Manataka American Indian Council Volume VII Issue 12 DECEMBER 2005
Manataka - Preserving the past today for tomorrow
32 printed pages in this issue
Contents:
Book Review: Justice Corner:
Customs & Traditions Legends of Old:
Ecology Front:
Letters to the Editor:
Eco-Notes:
MAIC Messages:
Elder's Meditation:
Poetry Circle:
Feature Story:
Tribal Politics:
Hawk Speaks:
Upcoming Events:
Healing Basket:
Manataka Gift Basket:
Health Front:
Women's Circle:
Hill & Holler:
Women's Medicine:
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Have Pride - Fly it High!
We are trying to raise money for the Elder's Welfare and Travel fund with these beautiful 3' x 5' feet, woven polyester Manataka flags. Each long-lasting flag has two brass grommets and is suitable for indoor or outdoor use.
Our beautiful flags are not Wally World cheapies. Each 3' x 5' flag is made from high-strength, top-quality woven polyester bunting material. Four full rows of stitching in the fly and two rows of white canvas header are carefully sewn around the entire outside border to provide excellent durability.
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HOLIDAY SALE! BUY ANY FLAG $85.00 |
REDUCED PRICE FOR ALL TRIBAL FLAGS FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
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Manataka has the world's largest stock of American Indian Tribal Flags! |
HOLIDAY PARADE...
JOIN
THE MANATAKA HOLIDAY PARADE!
The annual Hot Springs Christmas Parade is Thursday, December 1 at 5:30 p.m. Manataka members, family and friends will ride the Manataka low-boy trailer festooned with decorations and MAIC banners and others will carry flags. Drummers and singers will perform during the parade. Dress in regalia or not. Everyone bring a least three (3) non-perishable canned food. Come to Desoto Park on Hwy 7 North at Hwy 70B (Gulpha Gorge Road) no later than 5:30 p.m. on December 1. Come 30-45 minutes earlier to help decorate. Call 501-627-0555.
NOTICE: Coming Feature
A new Latin American section of the Manataka website and Smoke Signal newsletter is on its way! Elder Jim Path Finder Ewing and Manataka Ambassador to Spiritual Elders of Latin America, Otto Riollano Davilá are currently working to reach out to our brothers and sisters in the South.
NOTICE: Event Volunteers
Event Elder Rick Wind Call-er Porea has issued a call for volunteers to assist with upcoming future gatherings. Workers are needed on the Membership table (2 hours only); Visitor Relations (security, parking); and Lodge Keeping. Please contact events@manataka.org
NOTICE:
Wolf Dancers
Wolf Dancers Needed. Rocky Thunder Wolf Miller of the Manataka Wolf Society is asking people who dance the Wolf or those who wish to learn to contact him. The Wolf Society will dance during the upcoming Fall Gathering. A wolf pelt is not required to dance. Powerful stuff. manataka@sbcglobal.net
Also See Powwow Now! One of the largest powwow calendars on the Internet today!
American Indian Christmas Customs
© 1999-2003 by Maria Hubert. All rights reserved
Reprint from Dec. 2004 Smoke Signal
Many of the AmerIndian peoples have been Christianized for several hundred years. Over this time customs which were introduced to them by the missionaries have become adapted and are an integral part of the traditions, especially around the Christian festivals of Easter and Christmas.
Many Tribes, including the Laguna Indians, who accepted Christianity some 400 years ago, have the custom of a dance on Christmas Eve, where gifts are offered at the Manger. There are many examples of representations of the Christmas Crib where the glad tidings are brought to braves in the fields by the great Thunderbird; or scenes with the wise men being replaced by the chiefs representing the great Nations.
Handsome Fellow
There is a mysterious fellow whom I have been told about on several occasions. He is a handsome brave who wears white buckskins, and brings gifts. His name, appropriately is 'Handsome Fellow'. I would love to tell you more about him, but so far no-one has come forward with that information! Other gift bringers come at different times of the year, often in the summertime, but the gift bringing element is definitely part of the American Indian culture.
The First Christmas Carol
According to Huron tradition, their first Christmas Carol was written by a Jesuit missionary priest, Fr Jean de Brebeuf, around 1640-41. The Hurons had a particular devotion to Christmas. Fr Brebeuf wrote about the devotions they had. He said that they built a small chapel of fir tree and bark in honour of the manger at Bethlehem. This became the 'stable' where Jesus was born. Some travelled as much as two days to be there for the Christmas celebration.
The Huron Carol has become a well known and much loved carol today. The original was written in the Huron tongue, with a symbol like a figure '8' to represent a vowel sound not common in the English tongue. This sound was 'ou' .
Estennialon de tson8e Jes8s ahatonhia
Onna8ate8a d'oki n'on8andask8aentak
Ennonchien sk8atrihotat n'on8andilonrachatha
Jes8s ahatonhiaThe original words were written in French and Huronian. The carol we all sing today was an
interpretation of the original, and not a translation. There were five verses. The first verse is as follows:
Chrétiens, prenez courage,
Jésus Sauveur est né!
Du malin les ouvrages
A jamais sont ruinés.
Quand il chant mervielle,
A ces troublants appas
No prâtez plus l'orielle:
Jésus est né, In excelsis gloria!At the third verse, the chiefs would process solemnly towards the little chapel, bearing gifts for the christchild:
Voici que trois Rois Mages,
Perdus en Orient,
Déchiffrent ce message
Encrit au firmamente:
A'Astre nouveau les hante
Ils la suivront lá-bas,
Cette étoile marchante:
Jésus est né: In excelsis gloria!Amerindian Christmas Cribs
Many lovely cribs have been made by American Indians. Keena Cribs from Canada are wonderfully hand painted clay crib with the chiefs of the Plains, Forest and Inuit Tribes bringing gifts. The animals at the manger are the Fox, the Buffalo and the Bear. The Hurons made a traditional tent of skins and their figures were all dressed as native Americans. I have in my own collection a colourful wool nativity made by the Hopi tribe, with the Thunderbird bringing the glad tidings, which I purchased from Wallys Christmas Wonderland in Michigan, some years ago. One of the loveliest scenes I have ever seen is a painting by Yellowman. It appeared in a copy of the Augsburg Christmas Annual some years ago.
http://www.christmasarchives.com/amerind.html
Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, NM 1994.
Circle of Wonder:
A Native American Christmas Story
by N. Scott Momaday
Description: 40 p. : col. ill. ; 26 cm.A mute Indian child has an extraordinary experience one Christmas when, following a figure who seems to be his beloved grandfather who has died, he becomes part of a circle in which he, animals, nature, and all the world join in a moment of peace and good will.
Drawing on childhood memories of Christmas in a New Mexican village, Momaday produces a poetic story that skillfully blends Christian and Native American traditions. On Christmas Eve, Tolo, a lonely mute boy, is drawn by the spirit of his beloved grandfather to a bonfire in the mountains, where he shares a ``circle of wonder and good will'' with an elk, a wolf and an eagle. His heart fills with love for his family, for the Christ child and for all creation, and in this brief glimpse of the interconnectedness of all life his loneliness is banished forever. Features Momaday's singular, impressionistic artwork. All ages.
Purchase This book now for only $19.95
Reprint from Dec. 2004 Smoke Signal
Toxins in Cosmetics &
Personal Care Products
by Liora Leah Zack, MAIC Correspondent
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Harmful chemicals in cosmetic and personal care products can cause cancer, birth defects, allergic reaction, and other health problems. TAKE ACTION to protect your health! |
Chemicals that may be harmful to our health are found in our every day cosmetic and personal care products such as shampoo and conditioner, soaps, deodorant, perfume, body and hand lotion, shaving cream, makeup, toothpaste, facial cleansers, hair dye, to name just a few. Products that are labeled "natural" are not necessarily free from these ingredients and also require close scrutiny by the consumer.
For example, chemical ingredients of concern include fragrance, phthalates, coal tar hair dye, and alpha hydroxy acids (skin peelers):
Fragrances can consist of hundreds of ingredients, and are common human allergens. One in 50 people suffer immune system damage from fragrance exposures.
Phthalates are found in personal care products such as perfume and nail polish. These chemicals can disrupt the human reproductive system and have been linked to birth defects in male babies.
Coal tar hair dyes are widely used in popular brands despite studies linking them to bladder cancer and immune system damage.
Alpha hydroxy acids, or skin peeling products, are designed to diminish wrinkles and blemishes by stripping off outer layers of skin. Their use may lead to increased skin cancer risk, chemical burns and permanent scarring.1
The ingredients listed here are just the tip of the iceberg; these and other chemicals known or suspected of causing cancer, birth defects, allergic reaction, and other health effects are found in thousands of cosmetic and personal care products.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) published a study titled "Skin Deep" in June, 2004 and updated in October, 2005, details over 14,000 common, name-brand personal-care products and almost 7,000 of their chemical ingredients. Over 44% of these products contain chemicals that are possible human carcinogens. Almost 46% of the products contain ingredients that may contribute to birth defects. nearly 86% of the products contain ingredients that may cause allergic reactions.2
| More than 99 percent of all personal care products on the market have at least one or more ingredients that have not been publicly assessed for safety. |
"Most of the products you use have chemicals that haven't been tested for safety at all...Most people assume that if you see something on the shelf, it's safe for you. The findings of our study really contradict that" states Dr. Tim Kropp, a toxicologist with EWG.3
In response to a cosmetic safety petition filed by the EWG in June 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a report that "revealed deep deficiencies in its power to protect the public health under the nation's cosmetics law. Notably, FDA affirmed its inability to enforce a requirement that a warning label be posted on products that have not been substantiated for safety".4
What can we do about the safety of the ingredients we use daily in our cosmetics and personal care products? We can Take Action:
1) Join The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is a coalition of public health, educational, faith, labor, women's, environmental and consumer groups. The mission of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics is to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the cosmetics industry to phase out the use of chemicals that are known or suspected to cause cancer, genetic mutation or reproductive harm: http://www.safecosmetics.org
2) Sign a Petition Demand that companies that make cosmetics and personal care products stop using chemicals known or suspected of causing cancer, birth defects, allergic reactions, and other health effects: http://action.safecosmetics.org/petition/
3) Environmental Working Group Report, "Skin Deep" Read more from the EWG about cosmetics and personal care products and their ingredients:http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/findings/index.php
Do a "home survey" of your own cosmetic and personal care products. Look up the ingredients at the Environmental Working Group's on-line study: http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/index.php
4) Letter Writing Campaign Over 200 companies have signed the "Compact for Safe Cosmetics", agreeing to formulate the products they manufacture domestically and/or globally to use only ingredients that are not known or suspected of causing cancer, mutation, or birth defects. Look up the names of the companies whose products you buy on: http://www.safecosmetics.org/companies/signers.cfm
Write the companies that are on the list, thanking them for their pledge and letting them know you will continue to buy their products. If the company is NOT on the list, write that company and ask them why they have not signed the pledge.
5) Sign an online letter Tell CEOs of Avon, Proctor and Gamble, and L'Oreal to Sign the Compact for Safe Cosmetics: http://action.safecosmetics.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item+13271
6) For future updates, alerts, and information on how you can take action in your community: http://action.safecosmetics.org/join/
Resources used for this article:
(3)
Ethier, Marc, "Under Our Skin" Friends of the Earth, Fall 2004,
Volume 34, No.3.
(4) http://www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep2/findings/index.php?content=FDA_fails_to_protect#begin
Eco-NotesSneak Attack on Organic Food Standards
After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards and organic community control over modification to these standards.
Now, large corporations, such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods -- aided and abetted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of the Organic Trade Association, are moving to lower organic standards by allowing Bush appointees in the USDA National Organic Program to approve a broad list of synthetic ingredients and processing aids that would be allowed in organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes will reduce future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards.
| "What this means, in blunt terms. is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will have near total control over what can go into organic foods and products." |
(Send a quick letter to your Congresspersons online here)
During the next week, acting in haste and near-total secrecy, the U.S. Congress is being lobbied by industry to vote on a rider in the House/Senate Conference Committee to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that could take away control over organic standards from the National Standards Board and put this control in the hands of federal bureaucrats in the USDA (remember the USDA proposal in 1997-98 that said that genetic engineering, toxic sludge, and food irradiation would be OK on organic farms, or USDA suggestions in 2004 that heretofore banned pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs would be OK?).
For the past week in Washington, OCA has been urging members of Congress not to reopen and subvert the federal statute that governs U.S. Organic standards (the Organic Food Production Act: OFPA), but rather to let the organic community and the National Organic Standards Board resolve our differences over issues like synthetics and animal feed internally, and then proceed to a open public comment period. Unfortunately most members of Congress seem to be listening to industry lobbyists more closely than to us. We need to raise our voices.
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Federal Funding for Organics: The current five year $220 billion US Farm Bill allocates less than $5 million annually for organic research, promotion and marketing...approximately one-hundredth of one percent. This means that Congress is using billions of our tax dollars to reward chemical-intensive, factory farm style operations, while penalizing non-chemical farmers. This, despite the fact that organic food has been the fasting growing segment in the food marketplace for over 13 years. To move beyond using pesticides, chemicals and genetically modified seeds, conventional farmers need government subsidies and conversion programs that prioritize local and regional organic production. These misguided priorities must be reversed in the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. |
In the past, grassroots mobilization and mass pressure by organic consumers have been able to stop the USDA and Congress from degrading organic standards. This time Washington insiders tell us that the "fix is already in." So we must take decisive action now. We need you to call your Congressional Representatives and Senators today. We need you to sign the following petition and send it to everyone you know. We also desperately need funds to head off this attack in the weeks and months to come. Thank you for your support. Together we will take back citizen control over organic standards and preserve organic integrity.
Call the Capital Switchboard here: 202-224-3121, and tell your Congresspersons not to support any amendments to the ag appropriations bill that would lower organic standards. You can send a quick letter to your Congresspersons online here: www.organicconsumers.org/rd-ofpa.htm
~Submitted by Crystal Harvey, MAIC Correspondent
Manataka Video Store New!
European
Christmas for Native Americans actually started when the Europeans came over
to America. They taught the Indian about Christianity, gift-giving , and St.
Nicholas. There are actually two religious types of Indian people in
existence. One of these is the Traditionalist, usually full-blooded Indians
that grew up on the reservations. The second type is the Contemporary Indian
that grew up in an urban area, usually of mixed blood, and brought up with
Christian philosophy.
Traditionalists are raised to respect the Christian Star and the birth of the first Indian Spiritual Leader. He was a Star Person and Avatar. His name was Jesus. He was a Hebrew, a Red Man. He received his education from the wilderness. John the Baptist, Moses, and other excellent teachers that came before Jesus provided an educational foundation with the Holistic Method.
Everyday is our Christmas. Every meal is our Christmas. At every meal we take a little portion of the food we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged. We pray--not the way most Christians pray-- but we thank the Grandfathers, the Spirit, and the Guardian Angel.
The Indian Culture is actually grounded in the traditions of a Roving Angel. The life-ways of Roving Angels are actually the way Indian People live. They hold out their hands and help the sick and the needy. They feed and clothe the poor. We have high respect for the avatar because we believe that it is in giving that we receive.
We are taught as Traditional children that we have abundance. The Creator has given us everything: the water, the air we breathe, the earth as our flesh, and our energy force: our heart. We are thankful every day. We pray early in the morning, before sunrise, the morning star, and the evening star. We pray for our relatives who are in the universe that someday they will come. We also pray that the Great Spirit's son will live again.
To the Indian People Christmas is everyday and the don't believe in taking without asking. Herbs are prayed over before being gathered by asking the plant for permission to take some cuttings. An offer of tobacco is made to the plant in gratitude. We do not pull the herb out by its roots, but cut the plant even with the surface of the earth, so that another generation will be born its place.
It is really important that these ways never be lost. And to this day we feed the elders, we feed the family on Christmas day, we honor Saint Nicholas. We explain to the little children that to receive a gift is to enjoy it, and when the enjoyment is gone, they are pass it on to the another child, so that they, too, can enjoy it. If a child gets a doll, that doll will change hands about eight times in a year, from one child to another.
Everyday is Christmas in Indian Country. Daily living is centered around the spirit of giving and walking the Red Road. Walking the Red Road means making everything you do a spiritual act. If your neighbor, John Running Deer, needs a potato masher; and you have one that you are not using, you offer him yours in the spirit of giving. It doesn't matter if it is Christmas or not.
If neighbors or strangers stop over to visit at your house, we offer them dinner We bring out the T-Bone steak, not the cabbage. If we don't have enough, we send someone in the family out to get some more and mention nothing of the inconvenience to our guests. The more one gives, the more spiritual we become. The Christ Consciousness, the same spirit of giving that is present at Christmas, is present everyday in Indian Country.
Looks for Buffalo is an Oglala Sioux Spiritual Leader, the full-blood Oglala grandson of Chief Red Cloud and White Cow Killer, and a Cheyenne Oglala Leader. Sandie Lee Bohlig, spiritual healer, counsels and teaches around the globe.
http://www.ewebtribe.com/Christmas/NAChristmas.htm
MANATAKA.ORG HOLIDAY GIFT BASKET
TOP TEN INEXPENSIVE GIFT IDEAS
MORE GREAT GIFT IDEAS...
Tomorrow's Children
By Tsolagiu RuizRazo
Raising children in today's world is difficult. This book teaches parents how to raise children according to traditional customs and values. A good book! $21.95 Read More
Wisdom of Elders:
Traditional American Indian Food and Recipes
70+ page, soft-bound cookbook is brimming with recipes, tribal profiles, authentic preparation methods, as well as colorful ideas for menu planning. $21.95
Ghost Trails to Manataka CD
By Del Lillard
Stirring music. Intense, emotional and beautiful. Hear the legends of the Place of Peace. A Moving Experience. Only $19.95 Read More
Wisdom Walkers
By Corina Roberts
A provocative novel about ancient North America and the journey of two women. Dispels migration myths. Only $19.95 Read More
Manataka Flag
Now Available!
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Attacks Against Manataka
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Smoke Signal is uplifting to say the least. Good job and continue. When you are a positive influence in this world there will always be critics. Do not give it a second thought. I join and commit myself to the preservation of our Sacred site in the Valley of the Vapors. I have made a request that the Valley be a place of refuge where no harm may come to anyone there and that it truly be the Place of Peace and harmony for all man and woman kind.
The Great Spirit is everywhere, it is in this special location that we seek to be closer to him and find the place within us all, where peace reigns and we fulfill the purposes Creator put us hear to achieve. May the Father of us all, grant you peace and prosperity. I send you much love and respect.
There are many things resisting the movement of God in this world and I note them but go on with the mission I am given, praying for power and knowledge. Forgive our lost brothers and stay soft hearted. Bannasiah
~M. Burton
Enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
An Important Message...
Cree Indians are traditional sustenance
hunters who live off the land. For over 30 years they've been
disrupted by environmental changes. The water on Maniwaki (Kitigan Zibi) is
polluted and radioactive. No one knows where it is coming from. They have shut
down 20 wells. E-Coli bacteria is shutting down wells across many Canadian
reservations.
One
Cree Elder saw four geese fall dead from the sky. They were all skin and bones.
The prophecies talks about a time when birds fall dead out of sky. After this,
there is no hope. If the disease gets to the eagles, it's the ultimate
sign there is no hope. The Canadian government said they found flu in
Canadian geese. What the government is not saying is the rest of the story: if
people can't eat the birds or drink the water, how will they survive?
William Commanda, (James Bay, Canada,) carries the Prophecy Belt for the 7
Fires. He prayed with the Hopi and Mayan traditional leaders and
discovered all prophecies are the same: the great change will happen in 7 years:
2012. The leaders still pray, but there is not much more they can do. Instead,
they have turned the matter over to humanity.
We must make changes fast. Sacrifices must be made now. The power of the
changes we need are equivalent to the power of a tsunami sweeping across the
whole of America. The combination of contaminated water and food supplies and
avian bird flu are to be feared. We have a choice: either to continue as we are
and let Nature run it's course, or make changes to help the earth and ourselves
in good ways. Mother Earth has to rebalance herself, and have to create
people in the tribe to "redefine ourselves."
What each person must do is create a tribal entity in their own communities.
Algonquin Elder Tom Dostou
~Submitted by Helen RedWing, MAIC Correspondent
Thank you Manataka...
On behalf of the Tennessee Ancient Sites Conservancy, Inc. (“TASC”), we thank the Elders and members of the Manataka American Indian Council for your letter of support and contribution to help in our fight to protect Pinson Mounds State Park.
Sincerely yours,
Mark M. Tolley, President
Tennessee Ancient Sites Conservancy, Inc.
Elders
and elders... an explanation
Sitting at the feet of elders is still possible. An elder is someone who is
old and has many stories of their life time we can learn from.
Sitting at the feet of an Elder is much different. The capital E... Elder is
an honored person who knows much about the culture and traditions and has an
instinct to how things are suppose to be. These Elders are named when they
have proved themselves worthy of the title. When one get the opportunity to
learn from one of these .it is an honor indeed and certain rules of respect
are to be followed.
I hope this helps distinguish the two for those who did not know and not to
step on any toes for those who did know. Many people are searching for truth
and looking for their path to follow. Learning this path takes a long time
and it is not something that is learned in a year or two but a lifetime
comment. Something that many grow weary of when the path gets rocky.
~Reposted with Permission from Lonewolf
~From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories
Prayer of Peace...
Oh Great Spirit
Oh Great Spirit, Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose voice gives life to the whole world,
hear me, I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes
ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have
made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so I may understand the things
you have taught humankind.
Let me learn the lessons you have left under
every leaf and every rock.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy, myself!
Make me always ready to come to you with
clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, like the fading sunset,
my spirit will come to you without shame.
written and translated by, Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887
FUNNY BONES...
SURVIVOR: THE RESERVATION
DON'T MISS THE TELEVISION PREMIERE OF "SURVIVOR:
THE
RESERVATION"
Starting on January 1, 2006, ten non-Indians will be dropped onto a Reservation
where they will have to endure one week of hardship (gossiping, backstabbing,
jealousy, teepee creeping, 49ing, etc.) and be able to survive on USDA-approved
high-fat, high cholesterol foods.
10 contestants will be given:
* Five sacred rocks.
* One Rez car with no doors and no back glass.
* One unwinterized HUD house.
* Three days worth of food stamps.
* Cigarettes
* Five days of continuous "PowWow Highway" clips
* Moccasins, headbands, and feathers to wear around the Rez (which demonstrates cultural sensitivity to
Reservation inhabitants).
The lone survivor of the RESERVATION, will receive:
* 1 Casino coupon book (a $10.00 value).
* 1 Authentic, Indian-made dream catcher.
* 27 Homemade hand tattoos (with ink pen).
* A "Princess Pale Moon" Edition Pendleton blanket.
* A 1 month supply of commodity cheese.
"The
obstacle to the internal nature is the mind. If it relies on logic such as the
white man's mind, the domain of the inner nature is inaccessible. The simple
fact is a man does not challenge the wisdom of the Holy Mystery. --Turtleheart,
Teton Sioux
Why
is it we need to analyze and understand everything? The Great Mystery has
designed certain areas of creation to be a mystery because humans usually
miss-use it. We use the Great Mystery and see It unfold only
under the direction of the Great Spirit. The Creator is in charge.
Great Spirit, let me realize You are in charge. I'm to do what You want.
-- Elders.meditation@whitebison.org
Water
Fluoridation:
What
you don’t know can hurt you.
by
Crystal Harvey, MAIC Correspondent
Every
day of the week, most Americans
are exposed to an influence that can be a cause of serious health
problems: the addition of chemical fluoride to our drinking water.
What do you know about the history, politics, and toxicology of this claimed
"dental benefit"?
The USA started fluoridation in the 1940s, followed by a handful of other
countries in the 50s and 60s. Only about eight countries keep up the practice.
The continental European countries that tried it in the
past have all discontinued. And many of them have achieved lower rates of tooth
decay than the highly fluoridated USA.
Holland quit fluoridation in the 1970s after a large medical team performed a
double-blind test on people who reported that the fluoride was making them sick.
This study showed that up to 3% of residents in
the fluoridated section of Amsterdam were suffering symptoms such as stomach
pains, mouth ulcers, skin irritation, migraine-like headaches, worsening of
allergic complaints, and joint pains. The symptoms stopped when they switched to
non-fluoride water. Along with these acute reactions, there are serious concerns
about the long-term health effects of fluoride exposure.
Everything about fluoridation is bizarre, including the two very different
stories about its origin. There is the official story - given by some
health departments and dental associations. And there is the
story based on sources such as (1) archival records of the industrial interests
that played a big part in funding the fluoridation project, and (2) dissident
authorities and scientists who have taken a critical look at the science.
According to the fluoride-promoting agencies, in the 1930s researchers observed
lower rates of tooth decay in regions where people showed "Colorado Brown
Stain" on their teeth. When this defect was identified to be fluoride
poisoning from the water, it was claimed that a certain level of fluoride was
actually good. It could protect teeth without causing too much of the staining
and brittleness known as dental fluorosis. Officialdom has ignored that these
early studies were very poor quality and non- scientific. They also ignored that
the dose to consumers would be uncontrolled and vary dramatically with how much
water people drank.
But there is a darker history of fluoridation that has been spoken about by
industry insiders and some dentists for decades. In 2004, award-winning
journalist Christopher Bryson shined a light on the
history of fluoridation in his meticulously researched book The
Fluoride Deception .Bryson's book studies the correspondence and meeting
reports from industry and laboratory archives and shows a chilling collaboration
between polluting industries and certain maverick scientists.
Aluminum smelting and many other wartime and post-war boom industries used
massive amounts of fluoride in their processes. In the unregulated 1940s,
fluoride waste products were polluting the atmosphere and building up in huge
waste piles. The fledgling environmental watchdogs of the day were crying out
about serious fluoride damage to workers and surrounding crops and animals. A
number of lawsuits were launched against companies, including Alcoa and Reynolds
Metals.
The archival material shows great concern among the industrialists and their
attorneys and scientists. Rather than cease production or find fluoride-free
technologies, a systematic project was commenced to
whitewash the emerging evidence of fluoride's health hazards. Fluoride was too
important to industry to bow to health and environmental pressures.
The theory that fluoride might be a dental-health treatment, in water supplies
or toothpaste, was a trump card for this conglomerate. Industry contributed
enormous funds to dental researchers to show fluoride to be a "wonder
dental drug." Researchers showing findings detrimental to fluoride's new
image mysteriously lost their funding. When toothpaste manufacturers jumped on
the fluoride wagon, a virtually unlimited advertising budget was unleashed to
complete the transformation of fluoride from pollutant to panacea.
In the 1950s and 60s, sodium fluoride from the aluminum industry was added to
the water supplies. In a sinister twist of logic, Alcoa advertised their
fluoride in water industry journals for it to be added to water supplies ...
while simultaneously advertising in chemical journals for its use as a rat
poison.
The chemicals most widely used in fluoridation now are two waste products of the
phosphate fertilizer industry, hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium
silicofluoride. These chemicals have never undergone safety
studies, nor have they ever had FDA approval. However, numerous studies have
shown them to cause harm.
Furthermore, a dozen studies have shown higher rates of bone fracture in
fluoridated areas. Many regions of Asia have both high and moderate levels of
calcium fluoride present in water supplies. Though calcium fluoride is
considered less harmful than the industrial fluorides we use, they still result
in dreadful epidemics of skeletal fluorosis and nervous system illness. India
spends a lot of money on defluoridation,
and where it can't be afforded people develop crippling bone deformities.
Chinese scientists have shown nervous system defects including significantly
lowered average IQs, even with moderate fluoride
levels in water.
The latest alarming finding is Harvard researcher Elise Bassin's Ph.D. study
showing greatly increased bone cancer rates among boys in the USA consuming
fluoridated water during their years of growth. Bassin's supervisor, Professor
Chester Douglass, is now under investigation by Harvard for suppressing and
stopping publication of her work. He has also denied her findings at
conferences. However, Douglass has a considerable conflict of interests. He also
works for the toothpaste manufacturer Colgate, which reaps huge profits from the
public's believing that fluoride is a "healthy" chemical.
The science-based website www.fluorideaction.net
links to a large compilation of peer-reviewed medical literature. These studies
show links between fluoride exposure and kidney disease; pineal,
thyroid, and reproductive gland problems; arthritis; and bone, tooth, and
nervous system disorders.
Reviews of the science also show that water fluoridation may not even prevent
tooth decay. There are more studies showing zero or negligible reductions in
tooth decay than those showing real benefits. And most researchers agree that
any benefits from fluoride are from surface application to the teeth, NOT from
ingesting it into the system. Thus drinking fluoride in water is as dumb as
eating sunscreen to prevent sunburn or swallowing condoms for safe sex!
The current science on fluoridation suggests that we are exposing children and
adults to a great health risk ... for an imagined or real benefit to less than 1
child in 10. Fluoridation is looking like one of
the great medical follies of the 20th century. If even half of Bryson's book is
correct, it is more than a folly ... it is fraud.
Enforced
medication without consumer consent, even if there were no side effects, is
highly unethical. Fluoridation is compulsory mass-medication, at uncontrolled
dosage, with toxic, industrial waste.
In August of this year, 11 Environmental Protection Agency unions, representing
over 7,000 environmental and public health professionals, called for a
moratorium on drinking water fluoridation and asked the EPA to recognize
fluoride as posing a serious risk of causing cancer. An online petition to show
support of the EPA unions actions can be read and signed at http://www.powalliance.org/petition/index.html
[Editors Note: In 2001 and again in 2004 MAIC endorsed efforts to stop fluoridation on the basis that:
1) Studies show an extreme detrimental affect on wildlife and domesticated animals -- they drink the same water we do. No studies have been done on other elements of the environment. 2) The artificial injection of industrial waste-by products such as hydrofluorosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride into public water systems is mass-medicating the public in the absence of any over-riding health threat and is against basic human rights. 3) The preponderance of scientific evidence disproves the idea that fluoride prevents tooth decay.]
WHAT PEACE REALLY LOOKS LIKE...
~submitted by Juli Maltagliati
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 One Cause: There are several causes for diabetes. Maintaining a healthy diet is mandatory in fight the causes. Therefore, 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 three 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
Bearskin: My Indian world
NativeNews OnLine
I
have been chief of the Wyandotte Nation for 23 years. These opinions are my own.
They are not influenced by anyone or anything except my observations of the
American Indian world.
Our
Indian world has never been a pleasant place to be. Our past, present and future
appear to be a never-changing picture. We cannot change the past, and the
present seems to be following along the same pathway. The future cannot be left
alone to stumble along without direction.
The best way to handle our future is to take over the leadership of our world
ourselves. Strong leaders are needed, planned objectives should be established,
and down-to-earth, good, hard work needs to be the order of the day.
One of my first observations is that the majority of Indian tribes are small.
Many of them do not possess the capability to compete with the rest of the world
for contracts, small or large business ventures. Some chiefs
operate their trib es out of their homes. They do not have attorneys, grant
writers or secretaries to assist them. These facts should be made known to
congressmen, the secretary of Interior, the BIA, IHS, and state and community
governments. All policies and procedures developed for American Indians should
take this into consideration.
We all don't have casinos or huge contracts with the federal government.
We barely exist with scarce assistance from the federal government. Our
unemployment status is far above the norm. Our health statistics are deplorable.
I was taught by the U.S. Air Force that one of the best incentives for success
is proper planning for obtaining any major objective.
I believe that the secretary of the Interior, the BIA and IHS should have a
long-range plan for fixing the problems of our Indian world. To my knowledge
there has never been any planning accomplished to even find out what our
problems really are. I have always heard that our world has numerous problems,
but I have never heard any of the above-named agencies define those problems.
You cannot fix anything if you don't know what you are attempting to fix.
I believe that a long-range plan should be developed that defines the source of
our problems and then adopt a 25-year or a 50-year plan for solving those
problems. This should be accomplished by the secretary of
Interior, BIA, IHS and tribal leaders. In my opinion we still have the same
problems we had some 200 years ago when our lands were taken from us and we were
placed behind barbed wire. It is also my opinion that most of those in power
don't care or give a damn.
Are there solutions to our problems? I believe there are. I believe that
our biggest problem is that we are our own worst enemy.
In
1983, when I was elected chief, I heard other tribal leaders complain that our
worst problem was we don't get together to fight for our people. I have
heard this for 23 years. We are still s aying the same thing. Unity
is paramount to success. If there are 600 tribes in the United States, there
should be 600 tribal leaders speaking in unison.
There should be a communication system developed to keep us all updated on our
efforts. It should be directed upstairs and downstairs. Governors and attorneys
general should be included. Many of our states have large numbers of Indians in
their populations. In those states we have two powerful weapons at our disposal.
Those two weapons are the pen and the vote. The pen can be used to publicize our
efforts and to advise the powers that be of our objectives as well as our wants
and needs. The pen can tell our side of the story.
The other power is the most potent weapon that now exists - the power of the
vote. Every adult American Indian must not only be registered to vote - they
must vote!
In those areas where our votes count we should be electing our people to public
offices. This includes local governments, state governments and the Congress of
the United States. It is my opinion that candidates get
elected because most people don't vote. If people who do vote have a
well-organized vote-getting effort, their candidate can be elected. Our own
elected officials can represent us better than anyone else. We can
have our own people helping run counties, states and Congress. Let's elect
American Indians to these offices.
This brings another important thought to mind. We have several congressmen in
Washington, D.C. who have been our friends over the years. These congressmen are
reaching an age when they are likely looking to retirement in the not too
distant future. When that happens, our friends in Congress will be practically
nil. We need to start immediately to be prepared to replace them with people of
our own choice.
There are other things that should be looked at and corrected. We need to clean
up our own act. There are some people among us who create situations that give
us all a bad reputation ... embezzlers, crooks, thieves,
etc. We need to take care of these types ourselves. We cannot be successful with
people of that nature on board.
It is my opinion that every person in the United States who holds an elected
position should be a role model for children - presidents, congressmen, and
state and county officials. Others who should be role models for the children
are movie actors and actresses; professional football, baseball and basketball
players; Hollywood directors and writers; and, especially, teachers, moms and
dads, grandmas and grandpas, and all tribal leaders. Myriad others could and
should be included.
There are many tribes that have become successful in gaming, contractual
economic projects, etc. who set a fine example for all the rest of us. If those
folks have any surplus money, it could be spent on upgrading our
laws that govern our Indian world. It would be the greatest assistance they
could provide to all Indians.
Can all this be accomplished? I believe it can. Dedication, sacrifice, teamwork,
proper planning and hard work are essential. The time frame must start today.
The handwriting is on the wall.
All the above are the writings of an old man. I am proud of my ancestry. I am
proud of my Wyandotte Nation. I am proud to be an American. You might say I am
the proudest chief in the Indian world. There really is a Great
Spirit.
Leaford Bearskin is chief of the Wyandotte
Nation and served as a lieutenant colonel (retired) in the U.S. Air Force.
http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=573>Chief Leaford Bearskin
Petition of Protest
Sign a Petition of Protest in the matter of the beating death of Mr. David Croud of the White Earth reservation on 10\12\2005. Every signature matters.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Croud/petition.html
Note AOL users: Copy and paste the petition link directly into your internet browser (ie Internet Explorer), do not click on the link in the email. Questions: Tamra@NDNnews.com
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