.

Leslie Newell Peacock

The federal government is questioning grants totaling $1,089,745 that 24 Arkansas school districts have won based on the number of their American Indian students - a population that's made a meteoric jump over 2002 census figures, if the documents accompanying the grants are correct.

Officials with the federal Office of Indian Education suspect that the increase is not the result of an influx of American Indians into Arkansas, but of misinformation spread by a group called the Lost Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri. T he LCN, as it's called, began in 2003 to spread the word about the grants, telling schools they could get federal dollars based on the word of students filling out so-called 506 forms. The LCN told schools that their Indian students didn't have to be enrolled in federally recognized tribes to be counted, but only needed to be able to trace their Indian heritage to an ancestor several generations back.

The OIE is asking school districts to verify their numbers on applications they filed for the 2005-06 school year, and said schools could not pay 5 percent to outside administrators, a deal that LCN headmen Dub Maxwell and Jim Davis had made with some districts.

Lost Cherokees Maxwell and Davis proved to be lost again last week, when a reporter discovered their phones had been disconnected or were not in working order. A facsimile request for an interview sent to a number given on a recording at the LCN headquarters in Dover also went unanswered.

As of Monday, the OIE had received word from five school districts that they are withdrawing their applications for the money, granted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. They include Cotter (giving up $29,161), Jessieville ($35,347), Mammoth Spring ($24,036) and Westside ($28,631).

The Russellville School District is apparently the first school district to have caught on that it didn't fully understand what was required by the OIE; it decided last spring not to accept a $162,000 grant it won. The district took action after it got a request from an OIE grant specialist for more verification on the 878 students who'd identified themselves as Indian. (The school has an enrollment of 5,032.) Jenny Barber, program director at Russellville, who was not with the district at the time the application was made, said that  when she examined the students' forms she found that only 90 children of 878 were members of federally recognized tribes. A total of 751 children had identified themselves as members of the Lost Cherokee Nation. In 2002, only 19 Russellville students had identified themselves as Indian.

Indian education grants are restricted to people considered to be Indian by the Secretary of the Interior (those enrolled in recognized tribes), to members of tribes recognized by the state in which members live and their first- or second degree descendants, and Eskimo, Aleut and other Alaskan natives.

Members of the Lost Cherokee Nation persuaded state Rep. Preston Scroggin, D-Vilonia, to introduce a resolution in this year's General Assembly that would have granted the tribe state recognition. No action was taken on the resolution. It has been suggested that the LCN sought state recognition with the goal of starting a casino on Indian land; a website started by tribe members unhappy with Maxwell and Davis says as much.

Other districts that have told the Times that they're withdrawing their applications or putting them on hold while they go over their data include Pottsville ($106,104), Dardanelle ($72,284) and Wonderview ($24,566). Dardanelle was one of the districts that had agreed to pay 5 percent of the grant award to the LCN for administration. Superintendent John Thompson said the money was never paid because the tribe never sent an invoice. "We felt like we were helping kids," Thompson said, "and helping them find some of their last tribe people."

Steve Thomas, superintendent at Wonderview, which received $26,896 last year, was unhappy that the district apparently doesn't qualify for the Indian money. Its data showed that 140 of its 430 kids had identified themselves as Indian.

Thomas tried to contact headmen Maxwell and Davis when he got word that the OIE requirements were stricter than the headmen had led the district to believe. "All the [phone] numbers they've given us are no longer working," he said.

Most of the school districts contacted by the OIE had received Indian education grants previously. A spokesman for the OIE said the office is only looking into this year's applications.

At least two of the districts have been receiving money from the OIE  since the mid-1970s. The Cedarville School District and the Fort Smith School District have historically recorded substantial numbers of Indian students. Wickes School District also says its Indian students are legitimate.

The schools that have raised eyebrows at the OIE are those that only recently applied for grants.

In an e-mail sent Aug. 26 to the 24 districts, Bernard Garcia of the OIE wrote that the office was "aware that an Indian group in Arkansas is encouraging Local Education Agencies [bureaucratic lingo for schools] to apply for the Title VII Indian Education Formula Grant Funds. . The documents used to encourage LEAs in Arkansas to apply for Indian education funds have been reviewed by OIE and contain numerous errors. For example, the letter to parents states: `If your gggg-grandmother or your gggg-grandfather was of American Indian Blood SO ARE YOU AND SO IS YOUR CHILD.' You do not have to prove your American Indian Blood for this program so please fill out the following 506 form and return it to your school.' " This information is false, Garcia informed the schools.

Garcia also informed school districts that had agreed to pay the Lost Cherokee Nation 5 percent for administrative costs that those payments would not be legal. Schools also have to have at least 10 percent Indian enrollment to qualify.

Headmen Maxwell and Davis held workshops in school cafeterias and other venues to explain the grants. They informed attendees how to become a member in the LCN, whose members claim descent from Cherokees who stopped at a short-lived Cherokee reservation in the Arkansas River Valley in the 1820s. As school surveys went home to students, the LCN signed up hundreds of new members, charging each $30 for dues.

One of those new members was David Waddel, principal of Hector High School. Hector is near Dover, where the LCN website says it has a headquarters, and also the place where Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, had a salt works.

Waddell has always been interested in his Indian heritage, and submitted several genealogical documents to the LCN, including his family tree, birth and death certificates and census records.

~Leslie Newell Peacock, Arkansas Times 

~Submitted by Helen RedWing

[EDITOR'S OPINION:  The actions of LCN are reprehensible and abhorrent to American Indians and all citizens with ideals and principals.  In addition to the activity described above, the LCN uses greed to lure prospective members by holding out a false carrot of Federation Recognition. LCN will never achieve recognition.  They do not currently qualify under federal guidelines and laws nor will they ever.  We are aware of groups in other states who are operating in the same fashion.  When will they learn? 

Portions of this article were omitted for the sake of space and clarity.  

FUNNY BONES...

How can you spot the difference between a regular canine and a Rez dog?

Throw each one in the oven at 400 degrees for 2 hours.  

The regular canine should come out tender and moist.

The Rez dog will come out with a towel wrapped around his waist saying, "Dang that was a good sweat!"

Elder's Meditation

"Women. They have the power of generations. Women have the power to have children and not to have children."

--Cecilia Mitchell, Mohawk

The Woman is not only the key to life; she is also the key to future generations. An Elder once joked that the Woman only needs the man for one night. We need to look at and respect the power of the Woman. She is special and we need to treat her that way.

Great Spirit, today, let me show the greatest respect to our Women.

 -- Elders.meditation@whitebison.org

HEALTH FRONT

DID YOU KNOW?...

Goodbye to Diabetes: The herbs Banaba, Guggle, Bitter Melon, Licorice extract, Cinnamon herb powder, Gymnema Sylvestre, Yarrow, Cayenne, Juniper Berries, Huckleberry, and Vanadyl Sulfate, when combined in a special formulation, have been proven to be successful in actually going to the cellular level to lower blood sugar levels, lower insulin resistance, and increase insulin production.  

ANTIFREEZE TASTES GOOD...

and that's why thousands of children and pets are poisoned each year.  

We need your to make antifreeze safer: http://go.care2.com/30754   

When children and pets come across antifreeze in the garage, on a shelf, or from a leaky engine, they are too often tempted to take a sip. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine estimates more than 700 children under the age of six, and nearly 10,000 dogs and cats were exposed to its poisonous ingredients.   

Because antifreeze contains ethylene glycol, it has a sugary sweet taste. The Senate is considering a bill, the Engine Coolant and Antifreeze Bittering Agent Act of 2005, that requires manufacturers add a bittering agent to all antifreeze containing more than 10% ethylene glycol. Thus, children and animals are discouraged from ingesting it because of its unpalatable taste.  

Tell your Senator to make antifreeze safer by passing this law.  

Bittering agents are widely available and cost effective. One of the bitterest substances, denatonium benzoate, is already used safely in many other household products. It is also extremely cheap, and would increase the cost of antifreeze by only a couple pennies per gallon. It's a small price to pay for the safety of kids and pets. On a $7 bottle of antifreeze, this would be less than a half percent increase to the total price. 

Manufacturers haven't taken adequate steps to protect children and animals -- it's time for us to stand together and demand action.   

Sign our petition telling your Senator to vote yes on the Engine Coolant and Antifreeze Bittering Agent Act of 2005.

~Submitted by Juli Maltagliati

POETRY CIRCLE

~A Pueblo Blessing ~

Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe

even if it is a tree which stands by itself

Hold on to what you must do 

even if it is a long way from here
Hold on to life even when it is easier letting go
Hold on to my hand even when I have gone away from you

The Beauty of Earth Mother

Give us hearts to understand; 
Never to take from creation's beauty more than we give;
never to destroy wantonly for the furtherance of greed;

Never to deny to give our hands for the building of earth's beauty;
never to take from her what we cannot use.
Give us hearts to understand
That to destroy earth's music is to create confusion;

that to wreck her appearance is to blind us to beauty;
That to callously pollute her fragrance is to make a house of stench;

that as we care for her she will care for us.
We have forgotten who we are.
We have sought only our own security.
We have exploited simply for our own ends.
We have distorted our knowledge.

We have abused our power.
Great Spirit, whose dry lands thirst,
Help us to find the way to refresh your lands.

Great Spirit, whose waters are choked with debris and pollution,
help us to find the way to cleanse your waters.

Great Spirit, whose beautiful earth grows ugly with misuse,
help us to find the way to restore beauty to your handiwork.
Great Spirit, whose creatures are being destroyed,
help us to find a way to replenish them.

Great Spirit, whose gifts to us are being lost in selfishness and corruption,
help us to find the way to restore our humanity.
Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
whose breath gives life to the world, hear me;

I need your strength and wisdom.
May I walk in Beauty.

~By Takatoka

INDIAN PERSPECTIVE...

FRANK FOOLS CROW ON LIFE

Fools Crow, Ceremonial Chief, Medicine man, of Teton Sioux (Lakota) stated this about being a healer. "We are called to become hollow bones for our people, and anyone else we can help. We are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor. What we bones really become is the pipeline that connects Wakan Tanka {God}, the helpers and the community together.

This tells us the direction our curing and healing work must follow, and establishes the kind of life we must live. We have to be strong and committed, otherwise we will get very little spiritual power and will probably give up the curing and healing work. The lessons we are taught by our human teachers, as Stirrup was for me, stressed that the traditional way of performing a ritual is more important than curing someone. Curing a single individual is only important in terms of what this teaches the entire community.

This community must continue to know that Wakan Tanka, and the Helpers are always with it, and that it need
no be afraid.(Mails, 1991)"

~Mails, T. (1991). Wisdom and Power: Fools Crow. Tulsa, Okla: Council Oak Books

QUOTING THE ELDERS

"Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived
first, and You are older than all need, older than all  prayer...You are the life of all things." --Black Elk, Oglala Sioux 

"What could be greater than to be Wakan-Tanka's mind, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms, hands, legs, and feet
here on earth?" --Frank Fools Crow, Lakota 

"We are called hollow bones for our people and for anyone else we can help, and we are not supposed to
seek power for our personal use and honor." --Frank Fools Crow, Lakota 

"He [Wakan Tanka] walks with us along the pathways of Life, and He can do for us what we could never do on
our own."  --Frank Fools Crow, Lakota 

"But in the Indian Spirit the land is still vested; it will be until other men are able to divine and meet its rhythm. Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefathers' bones."
--Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux 

"Peace comes within the souls of men, when they realize their oneness with the universe, when they realize it is really within each of one of us. --Black Elk, Lakota Medicine Man

The following quotes came from this AA Group web pages http://www.naigso-aa.org/Daily%20Meditations.html

MORE ABOUT FOOLS CROW...

Frank Fools Crow has had many exceptional things written about his profound love and concern for all races. It was his fervent wish to share his profound gifts with as many as he could reach. "Survival of the world depends on our sharing what we have, and working together. If we don't the whole world will die. First the planet, and next the people." Then he continues, "The ones who complain and talk the most about giving away Medicine Secrets, are always those who know the least." He had little time for anyone who attempted to keep blessings for themselves.

Prayer before the U.S. Senate - 1975
by Frank Fools Crow
Ceremonial Chief and Medicine Man of the Lakota Nation:

In the presence of this house, Grandfather, Wakan-Tanka,
and from the directions where the sun sets,
and from the direction of cleansing power,
and from the direction of the rising sun,
and from the direction of the middle of the day.

Grandfather, Wakan-Tanka,
Grandmother, the Earth who hears everything,
Grandmother, because you are woman, for this reason
you are kind,
I come to you this day.

To tell you to love the red men, and watch over them,
and give these young men the understanding
because, Grandmother, from you comes the good things.

http://www.temeritywoods.org/hoafoolscrow.htm

~submitted by Helen RedWing

THE HAWK SPEAKS

Precious Gems

A true friend can be likened to a precious gem, they are difficult to find and are of great value.  Each precious gem contains many facets which make it more beautiful and gives it value.  So too, an organization containing many members such as the facets cut into the precious gem can be of great value because they are all different in some way.  Like the human body has many parts such as the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears as well as other members.  They all have to work together to make the body complete.  The feet can not hear, can they? The hands can not see, can they? The eyes can not walk or talk can they?  But I say this, "They are all of equal value for they must all work together in order for the body to function in an efficient manor." 

~Hawk With Seven Eyes Hoffman

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FUNNY BONES...