March 5, 2004: Grandfather Selo (Sylvester) Black Crow,
Spiritual Leader, Elder, and
Hereditary Chief of the Eagle Nest District,
Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Sioux Reservation
June, 2004: Grandmother Neva Standing Bear,
Spiritual Elder
of the Rosebud Sicangu Lakota Sioux Reservation
and
Denver, Colorado
Wambli Ho,
Voice of the Eagles
A Colorado Non-Profit Organization
To promote healing of the Sacred Hoop
through education, support, and assistance in preserving the traditions, culture, language, and spirituality of Indigenous Native American Peoples, and promoting harmony, peace, and spiritual unity among all nations with the ultimate goal of global peace and healing.
Wambli Ho News apologizes to its readers for our domain and website being down from September 1 to September 8, 2004. Our server and domain experts are unable to prove why this happened although exceptionally-skilled hackers are strongly suspected.
Nevertheless, Wambli Ho News is most definitely still here and we remain ever strong in our commitment to our belief that
"the Truth belongs to the People."
-Stephanie M. Schwartz
Editor,
Wambli Ho News
Wambli Ho, Voice of the Eagles
www.wambliho.com
Wambli Ho News
Wambli Ho, Voice of the Eagles,
He Ska Tokala Sobriety Society,
and
David Swallow, jr.
2nd Annual
Winter Holiday Toy Drive
To Benefit The Porcupine District of
The Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation
South Dakota
As summer comes to a close, it is time to look forward and prepare for the winter holidays. Wambli Ho, Voice of the Eagles, in conjunction with the He Ska Tokala Society, will again be having our Annual Toy Drive this year.
Since the number of clothing banks have grown on the reservation, we have decided to concentrate primarily on collecting new toys for the children. If you are not comfortable with sending new toys, you may also send new socks or gloves. Additionally, batteries, blank cassette tapes, and/or personal care items (shampoos, conditioners, soaps, grooming kits, etc.) are also great ideas for the older kids.
Donations would also be gratefully accepted. Please designate whether you wish the money to be spent on toys, personal care items, or fresh fruit to be distributed. Please include your return address so that we may send you a receipt.
Wambli Ho, Voice of the Eagles is a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation and accountable as such to the State of Colorado. However, we have not had the funds to enable us to complete the filing for our Federal 510(c)3 tax-exempt status yet. Please understand that your donations are gifts of the heart and not tax-deductible.
All items will be distributed in the Porcupine District of the Pine Ridge Reservation by David Swallow, jr., community volunteers, and Wambli Ho Volunteers.
Please remember these children see the same commercials as your children see. They have the same desires and wants and hopes. Let's spread some joy! All gifts, large and small, will be gratefully received.
If you need ideas as to what are "cool" toys, just visit any toy department and ask a child or teenager in the aisles. They'll usually be quite happy to tell you which are great and which are not so great.
Please send all articles unwrapped so that the gifts can be matched appropriately to the children.
Deadline for receiving packages and donations is December 10th.
For Financial Donations, Please mail to corporate address:
Wambli Ho Voice of the Eagles
1509 Fuqua Drive
Fort Collins CO 80521-4133
For Toys and Other Items, Please mail to collection point:
Wambli Ho Voice of the Eagles
C/O Audrey Link
337 Wood Street
Fort Collins CO 80521-1954
Phone: 303-554-5363
Statement by
David Swallow, Jr., Wowitan Yuha Mani
Teton Lakota Spiritual Leader,
Sundance Chief of the Medicine Wheel Sundance,
and a Headman of the Lakota Nation Band
of Wana Way Gu (Broken Bow)
Re: Current Internet Petition, "C'anunpa Protection Petition"
This is about the 1851C article that they issued about the C'anunpa stone. There's a big difference between a pipe and a C'anunpa. So I'm just wondering if they're talking about the C'anunpa or if there's another pipe they're talking about.
But in the late 1800's, the Lakota Way of worshipping the Creator was outlawed, you know, by the United States Congress, the President, Senate, the whole Cabinet outlawed this Lakota Way of Worshipping. So it went underground. But they still prayed in hiding, in secret places, and they do that, see, back in those days. And if somebody got caught, they were sentenced for praying in the Lakota Ways. And I'm pretty sure this happened to other tribes, too, but I'm talking about the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota, you know, like that.
So, in 1978 they passed the Indian Religion Act. Ok, but it's an Act and it's still limited how we should pray, this is still limited. So, you know, when they said Congress is going to make a decision again, again they are trying to push, these people are trying to push Congress to make a decision for who can carry the C'anunpa. See, and if that falls into the Congress hands, there we are, we lose our rights to practice. I mean this includes Lakota, not only non-Lakotas, but this includes Lakotas too.
And when a decision was going to be made like this, it should have been made from mediators from the Lakotas, and Nakotas, and Dakotas. They should have come together to make a decision like this. Not only 3, 4, 5 persons cannot make a decision like this, they cannot. So this petition that's been going around, and it's been circulating in a lot of European countries, all over it went, but they don't know nothing about our Ways and our Way of Life.
Yes, I agree that this C'anunpa stone shouldn't be sold, I agree on that. And I agree that the C'anunpa stone should not be used to make jewelry out of it to sell, I agree on that. And yes, I agree that the C'anunpa shouldn't be used in a wrongful way. I agree.
But one thing I don't agree with is that Congress make a decision for me or anybody else to run this C'anunpa here. See, Congress don't have no idea what this C'anunpa is about, Senators don't have no idea what this C'anunpa is about. They don't know.
This C'anunpa is for healing. body, mind, and spirit. It's a spiritual thing, this C'anunpa. And it already comes with laws to the individual person that accepts to carry the C'anunpa for the People. And if that individual person doesn't do right, then the C'anunpa will take care of itself. So they run into bad luck, see.
I'm going to have a meeting in Porcupine with as many spiritual leaders in the near future as we can to talk about this. And these people that made this, they should come. Way out there where people cannot go and most of the people don't know where it is and it's too far away, they have a meeting and make a decision. Why can't they bring this issue to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation? Because Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the last stronghold of the Traditional Rights, they should have brought this here. So that petition they are circulating on this C'anunpa, to me, it's illegal, in the Lakota eyes.
In 1985, under the Sacred Tree of Life, at the Altar and in front of the C'anunpa, Mr. Leonard Crow Dog, Chief Leonard Crow Dog, made me one of the Headman of the Lakota Nation. And when he made me a Headman, one of the Headman of the Lakota Nation, that gives me the authority and the power to look into these things like this.
I'm not depending on no government to change our Ways. I'm trying to think for the People and the future generations, today.
There is a Way that our ancestors left, and we must, I must, and we all have to respect this. That's one of the virtues of the Lakotas, especially if you walk in the sacred manner with a C'anunpa, if you're a Sundancer, you should see these things. You know, maybe these people should need to go up on the hill 4 days, 3 nights and receive their answers from the Four Directions of this Universe. You cannot bring this into the political office. You know, that Congress' home, we call it the White House, it is the White House, and they have no idea what this C'anunpa is.
So this is what I said. We should be careful how, and they should be careful how, they make these decisions. They don't speak for me because I have never been to these meetings and they kind of have like a secret meeting after without the rest of the spiritual leaders. If some decisions have got to be made like this, it's got to be more than ¾ of adult male or the spiritual leaders (medicine men, the holy men). Now today, even women carry C'anunpa and they carry it from their hearts too. And many non-Lakotas carry C'anunpa because they find peace and spiritual and healing in this C'anunpa. And they abide by the C'anunpa laws, these people.
So, again, we're going to have a meeting in Porcupine, South Dakota in this near future about these decisions. And I wish to invite all those that read this and all those that are interested in it. We'll probably have a three or four day meeting, we're planning on this. And all the Spiritual Leaders, Sundancers, C'anunpa Carriers will be invited to this meeting, of these discussions, like this.
Yelo, Mitakuye Oyasin.
David Swallow, Jr., Wowitan Yuha Mani
Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
Editor's Note:
Notice for this meeting will be posted on the Wambli Ho News website: www.wambliho.com
Floyd (Looks for Buffalo) Hand is an Oglala Lakota spiritual leader and interpreter from the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Sioux Reservation of South Dakota. A recognized author and Elder, he is a full-blooded descendant if Chief Red Cloud as well as the Crazy Horse Band. He has spent most of his life teaching traditional Lakota philosophy and spreading the message of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman.
Floyd Hand has also worked and spoken for his People on a political and survival basis. In 1975, he worked towards religious freedom for all Americans. More recently, he has worked to fight the slaughter of buffalo at Yellowstone National Park. He also teaches in universities and prisons and travels around the world to help people.
This interview took place by phone on September 1, 2004:
WHN: Grandfather Hand, there is a lot of activity on the internet lately regarding changing the current federal law and regulations for the sacred pipestone from Pipestone, Minnesota. There is also a proposed Resolution published by Mr. Scott Barta called the HR1851C Pipestone Protection Bill which he and others are trying to get submitted to the House of Representatives of the United States Federal Government. There is even an Internet petition supporting this proposed legislation. Are you familiar with this resolution and what are your thoughts?
Floyd Hand: I do not know this Bill. I do know that Indian Spirituality is being violated. The Grey Eagle Society was trying to get support for a bill about desecration of our Spirituality. Tim Johnson was helping us but the Republicans stopped it at Congress and the Senate.
WHN: Did the Leaders of the Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Nations meet in council to decide these issues with the proposed House Resolution 1851C?
FH: No, not for this. We have met and spoke about how you can buy deer hides and hooves, buffalo skulls and buffalo parts almost anywhere. You can buy them from Indians and non-Indians. Everyone seems gimme, gimme. This violates our spirituality. The animals have a spirit and this must be honored. You can't just go and kill for hooves and hides.
WHN: Does this proposed legislation accurately reflect and speak for all the people of the Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota Nations?
FH: I am not familiar with this Resolution 1851C and would need to see what this is about.
WHN: Grandfather, do you have email so I can send it to you?
FH: No, but I got a box. Mail it to me. I will read it.
WHN: What are your own personal feelings regarding the selling of the Sacred Pipestone and other items dealing with First Americans' Spirituality?
FH: As Elders, we are always pushing to protect all spiritual artifacts. The problem begins on the reservations. There aren't enough jobs. This causes many problems for all peoples. Some [Indians] pull the sage out of the ground and sell it. This makes them able to feed and clothe their families. Then others see the money and they, too, do the same. Now instead of blessing the scissor and cutting the sage, some are just pulling the roots of the sage right out of Mother Earth and it will grow no more.
WHN: Would this proposed legislation, in fact, be inviting the Federal Government into the arena of controlling Native American religion and spirituality?
FH: We are going to need help in supporting our cause. We have to have measures to protect our Indian Spirituality. These new agers come to the reservations, learning the language, trying to be Indians. This causes some Indians to be racist. They (new agers) have no respect for our ways. But there are good ones out there who respect the language, helping the old people with their gardens and getting homes ready for winter. Just last week there was a group of about 30 or 40 people from outside of the reservation helping in the gardens, helping to repair the straw bale houses, chopping wood. We put tipis up for them so they would have a place to stay and they could sleep with the stars. They were thankful and worked for many days. At the end, we had a big feast. They were happy to help and said they would come back. These ones come to help. They respect the language and the peoples' ways. I am saying there are good ones out there and not all of them are bad.
WHN: Grandfather, do you have anything else you would like to say before we close this up?
FH: Our people go to church, they take Holy Communion and participate with respect. I invite the white man to get his bedroll, or sleeping bag, to come sit down and learn how to live without water and food. Come help the community harvest, ready homes for the winter, chop the wood for the fire, fix the windows. Don't come to take, take, and take; only looking for yourself. Come to be helpful with respect. For Native people, stay on the good Red Road. I know these are hard times for our people. I conduct workshops in the jails for our Native Men. I see our young men. Everyone is feeling this.
WHN: Grandfather I thank you for your time and would like to speak with you more. I will mail you the draft resolution with some more questions. I truly appreciate you taking time out to speak with us.
Editor's Note: Mr. Hand's responses to the written questions will be published as a follow-up on the Wambli Ho News website ( www.wambliho.com ) at a later date.
Leonard Peltier: Your Candles of Sweetgrass, Your Cake of Sage
It has been some time since I have come before you to pray and speak my thoughts to you. So with respect to each of you, thank you for allowing me this time.
I have myself seen things on this mother earth that have amazed me so as to consider the purpose or reason for the Creator to bring these things to my attention. For what ever reason, he has.
Wish respect, to Leonard Peltier, I was given a sign. A Gift. I won't mention this sign, as it was a personal sign and I don't believe it had meaning for anyone but myself. However, a portion of my sign showed Leonard himself, not being aware of my intrusion into his prison, but he was praying , he was praying for his People, he was praying for his daughters, his grandchildren. his prayers continued for his family for a long while. This man, not a saint, but a man who still prays.
His prayers to the Creator must be timeless. His prayers to the Creator must be ageless. His prayers to the Creator must be heard by us all.
I cannot tell you my sign, nor can I tell you in fact, that what I perceived was in fact anything more than my own truth. This is a note, a personal obligation in fact, for you to see the power of prayer, and that each prayer has meaning, each prayer is a gift from the Creator.
At 9:00 am each day, no matter your time zone or where you are, for one minute, for one moment, or for hours, pray, pray for Leonard....
For however long you can justify your time for a man, a brave man, a man truly who loves his people, his family and all the Creator has blessed him with. If it was you in Leavenworth, would you have faith?
Take the time, 9:00 am, for this man, Leonard Peltier. Your prayers will be heard.
I saw prayers today, What did you see today.....?
To honor your Birthday, to acknowledge you as a Human Being, Leonard Peltier our prayers are with you.
A-ho.
With Respect,
For All My Relations
For All Peoples
For All Time
In Peace
- Keith Rabin
1972: The Unfinished Oscar Speech
By Marlon Brando, Actor
1924 - 2004
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- For 200 years we have said to the Indian people who are fighting for their land, their life, their families and their right to be free: ''Lay down your arms, my friends, and then we will remain together. Only if you lay down your arms, my friends, can we then talk of peace and come to an agreement which will be good for you.''
When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues.
But there is one thing which is beyond the reach of this perversity and that is the tremendous verdict of history. And history will surely judge us. But do we care? What kind of moral schizophrenia is it that allows us to shout at the top of our national voice for all the world to hear that we live up to our commitment when every page of history and when all the thirsty, starving, humiliating days and nights of the last 100 years in the lives of the American Indian contradict that voice?
It would seem that the respect for principle and the love of one's neighbor have become dysfunctional in this country of ours, and that all we have done, all that we have succeeded in accomplishing with our power is simply annihilating the hopes of the newborn countries in this world, as well as friends and enemies alike, that we're not humane, and that we do not live up to our agreements.
Perhaps at this moment you are saying to yourself what the hell has all this got to do with the Academy Awards? Why is this woman standing up here, ruining our evening, invading our lives with things that don't concern us, and that we don't care about? Wasting our time and money and intruding in our homes.
I think the answer to those unspoken questions is that the motion picture community has been as responsible as any for degrading the Indian and making a mockery of his character, describing his as savage, hostile and evil. It's hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know.
Recently there have been a few faltering steps to correct this situation, but too faltering and too few, so I, as a member in this profession, do not feel that I can as a citizen of the United States accept an award here tonight. I think awards in this country at this time are inappropriate to be received or given until the condition of the American Indian is drastically altered. If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner.
I would have been here tonight to speak to you directly, but I felt that perhaps I could be of better use if I went to Wounded Knee to help forestall in whatever way I can the establishment of a peace which would be dishonorable as long as the rivers shall run and the grass shall grow.
I would hope that those who are listening would not look upon this as a rude intrusion, but as an earnest effort to focus attention on an issue that might very well determine whether or not this country has the right to say from this point forward we believe in the inalienable rights of all people to remain free and independent on lands that have supported their life beyond living memory.
Thank you for your kindness and your courtesy to Miss Littlefeather. Thank you and good night.
This statement was written by Marlon Brando for delivery at the 1972 Academy Awards ceremony where Mr. Brando refused an Oscar. The speaker, who read only a part of it, was Shasheen Littlefeather.
Catlinite: What is it? What isn't it? Where did it originate? How was it formed? Who has used it? Where has it been used? Who has the right to use it?
How one answers these questions can reveal much about their views of science, archeology, spirituality, and even politics.
The red pipestone occurring in Pipestone, Minnesota is considered highly sacred by many Native Americans and is under strict regulation. Only Native Americans are allowed to quarry the stone found there during a few months each year and they must use only hand tools such as sledge hammers, chisels, wedges and shovels.
Catlinite is often described as pipestone, and pipestone is conversely described as catlinite. Using this convention, scientists and Native Americans have varying opinions on whether it was created by God as a result of some cataclysmic flood or that red clay sediments were deposited by ancient streams and rivers that, when compressed by extreme pressures and temperature, (e.g. by glacial activity), these sediment beds were converted into veins of red pipestone that occur in Minnesota, Montana, Arizona, Kansas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Ohio.
The process of rock formation by deposition in ancient streams, lakes, and rivers is scientifically classified under sedimentation, where rocks formed by sedimentation are not necessarily minerals but often localized and variable mixtures of minerals. In addition to Sedimentary rocks, there are two other classifications of rocks: Igneous (from molten rock) and Metamorphic (rocks recrystallized from heat and pressure).
Since catlinite is a Sedimentary rock, (not formed from molten or recrystallized rock), it is a simple mixture of different minerals, and is not a pure substance. Minerals are described as combinations of one or more of the ninety-two (92) fairly stable elements that are found on the earth's surface, and are hence categorized as pure substances.
The formula for a particular mineral is the same, regardless of it point of origin. So, a common mineral like quartz, from Minnesota, has the same composition as quartz from Asia or Africa. As will be shown below, catlinite, as the term is currently used, is neither a mineral nor a pure substance and has neither consistent composition nor clearly defined characteristics.
Red pipestone, often (and mistakenly?) called catlinite, is routinely classified as a metamorphic claystone argillite, where argillites are sedimentary claystones that have undergone high degrees of hardening, so they are harder than shales but lack the lamination and cleavage properties of slates. US Government Geologists (per US Dept. of the Interior and NPS publications) further describe catlinite as a mixture that "consists largely of microscopic crystals of pyrophoryllite, diaspore, muscovite, and kaolinite." "Traces of the iron bearing mineral hematite give the catlinite its red color." They continue on to say that "(m)ost other red pipestones found in the world contain the mineral quartz; catlinite has little or none."
Further, the US Government scientists have described "at least five different catlinite layers now exposed in the quarries at the (Pipestone National) Monument." Each of these layers has differing amounts of the minerals described above, particularly differing in the amounts of hematite oxide, with gives the rich variations in reddish colors of the red pipestone found around Pipestone, Minnesota.
Per these descriptions, there is not a single type of stone that can precisely be defined as catlinite based on its chemical and mineral compositions. Historically, catlinite is a red claystone that was first described in published literature by George Catlin in 1836. George Catlin, a painter of Native Americans, sent a sample to a Boston geologist, Dr. Charles Jackson, who then named it Catlinite, after the man who persuaded the Natives to allow him have some samples from their quarry located near the modern day city of Pipestone, MN.
Additionally, outcroppings of red claystone with very similar properties to that found around Pipestone, Minnesota have also been found in Montana, Arizona, Kansas, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Ohio. To further confuse matters, Arizona and Chetek, Wisconsin, historically have called their red claystone catlinite in scientific and technical brochures and advertising.
The most recent chemical and archeological research describing and defining the debate on "what is catlinite" and "what is pipestone" and "where do they originate" has been done by the Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) and University of Illinois archeologists. They claim that "(u)ntil recently archeologists have not been able to distinguish between visually similar red siltstones, pipestones, and catlinite, and had mistakenly identified many species as catlinite." "One problem with analyzing fired-clay materials by XRD analyses", (XRD or X-Ray Diffraction is the previously accepted standard method of identifying red pipestones and catlinite), "is that the firing process breaks down the clay mineral and destroys it's XRD "signature"." "New methods in mineralogical studies, using the portable infrared mineral analyzer (or PIMA), allows scientists to differentiate the minerals in stones that appear to be similar."
These scientists have reported that "pipestone artifacts as well as pipestone materials that traditionally had been thought to have come from Ohio" actually produced "distinctive patterns of clay mineral crystals" containing berthierine, not found in Minnesota or Ohio, but only in Illinois.
They further describe in an outstanding NSF Proposal, that "(t)he catlinite problem has two key components: defining the range of variation of catlinite composition, between sources, and within a single source such as Pipestone National Monument, MN; and determining the extent of catlinite use by prehistoric and historic period Native Americans."
Currently, the best scientific opinions-of and studies by State, Federal, and academic scientists have provided no clear answers to the questions of: What is catlinite? What is pipestone? Historically, how and where have catlinite or pipestone been used? How have they been misidentified scientifically and culturally, both historically and currently? And from where do they originate?
The other general consensus opinion is that the answers to these questions will require extensive further study. Since there are at least five formations of different types of "catlinite" in just the Pipestone, MN, area, there may never be a definitive test or group of tests for uniquely identifying "catlinite". Finally, what has been called "catlinite" and used as "catlinite" in the past will most likely remain appropriately shrouded in mystery.
Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be persistent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your conscience. Sitting Bull said, "As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist." The struggle is ours to win or lose.
- Leonard Peltier
from: "Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance" by Leonard Peltier
