Read Less. My dominant mother jabbed me hard with her elbow. Quite a few were European and Iron Curtain countries. Recent archaeological finds in New England indicate a European settlement as far back as 800 B.C.! 174 / Rainbow Tribe Close by the Neihardt Center is a circle that represents the hoop of the world, with paths leading from each of the four directions to a tree. Once in my car I fell into a very deep sleep only to be awakened by a light shining in my face through the window. To do ceremony, natural ceremony that calls upon the Great Mystery, you must begin to understand the essence of truth; the essence of thinking and doing without ulterior motive and flowing in unison with the stream you are becoming. I realized I was still feeling a sense of not being welcome. We’d both gone through the Vietnam War, he as a fighter pilot, I as a meteorologist giving weather data to pilots. Is it a ghost or an apparition¿ I ask myself. See more ideas about Tribe, Rainbow, Native american wisdom. After the basic beseechments have been studied and practiced, we should bear in mind that each of us comes from a unique background. She is a generous person. He never moves a muscle or twitches a single facial feature to exhibit pain when he is pierced. When we left the Lone Hills the evening sky was like red dawn. A rare August rain quickly brought coolness to 120 / Rainbow Tribe the Great American Desert, although I didn’t even notice it until later. One tribe, in particular, is only a century removed from their natural life-style. All my peripheral vision synchronized with a holographic plate in past history. No one was condemned for not belonging to the majority religion of the land, and no one tried to convince the audience that Indians are a lost tribe of Israel. Other topics by speakers were also brought to the gathering. She downplays her mystique, but I have been in a few of her ceremonies and it appears that the spirit world is with her. I believe that Nicholas Black Elk, Fools Crow, and Bill Eagle Feather are also spirit guides. I have begun to learn down deep, not just intellectually, that everything around me is holy. Some believe that the pipe was meant to be a sustaining gift by the Buffalo Calf Woman, who foresaw that Native American spirituality was to undergo a devastating test for survival. Ed was beating the drum hard and blowing the eagle whistle when I looked up to see this luminous white light covering the top of the lodge. They had real wisdom. It totally felt like another universe. After driving south we discovered that the old holy man had rallied and had been allowed to return home. When Beaver looked me in the eye, he said, “Mother Nature put us here to hold back the water.” When Bruce brought me the maple drum Ed McGaa / 223 frame, Beaver was telling us to drum forever this message. Sweat Lodge Night A ladle scraping a metal bucket was the only sound as everyone hushed to listen to the hiss of the steam rising from the glowing rocks. Watch the full movie online. There are different values, different insights within this new perspective, enough so to tell you that you need much less of the old creature comforts that you once thought you could not live without. But now is the time for peace and love, so we must learn to live in harmony with all beings. The spirit world seemed to manipulate my airplane ticket once. We could draw a parallel with the Round Table warriors of the Misty Isles in the time when they too saw an inquisition threatening, one that eventually decimated and destroyed their way. I will respect such a man and hope that I can be his friend. On my way I planned to look for stones and visit a rock shop in Mission, South Dakota, near the Pine Ridge Reservation. Our new allies should reciprocate by not rushing in to “become Indian.” For those who wish to avoid conflict regarding the use of the peace pipe, I suggest that you seek a meaningful stone—your wotai stone—that has or will come into your life, and use this stone instead of a peace pipe to beseech the four directions, the six powers, or your concept of a higher connection. Sometimes you do. When I arrived in 136 / Rainbow Tribe Mission I discovered that the rock store had been a funeral home for the last ten years! I’ll make a few more or a lot more, so I don’t care to be placed in one of these infallible roles that society loves to assign people just because they might have done a ceremony or two. At fifteen I would have been a man for several years had this earth walk been in 1876. This mountain spirit is a place where the deer people sleep during the daylight hours beneath the junipers, and it sits opposite the canyon cliff. The philosophy of traditionalism is, If it is not natural, it Ed McGaa / 249 will not work fruitfully in the spiritual realm. Vestal, Stanley. When we started on the actual work of building the lodge, I was surprised at how well the process came together. These structures indeed resemble the stone pyramids of Mexico and indicate a link with Aztec culture. I don’t know how to describe it except that it felt so right. My cancer had destroyed my sense of smell. Then I felt something like a mild electric current. And maybe the balance that is so evident in Wakan Tanka’s created nature answers the big “why”—why the spiritual power of the visionseeking works. It will all work out. Each sapling was then tied with the yarn of the four colors, which created the boundaries of my ceremonial site. I need a quiet, out-ofthe-way place in order to create. I had made 405 tobacco pouches (one hundred of each direction color and my friends made the last five as they saw fit), and starting in the west I tied them onto the string. The anticipation soared in the silence as each of us went to change into something loose and comfortable, and to collect our pipes, fetishes, wotai stones, or any other articles we wanted in the sweat with us. Perspectives and individual positions on the circle are sometimes hard to understand. I don’t particularly think of myself as Christian, yet I was brought up in that tradition. At that time my eyes were drawn to the right, and close by me stood a tall Indian man in a long wraparound robe. It was interesting how that little boy let the Wild Man out of 76 / Rainbow Tribe the cage, wasn’t it And then how he and the little boy got along after the little boy got away from his mom and the busy king¿ And then all their adventures¿ I’m sure glad Fools Crow, Black Elk, and Bill Eagle Feather let me out of my cage. I call on tribal peoples to understand the need for the rest of the world, the non-Indian world, to improve its philosophy and spirituality by observing the wisdom of the Natural Way. Dave built me a hogan, an eight-sided Navaho structure, which I use as my medicine room and healing place, as well as for meditation. Rainbows use their minds to find their spirituality! The west direction is the predominant beginning direction among the Badger Clan because they are familiar with Black Elk’s vision and recognize that it was the west power that first spoke to Black Elk. As an African American woman, she broke barriers of race and gender, most notably as the founder of an important dance company that toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades. With his flashlight he then illuminated the path for them to begin their climb. Ed and I, by the end of two days of his visit with us, openly admitted that we were like “twins.” We were so much alike, except that he was in a male body and I in a female one. Our defense establishment could make itself worthwhile with such a project. I sent out invitations all over the United States and to Brazil. I cast a clear shadow (it was reassuring to know that I hadn’t become spirit yet), and the reflected power coming from this older sister of ours went straight into me. Instantly, I saw rainbow colors flowing from some unknown source, through the pipe, and into me. He teaches. I counted at least 160 such dancers at one gathering and almost as many at an earlier Sun Dance on an adjoining reservation. Smaller people were crawling under the lower spots to get those tricky knots. Three plots were described and I could see them all developing into books I would really enjoy reading. I had come in peace, and we would become friends. After I experienced a Yuwipi Ceremony conducted by Chief Fools Crow, I was convinced that the afterlife does exist. At the end of my short lecture we all went out into Mother Nature to a spot where the cut saplings had been placed. 4. Out of the comfortable silences, words of meaning and substance arose from the heart and found a voice. I now carried the pipe, and my uncle and I had planned another Montana vacation. After taking a few steps, I turned and told them to bring four solid-colored pieces of cloth—red, yellow, black, and white. They especially liked the Lakota term Mitakuye oyasin with which we ended the ceremony. I feel the child-wonder of camping trips with my earth father. Some would be beseeching their concept of the Higher Power for world peace and harmony. His presence, at the time of his death that morning, was absolutely overpowering. Faith is something to always ponder. 9. We slew the ugly dragon that had kept us from our holy grail, our natural spirituality. The Path of the Rainbow 5. Each mesquite bears a black vertical mark four to six feet long on its trunk. A dining hall capable of feeding several hundred at a sitting is a popular place and is frequented for coffee and tea in the evening hours. To attach the eagle feather to the monument, McGaa wound the flimsy string around the headstone four times. She asks me to be like a little turtle bobbing with the current, not attempting to direct it and not clinging to the bottom like a rooted weed. I went, like any normal thirteen-year-old, and proceeded to make the minister’s life miserable by asking unanswerable questions. The rope is wrapped and tied around the Yuwipi conductor, beginning at the neck with a noose and ending at the ankles. I still smile every time I remember the occasion. Ahead of me was my future, and my past. As I stood up and turned to the east, directly behind the lodge, I saw that Mother Moon had just risen above the canyon wall. My uncle wanted to bring along his girlfriend, and I reluctantly agreed. One Saturday I went to a dozen or so garage sales and found nothing, but I went back about 4:00 P.M. to the first place I had stopped to buy a purple crystal rock for my wife. On one hot, muggy July afternoon the thunder beings built mighty thunderstorms around us. Since Hilda and her friend both had some health problems, it was decided to include a holistic healing in the ceremony Ed planned for the evening. With regard to spirituality or religion, there is ample divergence of theology, organization, and ceremony between the northeastern tribes and the Central American tribes to indicate little similarity or relationship. I was growing into a man. Every particle of your body comes from me.” She swept an arc with her arm from east to west. Maybe your suppositions will be more profound than mine. Many songs spring forth during or after a ritual, because you’ve opened yourself up to the possibility of becoming one with all. Rocks of the right size and composition had to be gathered and carried to the fire pit. He told us of having his hands, palms down, held on a hot stove because he spoke Indian. They recognized that Wakan Tanka made everything in the form of the circle, and therefore the circle symbolized that life was unending. We gladly shared daily tasks that at home would have been called chores. The sacred Source was not the sun, but was represented by the sun, and they believed the physical universe was not all there was. As I walked beside Tayja toward the arched bridge to the island at Carleton College, I felt kinship from shared roots into the past. And Frank Fools Crow pierced him. Parents need to know that The Rainbow Tribe is a summer camp dramedy filled with potty humor and inappropriate behavior. The book has been printed in several languages, including Japanese. Jamie presented Fools Crow with 144 red tobacco ties, and he held them to his heart while she held his hand. Time will tell on these matters. I never knew what you have gone through and now I know and I am so ashamed.” Her tears began anew and lasted for some time. Within a minute, we were immersed in the steam. It was late in the afternoon before Ed finished some last-minute work, and when we went out to the car, there was Rex, Ed’s aging and well-loved pheasant dog, firmly attached to the back seat, panting gleefully, eager for the wheels to start turning. In good Indian fashion they let us know that we were now also part of that tiyospaye (extended family) and were welcome next year at the same time. We need to look at our lives with some common sense and then make changes. When a faint glimmer of light started rising in the east, the fog began to move. You almost have to go to a reservation to understand what I am talking about. His words of thanksgiving for being able to be in this ceremony were uplifting. Not quite believing my eyes I looked away, and off to my left, a few feet, stood another robed figure. I hope that modern readers have grown enough to admit that the human sacrifice of the European Inquisition was equally horrendous and revulsive. Maybe early inhabitants of the Misty Isles foretold the sacrificial Inquisition through Druidic ceremony. For the Hopi, there is the Eighth Universe, the ultimate one, and from there flows the color purple. Jeffrey Goodman, American Genesis: The American Indian and the Origins of Modern Man (New York: Berkley Books, 1982), p. 199. Indian nations put into practice a government that regarded leaders as servants of the people, not masters over Ed McGaa / 7 the people, and even made provision for the impeachment of leaders for errant behavior. This theory is nearly universally accepted by those archaeologists who remain inhibited by a high degree of Eurocentrism. I felt as if I could get up and conquer the whole world. Truth—it all gets back to the natural need for truth. Take your past lament, your bereavement, and channel this energy toward fighting for Mother Earth, and let your spirit guide help you. I have been told things a lot more preposterous than my mere suppositions—for example, I come from a rib; we come from monkeys; you could only walk one way across the Bering Strait; I will go to hell or I won’t go to hell, depending on whether I follow this missionary or that missionary. Medicine Cards. As an added mystical ingredient—and a powerful sign in the eyes of a traditional Indian—a pair of white doves hovered above the crowd in the heavy wind as the roaring cloud came across. Had they been familiar with and respected the powerful philosophy behind Mitakuye oyasin (We are all related), that tragedy might never have happened. This image is as obvious as the silhouette of Fools Crow that is easily perceived when the stone is studied. Many times when they were wounded or suffering from disease they had to heal themselves in caves and underground tunnels, yet when they recovered they went fearlessly back into battle. Probably more important, a great deal of wisdom is lost when she is not allowed her rightful voice in spiritual leadership. The Europeans had allowed a class system to develop that had little regard for the democracy and equality found among the North American tribes. The Druids followed a freely consented moral order with an entirely mythical central idea. Each direction took me awhile (I didn’t bring a watch). New York: Crown, 1991. I’ll tell you more about that in another book. Those were Eagle Man’s instructions and I concentrated on them; of course I didn’t have to concentrate very hard that I wanted to live. It emanated right out of the tribe, and yet smug, know-it-all religious fanatics were allowed to come in and suppress Black Elk. This was the conclusion drawn by Heritage Line Newsletter. Two ceremonies, the Peace Pipe Ceremony and the Spirit-calling Ceremony, evolved to replace or alter some of the original seven ceremonies. Jack Weatherford, Native Roots (New York: Crown, 1991), p. 9. Above all, they overlooked the fact that what the Indian medicine men did worked.1 On my reservation the Jesuits became the largest landholders. A few days later we headed for the Land of Much Water, and the thunder beings followed me all the way home. I call them the Mother Earth ceremonies because, if practiced, they can convey a meaningful connection or spiritual relationship with Mother Earth and all the rest of the Great Spirit’s creation. Lakota people had to stand and watch oil poured on gathered piles of their sacred articles, which were then set afire by the cavalry that had ruthlessly murdered women and children at Wounded Knee. Mother Earth is beneath me and Father Sky is above me every day of my life. “Could you take a bunch of us down to the wall and do something like I saw them do on the reservations¿” He turned back to look me straight in the eye. I find that one of the most relaxing activities for my own personal enjoyment is to help build a sweat lodge. I felt a distinct shifting of energy within the lodge after that. Far to the west were three streaks in the sky like comets, but I told myself they were the contrails of military planes, no doubt refueling while they prowled aloft with weapons that could end a lot of life upon the planet if they were ever unleashed. Yet in a few seconds a copy of one’s complete work can be made on a computer. A writer named E. S. Ricker who interviewed Horn Chips reported what Horn Chips told him about the great chief Crazy Horse, “Before going into battle [Crazy Horse] always threw a handful of dust over himself and his pony and never wore anything more than a breech cloth and leggings, a single hawk feather in his hair, his ever present small stone behind his ear, and another stone from Chips under his left arm.”2 In a later interview by Eleanor Hinman with an Oglala named Red Feather, Chips’s mentorship of Crazy Horse was corroborated. Others were teachers, artists, counselors, chiropractors, salespeople, housewives, entrepreneurs, and regular working people. Sams, Jamie. He was drawing a picture in the dirt with a stick, and I overheard him saying that we had built the fire all wrong and we would have to let it burn out and do it over in an appropriate manner. We called them Rainbows when we finally arrived at the lodge site and they laughed and liked it. The old native tradition of taking only what you need and leaving everything as you found it is important. For the world has fallen into serious trouble from overheating, overpopulation, and pollution. The person I was, shattered into the many different people who I really am inside. David James Elliott Morgan . Our new friends felt it would not do the job, so three of them helped us to remove all the blankets and quilts from one of the other unused lodges, and then helped us to cover our lodge. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. Others may choose to follow, and the lessons will multiply. There is no way that I would attempt to take away the spiritual path that he has chosen. They still scheduled a rodeo and a carnival during the event, but it wasn’t long before the traditionals regained their power. I am just an old has-been when it comes to sun dancing. Glory has killed many vain people. You never know. “Captain, here’s a name.” I turned and watched the burly, toughened man in the motorcycle shirt step forward to reach out to the wall. This was just a brief ceremony. Long ago, before it was fashionable, Powers nobly noted the Sioux’s tenacity for keeping their spiritual vision despite the forces aligned against us. And the center, Bill, is right where you’re sitting. You want to get the rocks hot, and with elm and oak for firewood you get a good hot fire, but it takes a little longer to get started. I strongly recommend Jack Weatherford’s Indian Givers and Native Roots if you desire to explore the values, gifts, equality, and dignified life-styles of the Native Americans. While reaping a rich life-style, Native Americans preserved this portion of the planet for centuries upon centuries. Their power still reaches into this world. A circular spirit life means that you will have an eternity to be proud of your path or an eternity to be ashamed of the wrongful actions you took against others and the living conditions of future generations. They are, in fact, as centrally important as other powerful places like prisons, hospitals, or universities. An individual’s personal stone possesses a tutelary spirit, analogous to the Christian guardian angel, but with one important difference. Some of Bill Eagle Feather’s sweat lodges were equally credible when it came to prognostications. My area was a diamond shape just over the top of a bluff, with a grand old birch tree and some scrub cedar below me and some little weathered sumac just starting to leaf out. But the Maya pantheon of lesser gods and deities was far more complex than the six powers of Black Elk.4 The interpretation and placation of this wide-ranging Mesoamerican pantheon was manipulated to become beyond the grasp of the common people. For these traits and many others, I hope he has found happiness in the spirit world. A couple brought this little boy and we were casually visiting. Sonny is a true warrior, having been a Navy Seal and wounded twice. No doubt, to her, I was a fantasizing Walter Mitty, of whom there are many. His journey is obviously enhanced; the relationship has facilitated Little Crow’s confidence and insight. Healing the Planet. Start to realize that you are only two-leggeds and do not know any more than we do. Soon afterwards, the gift of sleep rested my mind and body. It became almost a symbol of the red road, a primer in spiritual journeying. Made of the most basic natural materials, it joins earth and sky. The Quakers are one example. Her light overwhelmed the city lights and flooded my place. Untruth is the Blue Man. The afternoon of our naming, before Tayja and I arrived, the tightly furred one came to them while they stood on the wooden bridge to the island of our Inipi Ceremony. I touched my wotai stone to Mother Earth and thanked her for all that she has given me to keep my body in good health and alive for forty-some years. He did a pipe ceremony by himself. We literally could not see more than twenty feet ahead of us. The preservation of pristine resources, for those of us who live here now and for the generations that will follow, was an added benefit. The chain of Ed McGaa / 217 man-made lakes was bordered by mowed grass and frequented by people—hardly beaver habitat. Did they make a timely exodus like the Sioux from the Carolinas¿ This hypothesis would have them boating across the Atlantic long before the Pilgrims. It is clearly much more of a blank disk than an eagle. “Got much experience ridin’¿” he asked with a grin as he handed me the reins. It felt so right, so familiar. The Sioux interviewee would give an excellent account of what took place. Because of his hearing impairment, Everett yelled both of our names in his ear before taking me by the hand to the aged man. She explained to the tree that the people would gather around a sacred tree and this would represent all nations and all colors. After we were introduced I eagerly joined the rest of the early arrivals to search the woods for saplings and other lodge-building materials. In the darkness underneath the canopy of bent saplings with tarps placed over them, sitting on the ground, smelling her musty smell, you are close to her. I would! 110 talking about this. Eight is the number of balance: two circles joined in the middle. Greet the rising of the sun at earth’s edge and realize that a new day is to begin. Wiyo heyapa hehhhhh. A prayer to each of the four directions was called out and a song was sung. Maybe that is one reason why the earliest Americans developed democracy and reached a high plane of spiritual thought that blended so well with their life-style. The holy man entered the square and raised his peace pipe to offer an opening prayer. Who were the first Europeans in the New World¿ It is highly doubtful that they included Columbus, although North America should be ever thankful that he landed so far south. Other ceremonies that are deeply rooted in the tribe, and especially those that need the language and song, should also remain where they come from. I wanted my students, mostly of the Rainbow Tribe, to share the experience and learn from Ed’s teaching. We have also seen in Desert Storm what can happen when human beings refuse to communicate. WATER SPIRIT’S WISDOM Water Spirit Woman I shared a naming ceremony with my close friend Tayja Wiger, who is part Oglala Sioux. My companion was on his way east over the Alleghenies this morning, headed home. It is as though there were a giant turtle buried under the flesh of Mother Earth, and everywhere we dig, people feel the protective shell of Turtle Island like the bones of our Mother. As I listened to the conversations around me, I suddenly realized that we approach the whole problem from the wrong end. Directed by Christopher R. Watson. Several summers ago, he underwent his first Sun Dance on a Sioux reservation where, surprisingly to me, many non-Indians were allowed to take part in a ceremony conducted by full-blooded traditional people. I am grateful to Waziya, the power of the north, for 74 / Rainbow Tribe the snow, and I try to remember, as I shovel and struggle through the traffic during a storm, that I am not the center of the universe and that Mother Earth needs both the cold and the moisture of the snow to complete her cycles. We all know that nature has a perfect working order. The next day when I took a second look at the stone I saw another Indian face, a face that expressed sadness. I respect both the man’s research and his courage. Every day we all have different experiences, even contrasting from those of our brothers and sisters. It wasn’t long before we of the Rainbow Tribe at Mother Earth Lodge faced a challenge regarding our way of conducting ceremonies. It was not till years later, after my first Sweat Lodge, that I took the pipe off the wall to examine it. This country still has the best system available compared with other countries I’ve been in, and we seem to be making improvements as communication and knowledge progress. 177 178 / Rainbow Tribe By this time they had read my name and rank on my flight jacket and replied, “Certainly, Captain. It is all interconnected. I thought of the Rainbow Tribe and how, even though we are not all of Indian blood, and even if we don’t practice ceremony exactly in the forms of the original Americans, our hearts are being taught and guided, our needs are being fulfilled. 11–12. After a good talk with my new friend, Thunderbird, I headed east to the Black Hills. I will always respect this happening, however, because it instills a high degree of confidence that the Natural Way is a good way and well worth following. Elisabet Sahtouris, Gaia: The Human Journey from Chaos to Cosmos (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), p. 74. He said that Loren was so far gone that it was the ultimate test of whether it worked or not. I was driving the three boys, two of them teenagers, and Rexie. It was all too powerful and real for anyone not to understand the depth of what we were doing. Amos tapped a drum and sang a centuries-old call to the ancestors of the Sioux, the spirit beings. (Ohiyesa). To get there, we had to go north and west and not in a straight line. There is some evidence that a Siouan-speaking people, the Kansa, migrated out of what is present-day New York, possibly to avoid the Iroquois.4 Before the Sioux saw the white man, the main body of Siouan-speaking people had migrated westward down the Ohio River valley, turning north at the Mississippi. My profession is that of a full-time writer with over thirty fiction books and two nonfiction books published. I sat and watched this event, and slowly the zodiac drifted away, but the fog and moon stayed on. (Note: This was my first wotai and obviously was for protection in combat. There were a few boats out on the river below. From my own experience, after a period of time in conducting the basic Sweat Lodge Ceremony, intense, significant activity happened that did not occur before.

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