Contents:
PAGE
1	Upcoming Events:		MANATAKA SUMMER GATHERING
1	Elder's Meditation:		*Alanis Obomsawin, Abenaki*
1	Website Updates:		Blackfoot Lodge Tales
1	New Flash::		Indian Creek Band seek Federal Recognition
1	Feature Stories:		7 Philosophies of the Native American Man
1	The Message:		What's In The Temple?
1	Mother Earth Watch:		Listen to Mother Earth
Grandmothers Speak
1 1 1	Grandmother Waynonaha: EAST Grandmother Magdala: SOUTH Grandmother Carol: WEST Grandmother Selma: NORTH		History Has Changed Entering a Time of No Time Let the Children Drum Emotional and Spiritual Changes
1	Inspirational Thoughts::		What I Have Learned

2	Legends of Old:		Creation Story - Mayan
2	Letters to the Editor:		8 Excellent Letters
2	Politics Watch:		Steal Their Land, Steal Their Money
2	Elder's Meditations:		Rolling Thunder, Cherokee
2	Member Recognition:		David Quiet Wind Furr
2	Organic Consumer Watch:		Pet Food Contamination
2	Health Watch:		Artificial Sweetener Explodes Internally
2	Fluoride Watch:		Arsenic in my Fluoride? CDC admits Yes
2	Animal Rights and Wrongs:	A	Extreme Wolf Killing in Alaska
2	Sacred Site Watch:		Ancient Rhode Island Burial Site Threatened

3	Hill & Holler:		Learning How To Be In Balance
3	History:		Forgotten Founders
3 3	Grandfather Hawk Speaks: Grandfather LeBeau Speaks:		The Long Road Home Energy is the life force of all beings
3	Elder's Meditations:		John Peters (Slow Turtle) - Wampanoag
3	Women's Circle:		Incredible injustice for indigenous women
3	Women's Council:		Circle of Friendship
3	Diet Watch:		Nine Quick Tips for Healthier Cooking
3 3	Book Reviews:		Native America, Discovered and Conquered Anasazi of SW Utah Big Medicine from Six Nations
3	Poetry Circle:		Blood Red Sky Pure as Gold
3	Inspirational Thoughts::		Ripples in the Water
3	Healing Prayer Basket:		Pray Heals -- For Real!
3	Manataka Business:		New Appointments - Successful Application

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	Aymara leaders passing 2nd Baston (Staff) - Bolivia Click on picture for details
	Manataka Summer Gathering Click on picture for details Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers

May 19, 2007

Free with Museum Admission. Joanne Shenandoah and Ulali

Kaufmann and Linder Theaters, NY, NY

June 08 - 10, 2007
Strawberry Moon Gathering

Lily Dale, New York

June 14 - 22, 2007

Thunderbirds in the Temple of the Sun

A Gathering of Native Councils, Chiefs and Clan Mothers of the Americas

Andes Mountains, Bolivia

June 22 - 24, 2007

Manataka Summer Gathering

Featuring the Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers, Ceremonies, Family Fun!

Bald Eagle Mountain Park and Retreat, Hot Springs National Park, AR

October 08, 2007

Union of Polarities -- St. Croix Valley Area

November 05, 2007

Leave and Learn Seminars - Maya Journey

See More Non-Powwow Events Here

2007 Powwow Now Calendar

In our language there is no word to say inferior or superiority or equality because we are equal; it's a known fact. But life has become very complicated since the newcomers came here. And how does your spirit react to it?...It's painful. You have to be strong to walk through the storm. I know I'm a bridge between two worlds. All I ask is for people to wash their feet before they try to walk on me." -Alanis Obomsawin, Abenaki

For native people who speak their language, English can be very confusing. Many times you cannot express in English the true meaning of Indian words. When we hear something in English we sometimes react or our spirit reacts. Sometimes we need to use English words out of order to express our true meanings. We need to be patient and pray. Living in two worlds can be difficult. Life is painful sometimes. The pain of life is where the lessons are learned.

Creator,

let me learn the lessons

You have taught my people.

Friday Events
A.M. P.M.	Move-In - Set-up Storytelling - North American Indian and Aztec stories Maya and Aztec Culture Seminar Drumming and Singing
Saturday Events
A.M. Noon N N N N N P.M.	Manataka Medicine Lodge Blessing Ceremony Sweat Lodge - Mixed Grand Entry Procession - Flag Ceremony Fire Ceremony and Pipe Ceremony Naming Ceremony - Making A Relative Ceremony Honoring of Elders Ceremony Special Presentation by Honored Elder Vendor / Craft Presentations Sweat Lodge - Men Trade Blanket Storytelling Sixth Sun Aztec Dancers Friendship Dance Drumming and Singing
Indian and Mexican Food All Weekend
Sunday Events
A.M. P.M.	Prayer Service - Honoring Ceremony Clean-up, Break-down Your help is needed to insure we leave the land in better condition than we found it.

THE MESSAGE...

What's In The Temple?
Tom Barrett ~ (Keeping in Touch)

In the quiet spaces of my mind a thought lies still, but ready to spring.
It begs me to open the door so it can walk about.
The poets speak in obscure terms pointing madly at the unsayable.
The sages say nothing, but walk ahead patting their thigh calling for us to follow.
The monk sits pen in hand poised to explain the cloud of unknowing.
The seeker seeks, just around the corner from the truth.
If she stands still it will catch up with her.
Pause with us here a while.
Put your ear to the wall of your heart.
Listen for the whisper of knowing there.
Love will touch you if you are very still.

If I say the word God, people run away.
They've been frightened--sat on 'till the spirit cried "uncle."
Now they play hide and seek with somebody they can't name.
They know he's out there looking for them, and they want to be found,
But there is all this stuff in the way.

I can't talk about God and make any sense,
And, I can't not talk about God and make any sense.
So we talk about the weather, and we are talking about God.

I miss the old temples where you could hang out with God.
Still, we have pet pounds where you can feel love draped in warm fur,
And sense the whole tragedy of life and death.
You see there the consequences of carelessness,
And you feel there the yapping urgency of life that wants to be lived.
The only things lacking are the frankincense and myrrh.

We don't build many temples anymore.
Maybe we learned that the sacred can't be contained.
Or maybe it can't be sustained inside a building.
Buildings crumble.
It's the spirit that lives on.

If you had a temple in the secret spaces of your heart,
What would you worship there?
What would you bring to sacrifice?
What would be behind the curtain in the holy of Holies?

Go there now.

EDITOR'S APPEAL

Regular readers of the Smoke Signal have come to love Grandmother Waynonaha's wonderful messages of hope, cultural insight and wisdom. For years she has freely offered her teaching, her visions and most of all, her love. She enjoys teaching herbal medicine one-on-one and for generations she has worked hard to help others.

Waynonaha lives a simple, humble life. Her needs are few, but now she needs you. Grandmother cannot always pay her utility bills and is given choice between heat in the winter or food. "...This was a hard winter and I do not think I can take another one in this old house..," said Waynonaha. Soon she will be faced with losing her home of many years when the landlord sells the property. Grandmother needs a private place away from civilization to work. She needs your immediate financial assistance -- or better yet, a small home in the country where she can continue her work of love.

If you cannot help financially, please keep her name on your prayer list. Grandmother once said, "... Never in my life time have I ever seen a true human being refuse to offer smoke and prayers for another human being." Now it is time to return the many gifts she has given you and many others over the years.

Email or call Manataka today. manataka@sbcglobal.net

HISTORY CHANGED

I can remember my mother reading the book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. She would read it and reread this book many times before she passed into spirit. The well worn dog eared pages still are in my memory as I watched her reading in the late night light by the door. I saw the tears spill down her cheeks as she must have related to some of the passages. My mother was a kind and good person who helped many both Indian and non-Indian with her healing ways. No matter how little we had no one went from our door without the offer of food or comfort.

I can never know my mothers pain, but I can know my own pain from living in less than civilized conditions. Hunger, cold, poverty, and that crushing oppression that chokes the spirit and kills the pride inch by inch. Looks of scorn and hate still haunt my mind as I remember being a little girl who saw and experienced this behavior.

Some think we have moved on. This is not so. Still to this day remains a painful reminder of the past. This still old racist way is still alive today and I see it here often as the outside world makes its judgment on the few remaining Indian people who they now hold up in admiration.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- The Movie

I trust this does not start a new wave of people coming out to the reservation like the Dances With Wolves did. Imagine if you lived in an isolated community in dirt poor poverty and people were driving by to stare at you and point as if you were some living display. This also takes a bit more of your pride and dignity away from you as bit by bit your world is placed under the microscope for examination.

The people do have pride and we need to respect their privacy and sacred ways. I pray that this movie in some ways will show what really happened but they always tend to smooth over the bad stuff and illuminate the romantic stuff of being Indian. It is far from romantic you can not imagine what the past 500 years have done to reduce the people in the eyes of the world. What little ceremony that is still in tact is now being bastardized by many and soon will be so diluted that the real words and ways will be lost.

American Indians are still considered prisoners of war by the United States Government. Perhaps some day this will change I pray that I live to see this happen.

Well, well .. are we surprised at the changes .. not at all. One can only hope that when they advertise it producers say... "Based upon some actual events, but fictionalized!" Yeah right!

Classic Book About America’s Indians Gains a Few Flourishes as a Film

Left, Adam Beach as the part-Sioux Charles Eastman, and Anna Paquin as Elaine Goodale, whom he marries. Right, August Schellenberg, foreground, as Sitting Bull, with Eric Schweig, left, and Nathan Chasing Horse. Photographs by Annabel Reyes/HBO

Love, Waynonaha

Magdala Rameriz

Maya Priestess

We are entering in the space where is no time, there is no such a thing as process, and then there is no such a thing as separation of any kind, only the experience of the Great Spirit flowing trough every single life form.

Our ancestors, experience this ways of being when there were no separation inside of them, their hearts were "light as a feather", there were no burden of any kind, no guiltiness, no shame, no fear., ..There was only unconditional love because an understanding of life, sacredness was everywhere.

We are entering again into that portal, now is the time when the DNA quick in and we remember how to get there and cross that door of the new beginning, the new land is there.

Preparation needs to be done, and remove what does not belong into the new land, it is to begin to see every single thing as part of us and we part of that yet no attachment, everything is in a complete synchronicity with the universe, understand the cosmic consciousness,

There is this part of the authentic human being that knows how to do this, and we need to call upon this beautiful energy inside of all life in Maya time (no time).

The authentic human being knows that there is no separation in the energies of male-female, that the inside is the same of the outside, the knowledge of both in the extreme make the whole circle, and the complete and whole authentic human is there, all is sacred. Only the connection exist, and the essence of that connection is love in the pure form.

I am you, Magdala

Announcements & Upcoming Events

April 04 - 10 - Vision Embracing Ceremony, at the Temple near Harrison, AR. Reserve a space today!

April 11 - 12 - Moon Calendar Seminar, Harrison, AR. Reserve a space via email below.

Late April - Wisconsin and Minnesota.

May 05 - Low Gap, Arkansas Seminar Info call 870-861-5160

May 12 - Dallas. Texas Seminar, we still have some room in this seminar

May 18 - 20 - Women's Healing Retreat, Hot Springs, AR

Early June - Trip to Bolvia

June 22 - 24 - Summer Gathering at Manataka, Hot Springs, AR

June 26 - Moon Dance - Sisterhood Gathering, Harrison, AR

June 28 - Aug 6 - Boulder and Denver, Colorado Seminars. Denver University and Hospital Info: "Magdala's Nantzin" at nhzgreentri@hotmail.com

July 14 - Ohio Seminar, we will go deeper into the feminine ways, we will continued decoding the Moon calendar stone, we will work with the tree of life and star knowledge, and what the mother will show us, for info email Patrice Lange at patricelange@hotmail.com

September - European Tour

Oct 8 - 9 Wisconsin and Minnesota Tour. Presentations by Mario Conroy

November - Yucatan, Mexico Tour. Info: Diane Davalos at www.expandedlearning.com. 800-622 5041

Donations of labor and building materials are gratefully accepted.

For seminar booking send an email: quetzalkina@ritternet.com http://www.unionofpolarities.com

For books, Sacredness of the Union of Polarities, I Am You, Sacred Sex...ancient teachings for women and Mayan Runes, find them at http://www.manataka.org

FUNNY BONES

No offense intended for any individuals or tribes.

GRANDMOTHERS SPEAK - WEST

Let the Children Drum


	Carol Perez Petersen

Children come into this world as a gift from the great mystery we call life. They have arrived from the place of all knowing and we call them our elders. They are messengers of hope and renewal. They arrive with the blueprint of our ancestor's wisdom. It matters not the condition of their sex or body for all children are made of love and come to love you.

We work for the benefit to give our children what was hardship in our experience to make life better for them. This is the unconditional reflex built into the heart of us parents. For those not able to understand what the needs of children are we must look inward to our inner child. The voice of the child is a surviving voice and often a starving voice.

Some say it is the higher voice or the still small voice within. The child's voice is barely audible today but it is there. It is often found in the wilderness and in nature. When I was a child I pressed my face to the grass and became a worker ant. I breathed into the earth and her body was my mother. I could trust the stability of a tree trunk as I climbed to have the vision from a bird eye view. When I tasted the fruit of our backyard apricot tree I thanked her. For this was easier then asking for money and going to the store. I was a lucky child unlike those children who hang from their mother's arms with half glazed eyes upon a fruitless landscape.

I have seen runny nosed children jumping for a peso strumming a tiny guitar and what about those mother and fatherless children finding a way through the heaven's gate we call Earth desperate for loving arms. Did you not know they are our wisdom keepers our society's salvation?

When I was a child I did not know that children were abducted sexually, abused and even sold as slaves. I did not know that children used drugs such as glue and homemade chemicals. Today children know not to talk to strangers for fear of this evil. Today there is less hugging and more frisking. Today children of privilege escape into videos instead of nature. Today children still are without lawful rights and lack protection and if you are of culture born in a 3^rd world country you might not escape slavery, prostitution, malnutrition, disease and death. Today children know more about the needs of other children who are not so fortunate.

On June 25^th 2007 children from all over the world will come to a festival in Washington D.C. Mall to honor their art. This is unlike any other event because these children will be honored as the seed carriers of our future. In order to survive our species children must be honored. An international community of children who create beauty and messages of peacemaking in art will be the drumming voice for the safe keeping of all children being born. I have in my prayers all those children who are passing from our world which worships the weapons and celebrates the military to hear me, we have found our voice we are drumming our hearts for you.

We are living during a time when children are parenting children. The most vulnerable choice we can make is peace. The time of unloving must be resolved and together make this a time for loving.

Let the children drum. Run or fly come and Drum Dance and Dream with us. Create a drum circle for the children. Give a drum to a child to have their voice drum for the unheard child to be reborn within you and me. Together we will honor and respect all children of the world and give thanks to life. Let there be peace.

Carol Petersen

Rainbow Medicine Blanket

www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/drumming/

Photo courtesy of the Conferated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation

GRANDMOTHER'S SPEAK - NORTH

Emotional and Spiritual Changes

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	From Grandmother Selma

Time has been accelerated and the events of life on a daily basis have been a good example ........across the board..........in the rapid changes that are occurring not only at a physical level.......but also at a emotional and spiritual level as well.

Dominant society as a whole are in a hurry to do everything......from fast foods to throw away cleaning products and implements to faster computers ...to disposable diapers and bed sheets to throw away dishes and even silverware.

A quick fix for nearly every aspect of life !

Somewhere in the rush to live ...........they have forgotten how to live.

In too big of a hurry to notice the crow calling to them from the tree in the parking lot.......or the sunset.....or the shapes of the clouds and their images for our symbolic appreciation. The average person on the street.....never slows long enough to notice these and a thousand other things in the course of one day.

The Whole person is no longer important or even considered by most !! Instead they dwell on looks.... beauty.... monetary worth....social status...materialistic gains and proof of success.....etc etc. They go to the doctor for physical health....

But how many of them go to the counselor or any other professional for their emotional health ?? How many of them have and practice daily a spiritual system that fulfills their entire being ???

Most folks in dominant society would never dream of going to their elders for counsel....advice or direction. Most would never dream of discussing their fears...hopes...visions and calling with even their clergy.........let alone a medicine person of tribal tradition.

Most of dominant society does not ever perceive of themselves as a composite of aspects or " parts"........so they never really understand the concept of whole !!

Native teachings tell us if we do not know the " parts" of our own being we can never hope to know the whole of our being or potential .....or spiritual purpose.

Dominant society wants to know what your potential and ultimate purpose at a professional or employment level are.......... Native traditionalist want you to know what your spiritual purpose and potential are. A big difference.

We have all been shocked and horrified at the events recently at Virginia Tech. We are appalled that such a thing could occur in a civilized country and especially in the arena of higher education and a degree of innocence.

Our shock is only outweighed by our prayers and empathy for the victims and those close to them .

Personally , I can not help but be shocked that a virtual army of professors and teachers of such caliber did not see that this individual was out of balance and not functioning as a balance whole !! I am not saying that it was their fault.........but I am saying that if this individual had of been functioning and living in a traditional tribal community......the people would have realized that said individual was not functioning as a balance whole ! That emotionally or spiritually they were not " well". The whole can only be " well" if all the aspects and " parts" are "well".

I, personally believe, that violence is a cry for help ! an attempt at release of off balanced energy in a last attempt effort to gain balance.....if it is released then there is a void that can be filled with balanced energy.

Dominant society young people are not generally taught traditions even of their own culture......at least not at a symbolic level......how many of them even know the orIgIn of their Santa Clause ? how many of them know the stories and teachings of the Saint associated with Valentines day ? How many even know the origin or symbolism behind the common handshake?

If cultural traditions and symbolism are not taught or understood the individual has no true concept of who they are and how they fit into the whole of the society in which they function. As it turns out, this young man at Virginia Tech. was extremely troubled and part of that trouble was based and fueled by his lack of understanding and acceptance of the way the social economic structure in this country works.........he actually had higher ideals and became totally frustrated that society failed to live up to those ideals ........he had not been given the tools to understand human behavior or the behavior of the masses.....nor the power plays and " class" system that dominant society fosters.

Without traditional teachings we are asking the youth to figure it our without a standard or guide line to go by or equate circumstances to within their own being. Those of us who are familiar with those traditional teachings and values have a right and a duty to pass them on so that they do not die........but also so that the younger people have a value system that helps them understand other supposed society value systems.

To me, the shootings were a horrid manifestation of the symptoms of a non- whole functioning dominant society which fosters and encourages the wellness of the whole being to be overlooked and ignored in lieu of attained status or success.

Gram Selma

Submitted by Carol Elisi SpiritDove Henderson

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2 New Craft Stores Opening Soon!

The Queen Bead, operated by Amanda Morning Star and Patty Blue Star, features first quality bead work, authentic regalia and other crafts.

Two Feathers Creations, operated by Bonnie Two Feathers, this shop will be a unique experience for many. Bonnie's craft work is an excellent example of traditional and modern art, jewelry and crafts.

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