TIMBERED LAKE

"CEDAR WINDS": An Apologist for Winter

2011-01-23T11:25:00.001-08:00

Tip your head slightly to one side and it’s easy to hear the collective murmuring of the winter-weary and inconvenienced, oppressed to the gills with the plow and utility bills, frozen pipes, slippery walkways, salt laden cars, and spent batteries, obligatory commutes to boring, government schools, stressed workplaces or no workplace at all, and buckling marketplaces. Just for good measure add to this the multidimensional costs of our dependence upon imported food and the mind boggling risks caused by our continued dependence on oil and coal.

Then factor in the community impact of a host of garden variety post New Year psychosis’ manifesting as the blues, cabin fever, domestic melodrama, mysterious cold viruses, apocalyptic visions, and conspiracy theories all emerging like forced bulbs and bad poetry from chilly, carbohydrate chasing, light-starved hours amidst perpetual news of global economic collapse, criminal governance, environmental degradation, and expanding war, all with the special added touch of being right on the cusp of tax time. Besides that everything is fine.

But perhaps it is our mainstream culture and lifestyle more so than winter that makes winter so hard, and winter becomes a convenient scapegoat of sorts. After all winter certainly does bring some challenges and calls for adaptation. A full appreciation of winter has become less and less accessible due to the collective stresses and diversions imposed by modernity and its estrangement from nature. What then is at the heart of winter? What good is it?

Winter is not a malady any more than pregnancy is a disease. What we superimpose onto winter through lifestyle and perception can be. This alienation of affection for winter is achieved through marginalizing and displacing nature to such a profound extent that we can no longer discern or enjoy the distinct gifts of the seasons which are in fact a birthright. Our experience of winter is mediated by conditioned attitudes and priorities dictated by a denatured lifestyle that feels itself to be up against winter rather than with. Winter is viewed as an obstacle to be overcome. Winter is viewed with suspicion and even hostility as something to be survived and tolerated but not something to be fully embraced. Sadly, a barely tolerated winter is a compromised experience of winter.

My own appreciation of winter deepened when I lived for two and a half years in a tipi on the edge of a woodbacked meadow in Maine. I learned there that winter was less the primary source of my discontent than it was a beneficial catalyst for uncovering my discontent by providing less distraction and less escape from my feelings. Winter is by its intrinsic nature a productive time for quiet introspection that leads to a fruitful spring.

~Diana Newman

"CEDAR WINDS": Medicine

2011-01-23T11:15:00.000-08:00

Medicine

Flames licking the bowl of snow

orange peels steeped in snow-water

Peppermint tea / the breaking of bread

made us well

~Diana Newman (an old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": Winter Occupations

2011-01-23T11:09:00.000-08:00

Winter Occupations

Fetching water

Floating ice sheet

Washing numb hands

Sawing dead branches

Sitting bare ground beneath

Lightening struck pine

Listening ~Diana Newman

An old tipi poem

"CEDAR WINDS": Gold

2011-01-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

Gold

On the edge of the hill

Snowcapped sunflower stalks

Snow-filled birds nest

Glittering weeds

Gold is imperfect snow

~Diana Newman (old tipi note)

"CEDAR WINDS": Winter Sleep

2011-01-23T11:03:00.000-08:00

Winter Sleep

Deep snow ~ box well ~ tin cup ~ sweet water

I fall deeply asleep

in rainbow snow

Ringing wind dreaming

splitting oak ~ singing mind ~ airing blankets

deep footprints……….. a new home spot

~Diana Newman (an old tipi note)

"CEDAR WINDS": Yugen

2011-01-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yugen

Refreshing smell of your unloosed hair

lingering spirit of your day’s

wide open wanderings

Forest Wind Frozen Lake

Solitary

right down the middle

the jagged split the way ice heaves

Our old tracks the tipi

~Diana Newman (an old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": Deep in Midwinter

2011-01-23T10:52:00.000-08:00

Deep in Midwinter

Fleeing to moonrise ~ following deer tracks

Along hillsides

Rich long shadows ~ Tall smokeless flames

Little crowned home ~ Tipi pole spine

Round belly bared

Modest lady moon ~ Swift trickster clouds

Vast jeweled snow-land

Sweet round meadow ~ resplendent golden Venus

Turquoise colored moon

Entwined fingers ~ stalks dividing ~ divining silence

Long coated beggars ~ wine dippers through forest

Moon- filled pool.

~Diana Newman (an old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": Signatures of Winter

2011-01-23T10:49:00.000-08:00

Signatures of Winter

Imprints upon snow-nourished silence

Bird tracks, deer tracks

Evergreen needles, lines in the ice

Gesture of oak and tiny twigs

Bursting into flame

Getting us through

~Diana Newman (old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": The Voices Of Swan Lake In Winter

2011-01-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

The Voices of Swan Lake in Winter

Icy drum lake

Thunder beings lodging

in the depths

below thickening ice

counseling timelessly

Powerful breath heaving sighs

stiff rumbling mantras up

through cold-bellied waters

Cracking the surface

Into an artistry of lines

un-treaded, un-divined

Illuminated by moon

even the loons have left.

~Diana Newman (old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": Rolling Down Hill

2011-01-23T10:42:00.000-08:00

Rolling Downhill

Rolling downhill in winter

whirling numinous penetration

air, sun, deep ringing coolness

luminous snow-body,

warm jewel-body

silent and still as a rock,

a log,

a grain

mindlessly resting…

sweetening.

~Diana Newman (an old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": The Tao

2011-01-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Tao

The Way the twig dried out..

Good kindling

The Way the logs

fell into place

~Diana Newman (old tipi poem)

"CEDAR WINDS": Midwinter Music

2011-01-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

Here is an old tipi poem:

                                  Midwinter Music

                              Little oak leaves
                              still holding on
                              Brittle flicking and tapping
                              in midwinter air

                            The sound of sunflower seeds
                            cast by hand, caught by wind
                              sent skimming, spinning
                              across encrusted snow

                              Breathing stillness
                              pulsively into
                              a flute

                              Captured
                              in a tear
                              and falling snow.

~Diana Newman

"AS THE CROW FLIES": Forming New Tribal Unions

2010-09-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

I am profoundly moved after the culmination of this pow-wow season as it (sort of) ends at the sacred grounds of Mother Earth’s Creations in Ossipee, New Hampshire. It feels as if a new tribal movement has started. This one won’t be based on the governmental standards of blood quantum. This one isn’t going to rely on the government or politics. This movement is based on love and respect for each other and our Mother Earth. This movement is based on native spirituality in that it is Earth based. The native people gleaned ancient knowledge and wisdom by living close to the Earth and listening to Her rhythms, following dreams and creating a sanctuary of ceremonies and music.

Today, many first peoples are trying to preserve the old ways and this should be honored and adhered to but many more, unfortunately, are lost in modern culture and the dysfunction of substance abuse and sexual abuse. What I see happening now is native, non-native and mixed bloods alike are reaching to retrieve the visions. These are new and old visions but they are not the sole property of any one people. You cannot own visions any more than you can own the air. Visions are free to anyone who has a heart for creation. Any one who has a love for seed, a full heart because of a blue sky, a peace just to feel Mother Earth’s soft grass on their feet or awe in the wisdom of an eagle. The gifts of the Earth are for all. We don’t live in a blood quantum world. The politics of government lives there. We live in a world where everyone has a gift to give. Everyone. Gifts are received so that they can be given. Freely I have received, freely I give.

These new tribes could be scattered all over but we are a mobile people and we can work with it. Names, labels, hate and fear are illusions perpetrated by the separatists. Masks put on whole cultures in order to measure one against the other. Measurements based on race, height, age, wealth, gender or any surface stuff is a form of insanity. It is crazy making and pure nonsense. Bigotry needs to be buried in ceremony. The bear does not think of itself as better than anything else. It just thinks of itself as a bear. Think of yourself as you.

These tribes are being formed to help preserve what we have left in humanity and with our Mother. We will return to the Earth. We have to do so for our children and grandchildren. Return to a culture of sanctity, sanity, cooperation, caring, support and love. Aho.

"AS THE CROW FLIES": Pray for the Seeds

2010-09-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Today the crows reminded me to pray for the seeds as I faced the south, the direction of Summer. The crow is able to straddle both the physical and spiritual worlds, therefore bringing messages both ways. We have so many things to pray about, so much immediacy. It seems like one thing after another. Sometimes it feels like some kind of a wall is slowly being closed around us in this country and its getting a little claustrophobic. I don’t think we realize how surveilled we are. But without seeds we are doomed. All of us. The crows too. It should be obvious why we cannot sustain life if companies like Monsanto are able to control the seeds and then create seeds that do not reproduce. Sterile seeds do nothing to further life. They do not sustain creation and eventually will not sustain Monsanto, so this is insanity. Insanity for profits’ sake. This is like a James Bond movie, old Superman comic, or a Robert Ludlum novel, only this is real and Superman won’t save us. This is real and we have to rescue ourselves, the next generation, not to mention the next seven generations. We need to accept our responsibility and stop the insanity. Politics won’t help us. Politicians are paid representatives of business, aka, corporations. Politicians allowed corporations to obtain the same rights as a person and recently, the right to support political campaigns with unlimited money (as if they didn’t before?). So we need to pray for the seeds of Mother Earth. They belong to Her!! aho

"AS THE CROW FLIES": Politics not the answer

2010-09-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

Healing does start one person at a time. It has to be done that way because if someone is not healed on a personal basis, then even a parting of the Red Sea won’t change them. The next day will be the same thing. Each person must be healed on a personal level in order for interventions by the Creator to have any real meaning for them. That is why explosions of oil rigs in the gulf along with the annihilation of life there will only signify that more safety measures are needed and , for some, still more drilling. They won’t see the bigger picture that we need to stop the insanity and do something else entirely or all will be lost. It is addictive behavior which blinds one to the truth of destruction. So people need to be healed from greed, fear, abuse, false security, Stockholm syndrome, envy, competitiveness, racism, linear thinking, consumerism, false guilt and low self esteem. We need to shift our thinking to a more holistic, cyclical world view. Politics is the wedge used by the powerful to keep us separated. Politics will not stop the oil from being drained from Mother Earth. Politics will make sure it continues because of the profit motive of a few powerful unhealed people. We need to stop being motivated by competition and start being motivated by cooperation. Competitiveness is good for sports, games and fun. But cooperation is more useful in obtaining honesty and living life to the fullest. Cooperation is for healing.

"AS THE CROW FLIES": The Seventh Direction

2010-09-01T15:38:00.001-07:00

The seventh direction is the Great Within. It is the direction where all of the other directions become known to us. We feel there. We become centered there. We are exposed there.

We are part of all of creation. The Earth is in us and the breath of life of the Creator is in us. Our lives are lived and flow from the East (birth) to the South (growth) to the West (maturity) and to the North (eldership). We are the walking blueprint of a full year. We were born from the love between the Creator and Mother Earth and every season is gifted to us. This is all contained in the Great Within. We can become the center of the universe when we pray and do ceremony because of this. That is why we can attract the messages and helps of any of the creatures on Earth because we are all connected and we are all brothers and sisters joined in the center. The seventh direction is where we learn the art and languages of any other life form, including water and stone. We catch up to life there. The seventh direction is us and it is everything else.

"AS THE CROW FLIES": A Snake Is a Snake

2010-08-25T14:05:00.000-07:00

People are generally good. Most mean well. Governments and corporations, on the other hand, have different agendas. They usurp the will of the people if it does not suit their bottom line. Their power and influence must decline or the Earth will be a shell heap. People end up doing the will of the moneyed and the powerful. Instead of doing the will of the people, we end up doing the will of some rich and powerful person who wants control of more than they need. We should not be following these people. They lack balance. Governments and corporations cause destruction, war, desecration and death and may even end life on this planet. Power and greed are so big that its net will spread anywhere. It is not right that the many should be made to follow the whims of a greedy few. You should not take the snake across the river even if the snake promises it won’t bite and poison you because it is a snake and you know what snakes do. If you elect a person to a governmental position, you know what to expect [ Obama]. If you buy the product from a corporation, you feed the corporation and eventually starve yourself.

This world is dangerously close to the precipice and we cannot be wimps. Forget the flags. That’s just colonialist mentality. Remember the Earth. Remember the indigenous. Remember the corn and the squash, beans and bumblebees. Remember the water. We’re ALL in need.

"AS THE CROW FLIES": No War Flag for Me

2010-08-25T13:06:00.000-07:00

What gives mankind the right to kill another people in war? Afghanistan, the Taliban, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Iraq, Iran? The government of the United States is not concerned about the answer to that question. The U.S. has too much self serving greed invested to be able to. Over seven hundred bases spread across the world outside of its borders for what? CONTROL. The U.S. is the problem. The U.S. is the terror for many innocent people around the globe who are just minding their own business. The U.S. and its corporations and influence behave like the Mafia with it’s “We won’t hurt you if you cooperate” mentality. Sometimes they don’t even ask first. They just take because the bully can’t be stopped.

I pray for peace. The way of the corporate U.S. and the industrial military complex is not my way. I live on Turtle Island because I was born here as were my ancestors before me. I do not live here because of the U. S.. So I did not choose to be represented by a flag of war. I will not live under a flag that represents fear and imperialism. I will live under a peace flag or an Earth flag or an all nations or indigenous flag. But I will choose my flag. No war flag of fear is going to claim me. AHO

"AS THE CROW FLIES": Summer-Honor the Feminine/Heal the Earth

2010-08-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

I am aware that the southern gate of the medicine wheel is the direction of physical healing and the northern gate is the direction of spiritual healing. This means big physical growth here in the southern direction and this Summer season. The power and strength to grow is all around. As they say, we need to seize the day. So I pray for healing. Healing not just for family and friends, but also for our Mother Earth who is damaged and needs time to rest in order to repair Herself. We need to stop taking! We need to put everything back!

We need to allow the feminine spirit to be as strong as it can be so that the Earth can regain balance. Mother Earth is being raped and much healing needs to take place with the male spirit. A healed female spirit can do much to help heal the male spirit so all can be healed if the feminine is allowed to be strong and prosper. All life continues through the female.
Heal Mother Earth and you heal yourself.

We need to unite on the home front and come away with a vision. We are poor but we are rich. We are meek but we are strong. Its’ time to be real. We need to be peaceful warriors. Peace is not an idealistic fantasy. Peace is an action and a willingness to bring an end to war. War is unnatural. We need to get back to nature.

"AS THE CROW FLIES" : Sustainability

2010-08-17T18:24:00.001-07:00

It is amazing that Mother Earth provided a sustainable environment for every creature everywhere, even the poles. No matter what the environment was, there was provision. Even medicines for diseases. The Garden of Eden was the Earth. Can we return to it?
Yes, I think so, but probably not in our lifetime and it may not even include mankind. However, I personally believe a remnant may remain considering several prophesies. But we have got to stop ramrodding our way across the Earth and rearranging everything for our own profit and convenience. We not only have no idea the havoc we wreak, but we have even less wisdom than we used to. Technology in our hands at present is about as wise as letting baby play with the hammer. We dig for gold at the expense of cures for diseases. We drill for oil at the expense of endangered species and habitat, clean water and a healthy oxygen supply. We finance our greed through terrorism.

We have a long way to go before we slow down enough to catch up to life. It’s not just about oil and solar power and producing enough energy. It’s about consuming less and slowing down. It’s about giving, not taking. If we act as if we are the most important thing on this planet, we’ll eventually learn how hazardous that lie is and how much more productive we could have been had we tended our own garden instead of letting our ego run us past our guides.

Didn’t we learn back in the 60’s and 70’s that money couldn’t buy happiness and that materialism was a hollow road that lead to loneliness? ~ Crow

"AS THE CROW FLIES" : Upbringing

2010-08-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

I’m one of the lucky ones to not only still have both of my parents around, but also still married to each other (61 years). These days, what my mom would really appreciate is a pint of freshly picked berries.

But aging is the great equalizer. We are all humbled under the heavy blanket of time. Aging brings us to that place where the finite and the infinite meet. Our mortality becomes all too real and we stand in awe of how little time we had to make much of an impression. Suddenly even an insect such as the grasshopper becomes much more important in the overall plan in our planet's keeping. The beauty of a blueberry field becomes more apparent. Our lives feel like just a notch on the staff of time.
It is up to those who remain to spread the time our loved ones spent on this Earth further into the future with remembrances in order to pass along any legacies and uphold meaningfulness within the gift of sacredness.

A life was lived and it had meaning to us. It taught us. It created love in us. It taught us virtue, acceptance and strength. It told us when to stand up and when to look the other way. My parents’ lives taught me to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes before judging them. That helping someone else along the way was to enrich all involved. That service to others was fulfilling a life. That laughter was sacred medicine. And don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t let the bastards keep you down. Don’t be as concerned about being number one as you are about just giving your best for all are equal anyway. Just honor what you’ve been given and tend your own garden so that you may give something back and pass something along. Keep a strong work ethic , don’t be wasteful, and clean up after yourselves.

If only I could set half the examples my parents did. ~Crow

"AS THE CROW FLIES" : On Healing

2010-08-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

“Never ask anything for yourself because the Creator has already given you everything you need.” Arnie Neptune. The truth of this brings to mind the true power of prayer and the real strength of spirituality.
The effect on us is profoundly in keeping with the natural order of things. When we pray not for self serving reasons or for brownie points that will get us to Heaven and pray for others in love, I believe we can create change for real. If our goal is to make ourselves better people by being more spiritual, then our prayers will be null and void. However, when our motives are to bring peace and healing to others, we help energies and forces flow in the right direction. All creative energies, whether from the Creator or from Mother Earth, flow in a giving direction. This is why healers cannot heal themselves. The motives cannot be self serving if the energies are to work. That’s why you can’t tickle yourself. Same reason. I believe that you MUST care for others and the whole of creation. Give thanks always. The motive of some religious institutions is to scare people into Heaven. Fear, though, is a manipulator. Only love really works. We should care for others and let others care for us. That’s the way it works. Some call it faith. But healing comes from the love you give to another and the love you feel from another. It will work for the Earth. All of Creation works this way. You give of yourself so that others can go on. Freely I have received so freely I give. AHO

"AS THE CROW FLIES" : On Gratitude

2010-08-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

Penobscot elder Ar nie Neptune said to never pray for yourself because the Creator has already given you everything that you need. So only thanks is necessary.
That is a beautiful concept and truth. Asking for more than you already have been given opens the door to greed. Greed is what’s sinking the planet. Wanting more is the hunger that feeds consumerism. And consumerism gives more to those who can never have enough. If we are all thankful for what we have, then the greed for more never arises and we don’t consume in the mass quantities that drain Mother Earth. We can leave the gold and silver alone and find our path away from fossil fuels. All because of prayer and thankfulness. AHO

"CEDAR WINDS": Accepting the Storm

2010-01-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

Accepting the Storm

My legs are listening.
My legs are listening
to Grandmothers speaking
softly through a dream
in a small round kiva
of smooth stone
radiating with warmth.
They know my pain.
They care about my legs.
They say the warmth
will do me good.

My legs are listening.
My legs are warm.

My legs are listening to

the compassion of women.
My legs are listening.

My legs are listening

to the grief of women.

My legs are listening.

My legs are listening to

the endurance of women.

My legs are listening

beneath the deep quiet

of new snow.

My legs are listening

above the gray of the sky

into the red of the sun

filling my mind with light.

My legs are singing with

the chickadee’s song.

My legs are moving

around the circle again

with a warrior’s resolve.

My legs are rooted

in the rhythms of the earth.

My legs are reaching

past their limitations

into remembrance of a dream

in which they stood tall~

two strong cedar poles

at the entrance of a tipi lodge.

~Diana Ramsdell Newman 1/02/2010

"CEDAR WIND:" Happy Solstice

2009-12-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

Father Sky, open your clouds. In our dreams the great snows fall, greeting Mother Earth so feather-soft in buffalo robes so white. Little bird tracks through sifting snow on rainbow trails to the golden corn. Come warm your wings in the glistening sun and hear my drum. Hear Solstice songs in the cedar wind. Let winter begin...
~Verse from Song by Diana Newman 2008

"AS THE CROW FLIES": True Equality

2009-12-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

We should be happy to be equal with every other living thing. The way of Nature is balance and equality. It is essential that everything balances out so that none is greater and none is lesser. It should be a comfort as humans to know that we are not lesser than the trees or the grass or the whale or the eagle or bear. We also are not greater than these.

The bear does not think of itself as greater than the human or less. We should be so wise. We as humans should find that place in nature where we too are in balance with the rest of creation. Our attempts to control nature will only cause an imbalance that will lead to more controlling and of course more imbalance.

Why wouldn't we be happy to be able to share as equally as everything else? Why add the extra burden of trying to be the the Creator when we already have one? Relax! Relax and share.

~Crow Suncloud 12-17-09

"CEDAR WINDS:" What Story Told?

2009-12-05T15:05:00.003-08:00

What Story Told?

The amber moon
rounding into fullness
magnifies the coming winter chill
and right whales head off
into elusive, reflective realms,
curve and bend their tails into
ecstatic light of mystic seas
too rarefied for human eyes,
leaving no footprint or trail behind
to where the sacred cope-pod dwell.

By heart they know the way
to what they seek
through silver, dark, uncharted swells
and yet, unfollowed by us,
they encounter our legacy waiting
ahead of themselves
in the farthest reaches of the sea
at the center of their dreaming place,
our opaque plastics bobbing,
inert artifacts,oddly devoid of spirit,
floating beneath the stars.

~Diana Ramsdell Newman

"CEDAR WINDS:" Dawn Walk ( Fall 2008)

2009-12-01T16:45:00.000-08:00

Note: Wanbli means eagle in Lakota

Wakan Tanka means Great Spirit/ Great Mystery in Lakota

Twentieth Dawn at Redwing

by Diana Ramsdell Newman

Childlike and secure,

immersed in transitional light

of another opening dawn,

standing within its sublime

intersection of night and day,

full moon at my back,

sun rising on my face,

broad winged birds passing
straight overhead,

I see the wide canopy of oak

becoming lit at the top,

with shimmering with tints of gold.

Even overcast dawns

have proven hospitable,

pulsing strength and clarity

into my nineteen little

ceremonial fires in succession,

the faithful sun pressing

its light behind the veil,

back-lighting shifting shadow

with subtle hues,

quickening our world into day.

But how shall I greet this twentieth dawn,

storm advisories having been shouted

across the region,

winds having scattered things

across this old New England farmhouse porch

while we slept?

From inside the chilled, pre-dawn kitchen

there is little hint

of the light outdoors,

just enough to get my bearings,

pull a pair of boots from the corner,

and step out into gusting winds

to find more light than imagined.

But matches extinguish

one by one in the damp.

No good at all for a campfire but a

simple smudge might be possible.

The air sweeping across the open porch

is tropical and caressingly soft

across my cheeks,

reminiscent of the feathers

come upon earlier this week

scattered like stars amidst the grasses

and silken milkweed

bursting from the pod,

an unanticipated gift

in my predawn pathway.

Stepping back into the dry kitchen

I light the smudge

of white sage and cedar

tucked into a small clay pot

I fashioned over

three decades ago,

venture back out into the wind

with my hand cupped

up around one side to shield it,

its fragrant smoke

curling upward.

One lone red ember of cedar

glows deeply

in the center

tenaciously holding its fire

like a strong, tiny sun.

The rain lets up

just long enough to open a way

for small birds to eat their fill.

I exit the porch with an umbrella

but finding it too unwieldy

I park it in favor of accepting

the light, balmy rain on my skin.

And a natural flow of prayers

emerges within me like a river

from the mind of morning:

Facing Eastward:

“Good Morning, Great Spirit,

I am glad to be your daughter.

Thank you for the sacred powerful gifts of the East~

for first light of sun opening this new day,

for renewal and rebirth,

for kindling and fire,

for conception and revelation,

for fresh beginnings,

for re-emergence of hope,

for trust in the unseen.
Remember the songs and prayers of our ancestors

who walked this trail before us.

And hear now the prayers of the afflicted

and the nations who cry in distress.
Open our eyes and guide us

more fully into the present

that we might see our condition

and stray not further into error.
Thank you for awakening the little birds,

for sun-lit wings and quickened voices,

for original voices of the land,

for the first breath of Spring,

for unfolding the buds,

for air stirring the trees,

for sounding the flutes,

for lifting Wanbli’s wings,

for kindling the sacred fires,

for inspiring the poets,

and for releasing the songs.
May the little ones

growing in their mother’s wombs

know your strengthening light today,

may births be blessed,

may milk of mothers be plentiful,

may we know the full ecstasy of morning

and learn to walk in peace and gratitude. Aho.

Facing Southward:

Good Morning, Beautiful South,

Thank you, Creator, for your gifts~

for growth, blooms, and fruition,

for the beautiful idealism and heart of youth,

for strong clear senses,

for sensuality,

for purity of voice,

for sacred arts, dance, and song

for movement and waters,

for loyalty in relationship,

for empathy and sacrifice. Aho.

Facing Westward:

Wakan Tanka,

I am your daughter.

Thank you for the gifts of the West~

the place of darkness and night,

the place of going alone to

your great repository of dreams and visions.

Thank you for sacred ceremonies,

for the sacred pipe,

for discipline, perseverance, and sacrifice,

for healing ways and natural medicines,

for quest and discovery of true identity,

for balanced use of power,

for care and use of sacred tools,

for original language arising from the land,

for the nourishing silence,

for reclamation of lost knowledge,

for respect for the spiritual journey,

for respect for safeguards,

and respect for the journey of the elders.

Aho.

Facing Northward:

Thank you, Creator, for the Great North.

I am your daughter and I love this place of

magnificent winter snows,

of sacred lakes,

and sacred mountains,

and for our white haired elders

all across the earth.

Thank you for the great council of beings.

Thank you for all sanctuaries,

for the sacred heart,

for places of deep rest,

for our wisdom keepers who do not impose

yet are ready to speak, share, and interpret

and who understand trial,

and the importance of balance,

who learn how to let go,

and to love with healthy detachment.

Thank you for ancestors who left a good legacy,

and whose love serves to guide us for all time.

Thank you for our unseen helpers.

May we become more mindful

of those who have passed before us

and those who will yet come after us.

Creator, give our aging elders strength and courage,

peace of mind and a sense of completion. Aho.

Facing Earthward:

Good Morning, Mother Earth.

I am your daughter.

Thank you for all you so generously give

and for all you know.

Thank you for soft receptive earth

beneath my feet.

May we learn to walk in peace and honor you.

I am so sad, Mother,

that in our ignorance and indifference,

we so often abuse you.

May we see what we have cast aside

and turn back to you.

Aho.

Looking Skyward:

Grandfather Sky: How good you are to hold

Grandmother moon and sun and stars.

How good you are to lift

the bird nations’ wings and voices

onto your beautiful sky paths.

You release the great winds to purify and sustain,

to carry seeds, prayers, songs and offerings,

You release the sweet rains

and nurturing snows onto Mother Earth,

You show me messages and lift my spirit.

Aho.

Looking Inward and Outward:

Thank you, Creator, for the Great Mystery

binding us all one to another.

May we learn to walk in peace.

Thank you for this day and its lessons.

May your gifts bless the oppressed,

the confused, and the wayward.

Help us all to walk a good path.

Give courage to the elders.

Keep whole the hearts of the young.

May the prayers of the righteous

of all times and places prosper in your care.

Aho.

Now having greeted the directions,

I slog through mirrored puddles,

carrying one small feather

of the fallen mourning dove

around and around the circle

until my prayer-walk feels

tranquil and complete,

and standing in place I smile to see

a tiny, obsidian-black cricket

scuttling through wet grasses

at one edge of my foot.
But as the wind and rain pick up

I must put chase

to the suddenly

somersaulting umbrella.

Laughing my way along

through tall wet grasses

I retrieve it at

the edge of the marsh

near the glistening willow tree

that dances and flows

in all directions,

perfectly yielded

to the breath of the storm.

Stepping back up over

the wet granite steps

I pass late-blooming rose petals,

scattered and upturned

across October’s ground,
each petal has become

a tiny sacred lake,

delicately holding

fresh, reflective rains

of one more

celebrated dawn,
light trailing

from my footsteps

back into the kitchen.

"CEDAR WINDS:" From Sea to Shining Sea

2009-11-23T20:57:00.000-08:00

From Sea to Shining Sea

by Diana Ramsdell Newman

Traditionally, Native American women were integral to native governance. In fact, the majority of tribes were matrilineal. Women were not viewed as being inferior to men. They were entrusted with vital, respected decision making positions. Men’s and women’s roles were viewed by both genders as being distinctive but complementary and of equal importance. Even in patrilineal tribes women were held in esteem as equals. Violence against women was unusual and was not tolerated by tribal communities. Women were valued as being uniquely powerful, practical, reasonable, strong, and spiritually discerning.

Elizabeth Cody Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage, women’s rights advocates of the mid-nineteenth century, expressed great admiration for the egalitarian worldview modeled by the Iroquois. Whereas these two women felt disenfranchised by men in their own patriarchal culture, they witnessed firsthand the dignity with which Iroquois women were treated. Iroquois women were not similarly marginalized but exercised considerable influence. Stanton and Gage noted that the nomination of chiefs was entrusted to Iroquois women. Women were likewise free to initiate definitive, corrective actions if they became disenchanted with the actions of an errant chief.

It may warrant mentioning that although early white feminists are rightly celebrated for their awareness and courageous initiative in relation to gender issues, many Native American women view the impacts of racial discrimination and class status as far outweighing gender bias as being the primary determinants of oppression in the lives of women of color. A fuller view of the causes of their oppression must take into account the pervasive and debilitating impact of the Manifest Destiny and colonization upon Native Americans.

With colonialism came the wholesale importation and imposition of a hierarchical, Eurocentric model of governance that ran counter to Native American practices. Its patriarchal view and biased suppositions claiming the inferiority of women had far-reaching and devastating consequences in the lives of countless Native Americans. For instance, white government officials and settlers typically refused to talk with tribal women regardless of the women’s leadership roles and status within the tribe. The undermining of kinship traditions, the persistent lack of acknowledgment of female leadership, the forced displacement, abuse, and annihilation of native peoples, and the violation of indigenous homelands served to cut off at the very roots much that had successfully sustained the integrity of traditional cultural values.

The sense of place, a profound kinship with the land, and its inhabitant’s respect for the reciprocal nature of relationship between all living beings was of paramount importance to Native American spirituality. The natural homeland as a place of reverence was a kind of sacred geography as essential to Native Americans as was the primacy of the church building to many European immigrants.

In direct relationship with nature, life, and death Native Americans viewed time as cyclical and reciprocal. The prevailing mindset of the invading Europeans was by contrast given over to linear thinking and concepts of ownership that were the antithesis of indigenous experience and values. To the Native American the living, the generations to come, and the ancestors were inextricably and holistically connected as a sacred ecology from which a natural theology was recognized. While there was much diversity among tribal groups, a common hallmark of the over 500 tribal nations is that its land-based experience spawned sensibilities and cosmologies that embodied a deeply informed awareness of the relational interconnectedness of all creation. Thus native religion was naturally and intrinsically bound in vibrant relationship with specific bio-regions. Within the rich and multidimensional circumference of bio-region all was considered sacred. Thus, to witness exploitation of nature was to native peoples nothing short of utter disregard for the Creator, and was equivalent to seeing the desecration of one’s beloved church or violation of one’s mother. Pervasive displacement of native peoples from their ancestral homelands was a vehicle of religious persecution and genocide.

An undeniable part of the legacy of the dominant culture is that the sovereignty of over 500 indigenous nations on this continent called Turtle Island has been violated and its lands have been largely desecrated! So it is understandable that contemporary Native American women activists often articulate and exercise a distinctive feminist ideology that takes into account the necessity of environmental justice, reclamation of displaced kinship traditions, and the concept of “birthright’ in relation to homelands.

Remarkably the strong oral tradition integral to traditional native culture has survived and continues to uniquely inform and rekindle native women’s vision and activism today. In fact, indigenous women from all parts of the globe are gathering, networking, and articulating their concerns and hopes. Future installments will address issues specific to indigenous women, their struggles, and their vision.

Many people in the United States continue to rationalize or understate the magnitude and unjust impact that the legacy of the Manifest Destiny has had on indigenous populations including its contemporary incarnations (economic usurpation and environmental degradation of ancestral lands) which continue to violate indigenous peoples. Do nations of our earth actually share a consensual view about any of this? In 2007, after twenty years of study and dialogue, The United Nations passed a landmark Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 143 nations endorsed the resolution which affirms and upholds the rights of self-determination to the world’s indigenous groups.

Even though the Declaration is legally nonbinding and cannot be enforced by international law it does clearly articulate the predominant and unequivocal sentiment of the participants that native people’s throughout the world deserve authentic redress of grievances and the rightful exercise of sovereignty. There is some optimism that the resolution is an indication that several nations will now be willing to voluntarily engage in negotiations with indigenous groups whose lands have been acquired though domination and colonization. But in keeping with the United State’s current propensity to dig in its heels and exempt itself from global responsibilities and protocols, it was one of only four nations that voted against the resolution. Given the sheer enormity of the amount of land and resources acquired at the expense of native sovereignty on Turtle Island “from sea to shining sea” is it really any surprise that countries opposing the resolution such as the U.S. and Canada would shy from the accountability of colonizers implicit in the Declaration? No doubt Article 26 of the Declaration poses a bit of a problem to big time land grabbers: “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.”

If returning an entire continent to the descendants of over 500 indigenous nations is untenable how then will the United States begin to make authentic restitution? Perhaps one way is for its citizens and governing bodies to reach beyond tokenism and make a steadfast commitment to foster true freedom and justice for all.

"AS THE CROW FLIES": Poem

2009-11-15T08:27:00.000-08:00

MAGIC

There was a rainbow circled
around the sun this morning.
Calling me out to see it
you shared with me the sky
and your always inquisitive, luminous spirit
filled me again.

You walk in the dawn.
Songbirds greet your day.
The hummingbirds are fed.
Catbirds dance and sing with you.
Still, sometimes you’ll wonder
if anyone really loves you.

“What mysteries are held
by the Winter moons?
What love is held
in the night?
Two of us singing in harmony,
balanced like beadwork,
balanced like two wings
of a bird.”

How can I,
such a wanderer,
be reconciled to the gift
of you welcoming me
into your little nest,
into your sparkling circle of discovery
whose magic still welcomes you
from every sacred direction.

Crow Suncloud 11-13-09

"CEDAR WINDS": Notecard

2009-11-14T10:06:00.000-08:00

“What mysteries are held

by the Winter moons?

What love is held

in the night?

Two of us singing in harmony,

balanced like bead-work,

balanced like two wings

of a bird.”

-Diana Ramsdell Newman