Wednesday, October 14, 2009

SWEAT LODGE DEATHS, TRADITION & PROFITS




I am not a Pipe Carrier. I have led sweat lodge ceremonies over the past few years, but I have participated in more than I have been responsible for. Elders, most of whom I don’t know, have observed me over the years, gave me permission to conduct sweat lodge because I have never passed myself off as a traditional, and I know how to connect people to the Earth. Most importantly, I am living in a time, as prophesied, where white people are baffling their ancestors who killed and stole from us come to learn how to heal and mend their broken souls in our circles! It is exciting, yes? Anyone, with love and knowledge, who can assist in the process of our white relatives healing is important to the healing of the world.


The purification the sweat lodge provides comes from the Great Spirit, and understandings of this land Turtle Island. We, Indian people, have not been found to disrespect the practices of Europe’s religions and cause deaths during any of the traditional ceremonies of the Christian people. What we have done to maintain a balance is to go to church on Sunday, and keep our traditional relationship with our Mother alive through our ceremonies, which have been studied, and goggled, by nosy anthropologists, missionaries, and travelers alike.
There is great criticism, among Christians who discover Africans, and First Nation peoples keeping their traditions alive while practicing and claiming Christianity to be the center of their lives. No understanding, or willingness to understand why this is important for us to continue doing arises from most Anglos, or churches. Seldom discussed is the difficult pain of this kind of duality. When it no longer needs to be part of our survival in mainstream America this kind of duality stops, and we will walk the Christ Road or the Red Road.


White people are applauded when they take up the religions and spiritual practices of the very people they have conquered much the same way they are now doing to the Iraqi people. When the dust settles from the recent deaths of the two ‘good’ people in the sweat lodge in Sedona, Arizona I jokingly fear white people will send their ‘regulators’ into our sweat lodges to monitor the heat, the duration of the ceremony, and determine how many Grandfathers (stones) will be allowed in at any one time. I can see them showing up with full authority to assess the potential threat of inhaling the various medicines we place on the Grandfathers, and coming out with rulers, and regulations to determine the right amount of people authorized to enter the lodge, and even further will send out a small delegation to see if specifications in the building process have been met. They will send out the same insensitive men who kill people’s dreams of building alternative schools, spiritual communities, and homes to inspect dress, wood, fire height, the type of clothes worn in the lodge, and the number and types of songs sung during the ceremony.


I fear this type of ‘white behavior’ that is passed off as good judgment but does the destructive work its intent relishes. This is the same kind of zeal that defines itself as National Security today! If that doesn’t scare you, or, at the most, cause concern and action then you are a real American!



~ Gregory E. Woods, (Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories
photo of an African-Indian woman, Mithia, outdoors squatting under bush

2 comments:

  1. I believe that what happened in Arizona shouldn't had happened. Gregory, the way you describe Dr. Bunn telling her story of what she went through was very compelling. We have this woman, a doctor, trying to make sure she explained exactly what she had gone through. Asking for help and not getting it. Being dismissed as if she was not even a human being. It had to be mentally and physically exhausting. I admire her for trying to save the many other people that survived because of her. As you were telling her story, I could see the desperation in her eyes, and the turmoil she was going through to make sure the reporter could understand what she had felt and was still feeling at the time she was needing help.

    The use of this sweat lodge should be left to people, like yourself, that do know how to use one.
    This man, Ray, that did not want to help these people, was just too egotistic. He wanted to show that he was the one in command. So we can see that the White race has not changed at all and if it has, is way too small of a change to see.

    I thank God for us (women) because we have the strength and understanding that Ray did not think it was going to surface. He does not know what a man really is.

    To go back to the point where you say jokingly that regulators will go to your sweat lodges to monitor your practice, it is not far fetched that they would. Why I say this is because they would rather, if they could, go to the Indian Americans then to they their white brothers.

    I know you say that they are our white relatives, as it should be. But in their minds it will never happen. We can start teaching them, one by one. For sure this task would be a tremendous one. Not sure if it can be done in our lifetime. We would need to give our children all the knowledge necessary, for them to continue where we left off. This way they can continue our legacy.

    I would go on and on, but I rather leave this as it is. There is so much discord in our world that leaves me thinking when are we going to set aside our dissension with one another. For men to become true men through the guidance of their elders. For men to understand what being a mother is, to understand family, simply put for men to be true men with respect for women, and all those that surround him.
    So Gregory I will not say that I am angry for what has happened in Arizona, I will end this with I am deeply saddened and very discouraged. I have found out, for me, that getting angry robs my soul, mind and spirit from the peace I have achieved.

    Thank you for writing this, as usual you have given me information to learn and to think about. Your writing is pleasing for my soul.

    Thank you so much Gregory. My forever wonderful, friend.
    Blessed be.

    Minerva

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  2. Thanks. BTW, a few associates and I are starting a site with forums, blogs, chat, downloads, etc. Would appreciate your writing at various junctures. Email me at: DoctorCreator AT Yahoo

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