ELDER MEDITATION

"When life is too good, we think too highly of ourselves and our blessings. Then we decide we are the wisest and the favored ones, and we don't think we need Wakan-Tanka and the Helpers anymore."  --Frank Fools Crow, Lakota

It is sometimes easy to get off track when times are good.  We start to take the credit and start to think we are in control. We start to take the credit and start to think we are in control. We start to think we are smart. Then we quit praying or pray only with lip service. We say the words but don't mean them. Sometimes our head is our greatest enemy. We start acting like a foolish child. We must develop the discipline to be humble during the good times. We need to remember how honorable it is each day to come into the presence of the Creator. How happy we should be to talk to the Grandfathers, to have the choice to start each day on the Sacred Spot - our place of communion  with the Great Spirit.

Oh Great Spirit, first let me thank You

for the honor of talking to You today.

To have the insight of Your love,

that only You can love me when I don't deserve to be loved.

Let me be reminded to talk to You all day long

 LIPAN APACHE TRIBE OF TEXAS

P.O. Box 261110, Corpus Christi, TX 78426

Lipan Apache Culture Center & Museum

First came the Spanish Conquistadors and soon thereafter the Texans and then the Americans and they all laid claim to a land once inhabited by the Lipan Apache.

The greatest skill the Lipan Apache possessed was stealth. They were taught how to walk quietly on any terrain and how to hide in plain sight. As events unfolded over the centuries, the Lipan Apache transitioned from open warfare to exercising this grand skill of visible invisibility.

Our People are now living as American and Mexican citizens and have served their countries as rugged individuals in contribution to their adopted homelands. Among our population you will find generations of heroic veterans, teachers, policemen, pastors, entrepreneurs, and scientists. This is but a short list of the many ways we have learned to not only survive, but excel in the new world around us.

Our journey has been difficult and our story needs to be told.  Our children will be taught of our old ways, as well as the new. Our Ancestors will be honored by our acts of integrity. Through prayerful intent and respectful actions our language and traditions shall not perish.

The Lipan Apache Culture Center and Museum is scheduled to open October 18, 2008. It is at this place we will tell our story.  It is at this place where we will archive Tribal records, provide a refuge for research, as well as artifacts and historic records.

Never in our history have we claimed one place as home. Most of Texas and Northern Mexico are the lands we roamed, but never have we had a place where the heart of our People can beat and be safe.  

I am the Chairman of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. It is my charge to keep the heart of my People strong and with your help we can accomplish this honorable task together.

Bernard F. Barcena Jr.   

Chairman of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas

Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization.  Donations are tax deductible. Direct questions to Bill Larew, Tribal Administrator 361-774-4881

READ MORE about the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas

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GRANDMOTHERS SPEAK

No offense intended for any individuals or tribes.

Whatever you give a woman, she's going to multiply.
 

If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby.
If you give her a house, she'll give you a home.
If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal.
If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.  
 

So - if you give her crap,
you will receive more shit than any one human being can handle.

~Submitted by Runninbear

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GRANDMOTHERS SPEAK

GRANDMOTHER'S SPEAK

Blue Star Woman Message

by  Magdala, Maya Priestess 

GRANDMOTHERS SPEAK

 

 

 

101 By Carol Perez Petersen   They came through me The breath empowered The shadow weeping A heart in flames Feet crowned of thorns   They came through me Two Ravens on the tell all pole While I underneath Picked the feather from the bush   They came through me The Perseid shower and Bouquets of yucca pods Hatchling fairies on the knoll   They came through me Long limbed Nordic’s Blue faces Star Council Special burn victims unit   They came through me The nightingale’s torrent Swallowing suffering A rage so vital and pitiful   They came through me Images of lost souls Waiting for the womb Eager for the red Eager for a pulse   They came through me The nameless Decreed woman unmask Naked flesh pound for pound We will mold you in our image   Carol Perez Petersen Clan Mother Deer Nation rainbowmedicineblanket@yahoo.com www.stargrail.net

 

 

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TRIBAL NEWS

Native American Trust Fund: Massive Mismanagement

Cobell Indian Trust Fund Scandal: Bringing This Case to a Close

In 1996 banker Elouise Cobell filed a class action lawsuit  charging the government mismanaged far more than $30 billion in oil, timber, grazing and other royalties on land owned by some 500,000 individual Indian beneficiaries. The financial operations cover more than 11 million acres of Indian land and profits have accumulated since the trust was imposed in 1887.

According to accounts from whistle-blowers, money belonging to individual Indians was pilfered, skimmed, redirected or thrown in with general government funds by the U.S. Department of the Interior or its appointed representatives. The Interior Department has not accounted for or repaid losses of trust resources, proceeds, or royalties. After struggling for decades to receive a hearing, American Indian families went to federal court in 1996 to plead their case.

On behalf of the Indian plaintiffs, attorney Keith Harper has argued that the lack of records made the government accountable for billions of dollars in lost trust funds. Further, plaintiffs argue that the government benefited from the use of Indian people’s money all those years, and that a "disgorgement,” or giving back of funds, must happen.

U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled on January 30 2008, that “a remedy must be found for the Department’s unrepaired, and irreparable, breach of its fiduciary duty over the last century.” He also called on Congress to adequately fund a settlement between the Interior Department and the plaintiffs.

After a trial in June, Judge Robertson ruled in August 2008 that the government is responsible for about $455 million of missing Native American money. The Native American plaintiffs expressed disappointment at the verdict, which holds the government accountable for only a fraction of the amount descendants claim to be owed, and have not yet said whether they will appeal.

Background: Can the Government Account for the Money?

No. “Indeed it is now clear that completion of the required accounting is an impossible task,” declared US District Judge James Robertson in his ruling. Robertson also ruled that the government’s failure to account for Indian people’s money is “not simply sloppy bookkeeping. It is willful neglect, including the active destruction of records and the failure to comply with court orders,” as described in the New York Times.

Robertson acknowledged that the Department of the Interior has taken steps to improve its accounting system. Nevertheless, his January 30 decision on accounting states that “those improvements are for future beneficiaries... Their implementation at the close of the 20th Century has not remedied and cannot remedy the failures of the past, nor do they -- together with all the other projects Interior has implemented -- amount to the accounting required [. . . ].

In response to the ruling, Cobell, the lead plaintiff declared, “We’ve argued for over 10 years that the government is unable to fulfill its duty to render an adequate historical accounting, much less redress the historical wrongs heaped upon the individual Indian trust beneficiaries.” Robertson’s ruling should put an end to further years of delay by eliminating Interior's claim to be working on an accurate accounting.
 

More on Native American Trust Fund: Massive Mismanagement

Credits:

Quaker Friends Committee on National Legislation

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=3187&issue_id=112

Attention Educators:

TEACHING ABOUT AMERICAN INDIANS

Teaching Resources for Educators

Here are resources if you've ever wanted classroom-teaching activities on American Indians beyond the Thanksgiving holiday or the history of American Indian Education or best teaching practices addressing American Indian learners. Resources include books, magazines, articles, bibliographies, maps, etc. Although often times there is overlap, these resources are organized in four categories:

• Teaching About American Indians

• Culturally Responsive Pedagogy for American Indian Learners

• Researching American Indian Education

• Other Resources

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