Rising Up on Indigenous Peoples Day
as Changing Woman dons her seasonal robes shifting the colors of the landscape, do you feel the shifting consciousness moving us from celebrating a domination consciousness to an embodied, relational, holistic, sacred way of being in harmony with the web of life?
where we… respect natural laws, live in reciprocity with our earth mother, live within capacity, respect the sacredness of all our relations, of nature as a sanctuary that fills our every need, listen to the voice of the first peoples whose ear to the past and eye to the future grounds them in the present moment as a fractal of every moment…
this ecological tipping moment where their call to action to stand for our water and air and trees is ever so timely and so critical… no more polluting water, cutting down trees, digging out oil for oil is earth mother’s blood and if we dig it, creation will die…
listen now to this letter to the people written by Chief Seattle…
“The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky, the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air or the spark of the water, then how can you buy them? Every part of this Earth is sacred to my people; every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We know the sap that courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are a part of the Earth, and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our relations. The bear, the deer, the great eagle: these are our relations. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and the human all belong to the same family.
The shining water that moves from the streams and rivers is not just water but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each ghostly reflection in the lakes tells of memories in the life of my people. The water’s murmur is the voice of my ancestors. The rivers are our relations. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So, you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give to anyone.
If we sell you our land remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all of the life it supports. The wind that gave our elders their first breaths also receives their last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So, if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where people can go and taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.
Will you teach your children what we have taught our children: that the Earth is our mother? What befalls the Earth, befalls all the children of the Earth. This we know: the Earth does not belong to humankind; we belong to the Earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Humans did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand of it. Whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. One thing we know: our God is also your God. The Earth is precious to our Creator, and to harm the Earth is to heap contempt on its creator.
Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of people and the view of the ripe hills is blotted by talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone. Where will the eagle be? Gone. The end of living and the beginning of survival!
When the last red people have vanished and our memory is but the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?
We love this Earth as a newborn loves its mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your memory the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it as God loves us all. As we are part of the land, you too are a part of the land. As the Earth is precious to us, so is it precious to you.
One thing we know: there is only one God. No people, be they red or white, can be apart. We are siblings after all.”
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“We all share the blood of the first mother – we are truly children of one blood.”
~ Layne Redmond ~
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may we all stand in solidarity with the wisdom and ways of an embodied, wholistic consciousness simultaneously referencing past and future informing our actions in the here and the now to live well with deep reverence and close to the ground in sacred relationship with our mothership…
thousand fold thanks to the protectors of the earth…
