You may not agree
with me and that is OK it would be rather boring if we were all the same. As you can see I do not look like a full blood native person and Im not, Im half Irish and pretty proud of it, my Mother was Irish and she was a good Woman so if there are any purist out there who think you should look like Graham Green or Floyd Westerman to be Native you probably should go no farther into this page. If you choose to hang around Im going to talk about UNITY so if that is what your into please join me and lets all sit and talk about being related. So where is all this leading huh? Well it is no secret that there are a lot of people out there in the world who think it is there duty to confuse and and confound folks. I have been hearing some pretty bad stories about those that are coming to people and saying that they have no right to pray with certain items. And another good one is that unless you have participated in a Sundance for 4 Years you cannot use a Pipe to pray with, or you have been authorized by someone to do so. Now I don't know much and, I only have an understanding of the way we do things in our Family and Extended family. But the major thing we are told over and over again is that no human can say to another what they do is wrong. We all do things the way they were given to us. There are many communities here where I live and there are many Spiritual leaders and Medicine Men also. In none of these areas do people practice the Spiritual way in the same manner. Every one of these Medicine Men have their own understanding of things as given in their own vision. So in this light how can another come to a person or a group of people and tell them they cannot practice these ways. One thing we are not and that is missionaries, we speak of the hardships many of us went through in Boarding, & Mission schools and say they had no right to try and take away our way of life, and they don't have that right. So in that token we do not have the right to practice the exact same tactics as those of our old oppressors. These things are very much in the hearts and minds of the Traditional people here on these reservations. In speaking with a Highly regarded leader his statement was that we must all pray for one another for the healing. We cannot do this alone it is going to take all of us together not just Red people but all colors. It is known that many of our own people go out all over the world and they are doing the same thing that Non Indian people are accused of doing , charging for prayer and exploiting our way of life. Please don't fall into this no matter what the persons color. If you carry Sacred things and have been shown in a good way by a respected person how use these things. Then use them, & treat them as you would your own child. If you have been taught a certain way of life be the very best you can at it and treat it with respect and honor, no matter what tribe it is, honor it. In closing this I would like to say that we are taught to be a humble people, when we go before people when we pray with others and when we speak about these things it is not in anger or accusation. But in humility and in a Prayerful manner. We Say Mitakuye Oyasin, we cannot say these words and not mean them or they have no power and no movement they only go as far as the mouth and no further. Let us all find a way to sit and make a future for the 7th generation.

 

Peace.

 

The following links are to some writings that I have done and also Govers address to the BIA

This is a link to a site that has a real player audio and video files of speakers speaking on unity.

 

There are a lot of my fellow Native Americans who are very much persecuted for what they share with those outside of there own tribes, they do these things because it is in just about all of our prophecies that we are supposed to take these things to others so that they may have a understanding of how to care for themselves and the Earth. They are trying to work toward the healing and if folks have a problem with this they do not want to heal and would rather keep the wounds open and live in that old pain. It is spoken often there are those out there who are stealing our religion and they are making money off of it and this is true to some degree, but you can not really steal spirit nor can it be bought or stole. So those that do these things are just fooling themselves and it is unfortunate that people get trapped by there charm, So when someone comes to you and speaks on what they claim to be traditional things listen closely to what they are saying and Never let anyone tell you must pay to pray.