Answer Relevant Questions

By -

I recently was questioned by a college student which I think are relevant questions to ask and many folks I believe have some of these same questions in mind.

I do well with question and answer formats and find that format a wonderful forum to share ideas. So here are some. Please feel free to submit questions or observations when they arise.

Oki Niksokowa

I will answer your questions as my conscience dictates and good sense has its way.

First I recommend “Where White Men Fear to Tread” by Russell Means - Where-White-Fear-Tread

I think if you pay attention this book will answer many of your questions for you.

Next, I am going to try to answer these questions for my people, not myself. What I think has varying degrees of relevancy to why my People react to a white society driven by a culture very different from ours. This is about my people not me.

1) Are there any American Indian gatherings/groups/organizations in the area that you participate in? If so, how often do they meet and do you find them to be beneficial?

In fact, I know of none in the area that I would recommend. I used to teach publicly for around 13 years but stopped once I got older and concluded that what I had to say was not affecting society to any great extent. I was very naïve about what would take society to wake up and see what they were doing to each other. The fact as our people see it is that there are too many heads in the sand to be assured that the message is being heard.

In addition, there can be and are many charlatans who have large egos and no understanding of our people or who see other people as a money source for them, which is just as bad.

2) Briefly describe the influence of your parents while growing up and the way they shaped the way you look at the world.

What I can say about this is that my parents had the effect on me to look further into my Spirit than most people do. Without that impetus who knows where I would be today?

3) Are there any significant people in our history who are not American Indian that you look up to and respect?

For certain Winston Churchill and John Kennedy along with Ronald Reagan.

4) What is one thing from your culture, history, ancestors, etc. (anything) you could enlighten me on that I would never find in a textbook?

What you can never find in a textbook is how to listen to your heart and what your higher Spirit is telling you. Of course there may be the word written but can they relate what it takes to modify the character?

We are all individuals with no two people in the universe with the same path or goals. Most of us can only guess what our goals are and still cannot define specifically what the Spirit’s have in store for us. Most folks will not tell you that you are not in control of your destiny – that the Spirit’s control who you are, how you react, who you meet and what you do when you meet them. No books that I have read other than possibly Buddhist philosophy will tell you to let go of yourself and your values of yourself and let life take over for you. You can learn much from Buddhism but even that direction has to be dictated by your heart, not how you fit within society. We must be eager to let go judgments’ and look for opportunities to demonstrate that ability to ourselves.

Dealing with an egoistic world is the hardest thing you will have to learn – book’s by their very nature in order to convince you to continue to read direct you in covert ways or not so covert ways towards an egotistical view point of the author or its purpose or play directly to your ego. Very dangerous stuff this!

5) For those who are not in a minority group and have not experienced what you have faced throughout the years, do you find it difficult to form somewhat of a connection with those people?

Not only is it hard to form a connection with these folks it is hard to form a connection with most folks.

The farther along a Spiritual path one evolves the more distant societal directed life becomes. You find yourself yearning to be alone as it is the only intelligible world that remains in sync with what has been defined for your Spirit. It is lonely and yet you are not very lonely! You begin to find that the trees, the grass, the water and nature are more than enough to keep you interested and you simply do not have time for those that are left behind.

Waatowa Pistoto,

Two Feathers - Kainaiwa - Blackfoot Nation

http://www.spiritalk.net

natalk.blogspot.com

http://www.native-americans-online.com

Popular Posts

Essiac: Nature's Cure for Cancer

By -
Note: While this article states that Essiac has been in use since 1922 - in actuality it has been in use for many hundreds of years by the Native community of this country. - Two Feathers An Interview with Dr Gary Glum by Elisabeth Robinson. This is the story of a woman named Rene Caisse . For more than 50 years until her death in 1978 at the age of 90, she treated thousands of cancer patients, most of them written off by doctors as terminally ill, with her own secret formula. She called it Essiac - Caisse spelt backwards - and she brewed the tea herself, alone in her kitchen. Her patients swore by her. Men and women who believed she cured them of cancer, told their friends and families, wrote letters to politicians, swore affidavits, testified before the Canadian Parliament and pleaded with Rene to supply them with more Essiac . Husbands and wives of patients who died, wrote Rene letters thanking her profoundly for making life easier - free of pain- and longer for their loved ...
Read more

Essiac: Nature's Cure for Cancer Part II

By -
Little Running Deer writes The Ojibwa Indian “midewiwan” befriended an English couple who settled in Northern Ontario, Canada, at the turn of the century. The couple and other prospectors had come to the region hoping to get rich in the forested wilderness where the Ojibwa still lived according to traditional Native American ways. The prospector’s wife developed a hard mass in her breast. When the Ojibwa healer heard of the woman’s condition, he offered a remedy that had been passed down by “the grandfathers.” He told the woman and her husband that the remedy was “a holy drink that would purify her body and place it back in balance with the great spirit.” Skeptical, the couple traveled to Toronto where the mass was diagnosed as breast cancer. The doctors urged immediate removal of the breast. The two were afraid and had no money for the operation, so they returned to the frontier, where the Ojibwa midewiwan prepared a brew. It is the Ojibwa expression for healer or medici...
Read more

Pine Ridge, South Dakota-Prisoner of War Camp 334

By -
Image
Most of you who know me personally know that I am a complex, happy yet angry man of mixed Blackfoot and Scottish blood. I have fought hard for many years for an understanding of our Native American people of this land to gain a foothold in society where our people can pull themselves up and out of what was created for them by a selfish and greedy white man mind set. I have watched the white man propel themselves along a pathway to self-destruction much as they have murdered my people in all ways. Spiritually – physically – mentally and morally we have been lied too, stolen from, massacred, used to gain personal uplifting (oh yes I am married to a Native American – how wonderful am I!), you name the Evil and it has been done to us. But then you see what – a native society on the razors edge of total annihilation and you turn your selfish backs on us an go and help Haitians, people in the Middle East who incidentally are waiting for the opportunity to fulfill the o...
Read more