Lectures
Native American Lifeways and Spirituality
Most people are surprised to learn American Indians do not practice an organized religion. Our Lifeways, or way of Life, are wholistic; they incorporate and associate everything we do with the Great Mystery, as a matter of everyday Life. When the word "religion" is applied to Indian culture, it is an accommodation to mainstream thinking. It has also taken on certain legal ramifications in the mainstream.
Among the benefits of attending this lecture is learning a contrasting worldview that will help you understand more fully a philosophy that creates and supports inner peace and happiness of the individual, who in turn is better able to support the community. Topics covered include:
Prayer as Commitment
Inipi (purification lodge)
Language
Medicine Shield
Medicine Wheel
Myths, Fictions, and a Little Reality
The Colonizer has had some 500 years to write, rewrite, edit, revise, propagandize, distort, revise again, impose, embed, invent and otherwise spin the tail of the relationship and history between Indigenes and European-Americans. This lecture counters these fairytales with a generous dose of reality.
Here Come the Anthros. Modern academics, known affectionately as anthropologists and archeologists, have laid claim to the history of Turtle Island both pre and post-contact. Perhaps the biggest and best-known fairytale is that favorite theory known as the Bering Strait Land Bridge: Why would people living large on the moderate-climate and productive Steppes of Eurasia, traverse no less than 12 hostile, desolate, and snow-capped mountain ranges, cross the sea on an iffy-at-best land bridge, only to end up in Alaska?
Treaty Wrongs. The U.S., on becoming its very own sovereign nation, assumed the treaties made with its predecessors, the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and so on. In addition, some 900 treaties were made after July 4th, of which only 396 were ratified by the Senate. Yet all treaties, ratified or not, were enforced against the Indians. And of the 396 that were ratified, 396 we broken by the United States.
Nation to Nation; A Brief Overview. What is the condition and standing of Indian Country today, and what direction is it headed in? We are about 30 years into what has been called the Self-Determination Period. What does this mean, what’s it all about, now and for the future?
Story
Indigenes of North America carried their histories, their cultural lifeways, their practical knowledge, their spiritual understanding, their medicine, their understanding and experiences of life, orally. That is, they passed this knowledge to succeeding generations by the spoken word. This is one reason why there is still passion in the culture, passion in the ways and in the ceremonies and how and why they are as alive today as they were literal thousands of years ago. And why there is continued passion to maintain independence as a people, to not be dictated to by others. And it is good.
Indian stories can be deceivingly simple. Humorous, clever, even whimsical. But inside every story there exists a truth, some piece of knowledge, some expression of wisdom hard learned, that will guide the listener...who chooses to listen.
So come, listen to a few stories and see if you can decipher what it's really about. It might just clarify your thinking.
The Pipe
The Pipe, which you may sometimes hear refered to as a canunpa, a Lakota term pronounced cha-new[hn]-pah, is a sacred tool that is the cornerstone of ceremony. Given to the People so long ago nobody knows for sure, to be the keeper of a pipe for the people is a sobering responsibility. This talk touches on:
Pipe care
Kinnick-kinnick, tobacco
Who can "carry" a Pipe, and what does the term actually refer to
When is a Pipe used
How did the Pipe come to the People
What is a "pipe ceremony"
What is the symbolism of the Pipe
The purpose of this talk is to educate people so that they will learn to respect the pipe, not seek to own one to "play Indian," to impress friends, to boost the ego. But to learn how to conduct themselves around the Pipe so that they will get the maximum benefit from it.
20 Questions
There is much ignorance and misinformation surrounding the Indigenes of North America, and for many reasons. And it has been this way since the first European boat bumped into Turtle Island some 500 yerars ago. This talk is informative, fun, will wreck all of your stereotypes, and is especially relevant as you can also get your questions answered when submitted two days before the lecture. Just send an e-mail from here by clicking the button to the right.
Understanding Animals as Medicine Helpers
The Native American teachings, traditions, and lifeways help us to understand the relationship between humans and nonhumans. These relationships were established long ago between the ancients and the animal nations in order that they might all get along with each other and help each other survive. Today, the challenges to both humans and nonhumans in this world have changed dramatically. Yet, the Medicine Helpers are still honoring their agreements with humans. It is not only a benefit to engage the help of Animals, and of Trees and Grasses and the Crawlers and Winged Ones and Fishes, it is necessary for our mutual survival. We leave these nations out of the process of our own evolution at our peril. And theirs.
When you establish a conscious relationship with a particular Medicine Helper nation, you not only benefit yourself with its guidance, you become part of a small but unique group that has done so for millennia and that has been the very basis for the survival of humanity and the balance of the Earth. Creating a relationship with an Animal nation has as much to do with the success of the whole village as it does the personal success of any individual.
Determining the ways a particular Animal Medicine Helper can help you comes from observation, meditation, "intuition" (the art of listening), and acceptance. You will learn some basic commonalities among various Helpers, which will help you determine the ways in which that Animal can help you. You will learn how to sensitize yourself in order to enhance your skills of observation and interpretation of Animal behavior. You will also learn how a good understanding of Medicine Helpers adds greater dimension to your every day life, and for those pursuing that relationship further through working with the Medicine Wheel or Medicine Shields just how profoundly these sentient beings can positively improve your life. Resource material and handouts. Tuition: $20 Attend this lecture and receive $20 credit toward the tuition for the Medicine Wheel workshop.
The Nature of Reality
To speculate on the nature of reality requires a consideration of physical matter, space, energy, time, human senses and consciousness. But are there practical benefits to a deeper understanding of what we perceive as physical reality? Would such knowledge necessarily change anything for us: Would it make us more destructive than we already are, or more responsible and compassionate?
Think about law, religion, economics, culture, language, psychology-just a few of the ways we are controlled as a "population," and as individuals. And we all are, accept it or not. But would knowing the truth of what we call "the physical," and our trained way of relating to it, free us to do greater things, to create more in our lives and to assume greater control over our lives? For instance, the ability to manipulate energy, the fabric of the universe, could at some point actually produce peace among humans, eliminate disease and poverty, as well as the need for government. The possibilities are astounding.
Sounds a little far out there, doesn't it? But a study of these phenomena, combined with some degree of "spiritual" consciousness, can set you on a path that can help you break free of perceptions that have severely limited and stunted human development. Are you ready to break out of the labyrinth?
— Linda, FL
Florida Hawk, photo courtesy Carl Zettelmeyer
Please NOTE: We do NOT do any kind of ceremony in this talk, nor will you be taught how to.