Manataka American Indian Council®
ELDER MOMFEATHER SPEAKS Manataka
welcomes our newest (fourth oldest) correspondent. We have
known this fine lady for many years and always felt the world
was blessed to put her where we could witness her beautiful
works. Today, the people sing wherever she goes.
~Editors
I am a children
My spirit is free
allowing me to feel what is real.
It brings reality
to my world letting me to see
things more
clearly, creating a more beautiful
place of
existence with intense awareness.
My spirit never
grows old, experiencing daily
like a child with
new found freedom. The first
taste of honey,
touching the velvety nose of the
horse; climbing
to the top of the highest tree;
hearing the ocean
roar; smelling the delicate
rose pedals;
that’s free spirit. I am the wind that
leaves no shadow
as I sail across the treetops
gathering the
warmth of the sunshine and a friend
of the moon from
dusk till dawn. Creator has
blessed me with a
free spirit and I still dance in the
rain; splash in
the puddles; walk on water; kiss the
stones; talk to
the plants and animals.
Remember me? I am
the spirit of freedom.
I am still a
children………
Momfeather July
14, 2008
Momfeather Erickson is champion of Native American ways in Kentucky
"Don't ever believe that it
was Daniel Boone who blazed the trail through the Cumberland Gap,"
cautions Erickson, 66, whose gentle grandmotherly appearance belies her
fiery crusade for Native American rights and recognition. "That trail was made by the
buffalo and walked on by the Indians long before Boone came through the
Gap," she insists. As director of the Mantle Rock
Native Education and Cultural Center in Marion, Momfeather (Feather) - a
name she was given by her paternal grandmother - is relentless in her
quest to bring to Native Americans and especially the Cherokee the
respect she feels they are entitled to. "To this day, no Native
American tribes are recognized in Kentucky, even with so many Cherokee
groups living all across the state, and for this, I feel great sadness,"
she says. (they have made it to legislation) As a result, she spreads the
word - and her pride in her heritage - any way she can, as the author of
seven books, from Momfeather Cooks Native American to Native American
Children's Stories Warmly Told to Woman of the Wind, a book of poetry
saluting her female ancestors, and as advisor, contributor and publisher
of Turtle Tales, a bi-weekly Native American newspaper for students. Then, of course, there is her
work as educator, storyteller and community activist, serving as a board
member of United Native America, formed in 2001 to strengthen
Native communities and preserve native culture; as a spiritual elder of
Mother Earth, a hemispheric council entrusted with keeping native
prophecies and traditions alive, and for four years, as chief elder of
the Southern Band of Cherokees. She is Ambassador for the American
Indian Mothers and a Commissioner for the Kentucky Native American
Heritage Commission. While Momfeather has always had
reverence for her Cherokee relations who first came to Leslie County in
the early 1830's during the time of removal from their tribal lands in
North Carolina, her activism was jump-started five years ago after what
she will only describe as "a spiritual experience" at Mantle Rock in
Livingston County, stop on the Trail of Tears. She was so affected by the
experience that she made the move from Nebraska, where she was living at
the time, back to Kentucky to "do my part to help bring back our
traditions." Her latest project is the
recreation of a village on 56 acres of land in Marion which will
"illustrate the time period when our people were taken from their
homes," she explains. "We will have a museum, an interpretive center,
genealogy lab...we've even started our buffalo herd." At 69, Martha Erickson may be
at the age when most women are ready to retire, but Momfeather sees no
end in sight. "I told my husband that as long
as I have this important work to do, I will just keep on going."
Momfeather
Erickson is a loving wife, mother and grandmother, dedicated to her
familyand community, no different in that respect from many other women in
western Kentucky. But there the similarities end. For her alter-ego, "Momfeather,"
is very different indeed. Poet, publisher, activist and teacher of "the old
ways," Erickson, one-half Cherokee, has devoted the last few years of her
life to educating those around her on the tribe's role in Kentucky history.
Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission