Paging Gazhekwe

[Pam]

It has been a sad week, with friends and family members walking on, some way too young

Sorry for your loss.

[Kathleen]

Now here is food for thought, the Wampanoag story of the first Thanksgiving...

Thanks, Gazhekwe, for the history!! I have Mayflower ancestors and am always interested in what it was really like during the early days of Plymouth.

[gazhekwe]

President Obama Issues Statement on Final Approval of the Cobell Settlement

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Challenges.

WASHINGTON – After an action by the US Supreme Court and the appeal deadline expired on Saturday, November 24, the Cobell settlement agreement gained final approval. On Monday, the White House released the following statement from President Barack Obama, whose administration settled the long lasting lawsuit:

Clearing the Way for Reconciliation

Statement of the President on the Final Approval of the Cobell Settlement
I welcome the final approval of the Cobell settlement agreement, clearing the way for reconciliation between the trust beneficiaries and the federal government. While Elouise Cobell, the named plaintiff in this case is no longer with us, her legacy will be a renewed commitment to our trust relationship with Indian country. I thank her for her honorable work, and also want to thank the leaders at the Departments of the Interior, Justice and Treasury who helped reach this conclusion.
posted November 27, 2012 8:30 am est

[gazhekwe]

See how this is just a bit different than the Anishinaabe version I shared earlier. Only 3 1/2 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=ZOxrvbA_KCE

[gazhekwe]

This one is a bit different from the one I shared as well. Seven minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=...ture=endscreen

[gazhekwe]

This is more like the tale I shared earlier. In my version, Nanaboozhoo takes vengeance on the spirits for killing his companion, Maingan the Wolf. Only the muskrat died, but I cried so hard when I heard this that Nanaboozhoo brought the muskrat back to life. That is how I tell the story to this day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdE2vJS0F3k

[gazhekwe]

Oh, my, it has been three years! This is one I found on line and I showed the differences between it and the version I heard as a youngster.

http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...tree#post79319

[gazhekwe]

8 minutes at a grandmother's kitchen table:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9NADmSjMs

[Jimaz]

8 minutes at a grandmother's kitchen table:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9NADmSjMs

Charming. Magic can be ordinary if we let it. It put a knot in my throat.

This reminded me of The Milagro Beanfield War and its depiction of saints. In the past I've tried to link to that complete film but copyright greed tends to obstruct such harvests. Great movie though.

The Wikipedia article says that Milagro is a fictional town but I've personally seen a real-life Milagro exit sign on the freeway in New Mexico. The gas station attendant there explained that the sign was erected after and because the movie was released. So fiction can influence real life — in the same way as can the belief in saints.

[gazhekwe]

I have a copy of the movie, Jimaz. The similarity is there, we make our own magic. The grandmother's tale is comforting, how she focuses on the power of ricing, having respect for doing it the right way. I am a little troubled about the mother, wonder what happened to her. She was the best ricer, her sticks were magic.

[gazhekwe]

Navajo Code Talkers at the White House today for Tribal Nations Conference.

[gazhekwe]

Elder's Meditation of the Day - December 10
"Come forward and join hands with us in this great work for the Creator."
-- Traditional Circle of Elders, NORTHERN CHEYENNE
The Elders have spent years learning to pray and communicate with the Great Spirit. Their job is to pass this knowledge onto the young people. The Elders have told us we are now in a great time of healing. The Creator is guiding them to help the young people figure this out. We must get involved and participate. We should pray and see what it is the Great Spirit wants us to do. We need to sacrifice our time to help the people and to be of maximum use to the Creator. Every person is needed to accomplish this great healing.

Creator, whisper what You want me to do.

[gazhekwe]

[gazhekwe]

Idle No More Rallies Sprout Across Canada, Invigorating Grassroots

DAVID P. BALL

December 11, 2012

Thousands of people across Canada took to the streets for International Human Rights Day yesterday [[December 10), launching a grassroots effort for Native rights and recognition in the face of controversial federal budget legislation.

Taking up the banner “Idle No More”– a slogan launched by four Saskatchewan women for local events last month – the rapid spread of loosely organized protests were seen by many as a sign that Indian country is mobilizing against government policies. Rallies took place in several dozen cities, towns and reserves, in most provinces across the country.

Tanya Kappo, an Edmonton, Alberta friend of the four women behind the movement, coined the #IdleNoMorehashtag, which trended in popularity on Twitter across Canada.

“Yesterday was about making space for First Nation people to find their voices again and use them in protection of our lands and waters,” Kappo told Indian Country Today Media Network. “It was beautiful to hear our voices raised, our songs sung, and our drums ring out loudly and echo across the country [[...) from coast to coast to coast.”

On the West Coast city of Vancouver, B.C., several hundred people rallied downtown, led by Native education students at a local college. One of the speakers addressing the crowd was Kat Norris, spokesperson for the Indigenous Action Movement.

“I'm quite amazed and very pleased, as an activist, to see this happen,” Norris told ICTMN. “Our people are coming together. This is something prophesied since time immemorial, that our people would come together. There's a lot of concern over [[Prime Minister) Stephen Harper's plans to change a lot of things – taking away a lot of rights from our people, especially as regards our waterways and changes to the Indian Act.”

Demonstrators took particular umbrage with the omnibus bill being voted on this week by the Conservative federal government, as well as other changes to the Indian Act they say were undertaken without consulting aboriginal people.

Bill C-45, the government's omnibus budget implementation bill, contains hundreds of legislative reforms, including changes to land management on reservations which critics say would enable Canada to control reserves. According to Kappo, changes include “drastically lowering the threshold of consent for community's to designate or surrender lands.”

The bill also alters the Indian Act – long under fire from aboriginal activists and allies as an example of modern discrimination – and lowers environmental protection for waterways. It is the second omnibus budget bill to follow from this spring's federal budget; the first one gutted the Fisheries Act, which critics warn endangers marine habitat and traditional livelihoods.

“It is more than Bill C-45,” Kappo said. “There [is] more than a handful of legislation that the current government expects to pass that will affect the lives of people who live in communities in a very real way—and not to their benefit—contrary to what the government is saying.”

Norris said the omnibus bill “really forces the assimilation process,” while the Assembly of First Nations released a statement alleging the reforms may go even further: toward the outright “termination” of aboriginal rights altogether.

“First Nation peoples stand united to reject assimilation and termination policies, processes or legislation imposed by other governments to harness the energy of our peoples, to seize this moment as the time for change, and to act now for our peoples based on our clear rights and responsibilities,” said an AFN statement.

“All the changes are quite ominous,” Norris said. “Everything is so detailed—there's a lot of information to glean through. Now, with these new laws being implemented, we're going backwards in time; we're not going forward at all. As we're trying to gain independence, as we try to learn what our rights are, then Harper goes and kicks us in the head again.”

The cross-country rallies came the same day as the announcement of a hunger strike by Attawapiskat First Nation Chief Theresa Spence. The federal government seized financial control over her reserve last winter, after she declared a state of emergency over abysmal housing conditions and poverty. She insisted she will refuse food until a meaningful meeting takes place between between Harper, First Nations, and a representative of the Queen, in hopes of resetting the relationship between Canada and aboriginal people.
Norris described the rally in Vancouver, B.C. as a good example of new energy in Indian country—particularly young people.

“It was a great turnout,” Norris said. “What I noticed was that there were so many young people, and so many people who had never come out to a rally before. So many people are realizing the enormity of loss for our people should this act go through, and are seeing the reality of what the Harper government is doing to our people.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwor...ssroots-146253

[gazhekwe]

Artifacts and Remains Found During Highway Construction to be Repatriated

ICTMN STAFF

December 11, 2012

While resurfacing a portion of U.S. 23 earlier this year, a road crew in Oscoda, Michigan found some remains and artifacts. Because the remains have been confirmed to be Native American, the Michigan Department of Transportation [[MDOT) is now working with the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to return the remains and the items under theNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The MDOT worked with Michigan State University’s Forensic Science lab to determine the origin of the remains, reported Michigan Radio.

“The relationship between the Michigan Department of Transportation and the federally recognized Indian tribe is strong,” William Johnson, curator at Ziibiwing Cultural Center, run by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe to educate people about tribal ways and culture, told Michigan Radio.
Johnson said reburying remains is important to the tribe.

“The ceremonies normally start in the morning with the lighting of the sacred fire. The use of all the medicines like sage, sweet grass, and tobacco and cedar are used in the ceremonies,” he told Michigan Radio. “The ancestors are spoken to in the language, especially if those are ancient ancestors like many of them are.”

[gazhekwe]

[Jimaz]

That photo is very impressive on so many different levels. That many people cooperating to send a single message in such a well-coordinated way cannot be ignored. I can just begin to imagine how that was accomplished. I assume GPS was used.

That really needs to be depicted in a video showing how it emerged through time.

[gazhekwe]

Picture Posted by Vanessa Big Plume:

[gazhekwe]

i don't know how they did it, either, Jimaz, but I sure wish I had been there!

[Jimaz]

This is the only similar video I've found: 22 avril 2012 -- Jour de la Terre, Montréal, which isn't identical so it's possible the photo was photoshopped.

Even still, that would be a very challenging, impressive and effective crowdsourcing project. I think it could be done.

Have all local cooperating GPS-enabled cell phones transmit "Here's where I am, where do I need to go to make this group image happen?" to a server and then watch the image develop from an aeriel camera as people respond to the resulting instructions.

Like people flipping cards at a football stadium, Voluntary Human Pixels!

[gazhekwe]

Ha Ha! It does look the same. I wondered if it had been photoshopped when I first saw it, it is kind of pixellated. Still, great message for Harper.

[Jimaz]

Ha Ha! It does look the same. I wondered if it had been photoshopped when I first saw it, it is kind of pixellated. Still, great message for Harper.

Yes, and I apologize for prematurely leaping into the technical details of how to make it happen in real life. I was about to wonder what load it would place on the local cell towers.

The psychology of such an event would be far more important.

The impact of demonstrations is traditionally measured by attendance alone. Multiply that by the impact of those same attendees voluntarily bothering to spell out a shared message by positioning their very selves! This is something new and powerful. [[Maybe not so new to the military though.)

Anonymous and Occupy take note!

Thanks for the inspiration, gazhekwe.

[gazhekwe]

We can't say we'll move to Canada to get away from crazy politics here any more. Here are some comments from Aaron Paquette of Edmonton, AB:

War.

That’s what’s coming in one form or another.

The first shots were fired today in the form of words and insult.

First Nations Chiefs from across the country gathered today in front of Parliament in Ottawa. They brought drums, sweetgrass and a peace pipe. They brought the concerns of their people, concerns for clean water, concerns for protection of land sovereignty, and concerns that the Canadian Government is seeking to unilaterally change key aspects of the Indian Act without any input or cooperation from..well...”Indians”

A small group was invited in by an MP, then that same group was thrown out by security, but not before these words of frustration were uttered:

“Let’s see what happens when you try to cross our borders...this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning.”

All across the country, Indigenous people are outraged and angry, but what else is new? The public at large, that’s all they know of their Treaty partners. Either they are entertaining with their beautiful dances and costumes, or they are dangerous and angry.

But we never get to the root of it. We never get to the “why” and rather than think about it or ask questions, the result is a shrug of the shoulders of people who know nothing about Reservation life or Treaties. They wonder why the Natives aren’t simply happy with all the “free handouts”.

The government says they have the best interests of the Indigenous population at heart. And I believe them. But what they feel is best for Aboriginal Canada, and what Aboriginal Canada thinks is best are very different creatures.

The Harper Government wants assimilation. They feel that the best way to deal with the situation is to make it disappear, absorb First Nations, Metis and Inuk populations into the rest of society. So what can you do to coax that outcome along if you are the Harper Government?

You underfund schools. You listen compassionately to the problems of clean water and housing and then blame the victims for mismanagement even though your own people can’t find any evidence of alleged mismanagement.

You sit idly by while the very young suffer and are brought up in Third World conditions in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.

You propose legislation that allows a few people the power to sell off the majority of Reservation lands in order to enrich corporations.

In short, you chisel away, bit by bit until there is nothing left. You make life so hopeless for the people who live on Reservations that they leave. They assimilate, and the colonization, the conquering, the decades of Residential School atrocities...it all comes together to drive the final stake in the heart of the enemy. You destroy their culture and renege on sacred agreements.

Why do you think they're so busy building new prisons?

Here’s the thing, people of Canada, the so-called enemy knows what’s happening. And the enemy sees you as brothers and sisters. The enemy is the descendant of the people whose blood and bones our cities and roads are built on. Their destruction has led to your enrichment, even if you are an immigrant.

And the enemy keeps coming to the table, keeps negotiating in good faith, keeps trying to follow the rules of the colonizing government so that they can help their people.

Because the enemy thinks we are all family. The enemy thinks we all have good and open hearts and desire to do the right thing. The enemy doesn’t know you view them as non-human. As less. As nothing.

But they are starting to get the message. Their young men and women are starting to see that no matter how many rules they follow, no matter how hard they work to break the chains and cycles of generations of physical, cultural, emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of your holy men and women it won’t matter. Because no one listens.

No one listens.
......
Bill-C45 is a budget bill. Why does it have so many other things packed on to it? So they can slip a dozen things under your noses before you have time to notice. If you don't know what's in that bill, then you might want to find out.
....
It’s time to end this sick, dysfunctional cycle and act like mature, caring, strong adults.

War is coming, but we can stop it.

We can find a way.

We can honour the Treaties.

We can honour each other.

And with good faith, we can create something new.

[gazhekwe]

Mayan Festival at National Museum of the American Indian Celebrates Bak’tun, Dispels Misconceptions About 12-21-12

ICTMN STAFF

December 14, 2012

What NASA is debunking with science, indigenous groups are debunking with information about what the Mayans actually predicted. Which was nothing, except for the changing of a calendar page akin to flipping from December to January, or to the turning over of an odometer.

A misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar has sparked panic the world over, sending people from Russia to China to the U.S. into extremes of preparation frenzy or suicidal depression. Working on two fronts, scientists and indigenous experts have embarked on a common mission: to calm everyone down and convince them not to do anything rash in the face of the upcoming winter solstice.

The passing of the Mayans’ Bak’tun 13, otherwise known as the end of the Long Count Calendar, is a cause for celebration rather than dismay, and this weekend the National Museum of the American Indian [[NMAI) sets out to highlight just that. Bak’tun 13: A Guatemalan Celebration of Time, a free festival from December 14 through 16, will showcase dance performances, lectures, workshops for families and Guatemalan cuisine in the museum’s Mitsitam Café.

It will include a presentation on Saturday December 15, Maya from the Inside: The 13 Bak'tun as Challenge to the Western Mind
, a lecture by scholar Victor Montejo [[Jakaltek Maya). His and other lectures will be webcast live atwww.nmai.si.edu/webcasts, and the museum is encouraging visitors to tweet their questions to @SmithsonianNMAI using the hashtag#MayaCalendar.

The NMAI has also set up an educational website, Living Maya Time, that converts the apocalypse into a teaching moment. It features the voices of traditional Maya people talking about their history and contemporary culture.

“Much of the information available about the Maya calendar and the year 2012 is fraught with misconceptions and speculations about doomsday prophecies,” the site says in introducing the section “2012: Resetting the Count.” “Learn more about whether these prophecies have a scientific basis and hear Maya people’s opinions on 2012.”

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/article/mayan-festival-national-museum-american-indian-celebrates-bak%E2%80%99tun-dispels-misconceptions

[gazhekwe]

Live Broadcast of Bak'tun Festival. Maya Calendar Tradition and the Way of Life below, starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and then the webcast of Maya from the Inside: The 13 Bak´tun as Challenge to the Western Mind, starting at 2:00 p.m.


A man is explaining the Calendar, the numbers and their meanings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=Rnzcb_pZ7VE#!

Some notes:

Bak'tun - a sense of something well planned that comes to an end. At the end of this period there is no need to fear. We are entering into another period. There are many problems that human beings have, and it is a time to reflect on how to solve our problems. We have to start within ourselves and within our families. It is a time to reflect on how we can create change.

Earlier he described how a person is shaped by their family. The lead person is the mother, who can see best where they are strongest and set them on a path where they can live best, while working on their weaker areas to become stronger.

This time of change is significant for its pathway to change.

The second live broadcast has begun, same link as above.

NOTES:
As the child develops his personal traits are analysed and his relationship with the members of the family including the animals.

We consider all these aspects throughout our lives, as does analysis of them. The energies change throughout the day, and throughout the year. The work is to identify negativity and to balance it with positive. We have to understand where is the balance between two extremes and work towards balance. This learning takes place within the family. The parents play the largest role. The woman of origin is the center of the teaching. She can detect the energies and characteristics of the child. If these characteristics are not properly managed, properly balanced, the individual will find themselves in difficulty. It is hard to find your destiny when you are not in balance. Balance is about moving the person to their possibility. Sometimes it is difficult to detect and manage the characteristics. That is when you move into ceremonies to get help.

We each have difficulties and balances and we have to move to balance. We are not used to looking inward to find our own balance. When we are able to penetrate inside ourselves, then we can achieve change. The change can be found in the connection between the heart and the mind. Very often we do not achieve balance on our own and we are filled with the projections of other people and so we are confused.

When this is happening this is when you seek the altar and the sacred fire to achieve spiritual balance.

As he gets more detailed, I can't keep up with the notes, sorry!