Tues., Oct. 26, 2004

Web Sites:
Indigenous People

Notices:

Winds of Change concert, with Casper, Tucson on Wed. Hopi reggae joins other Native musicians on tour
From: Andy Bessler, Sierra Club
For those of you who have yet to experience the Winds of Change Tour, Wednesday, October 27th is your last chance! The Winds of Change will blow into Tucson, AZ at the Leo Rich Theatre in the Tucson Convention Center, 7 p.m.. Hope you can make it and if you want to volunteer, please contact us! So far, the three stops of the Winds of Change Tour have been great. Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped table, gather postcards, do venue security, take tickets and pamper the rock stars! Without your help, this tour would not happen! In Albuquerque, we were joined by John Densmore, the drummer for the Doors, who played with Aaron White. Around 200 people showed up and many signed postcards to stop Peabody Coal from pumping groundwater below Black Mesa. We also watched the Presidential debate in the venue….Many of the band members held the concert so they could watch it as well.

"Honor Your Spirit, Protect The Children"
http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/home.html

Winter & Christmas 2004 - Request for Donations

If you wish to make a difference and help children and elders through the harsh winter months in Montana, please take the time to read our request. On behalf of reliable Northern Cheyenne contacts from Lame Deer, we are once again collecting donations for those in need on the Northern Cheyenne reservation.
There is a large need especially for new and good quality used warm items, as well as toys.
The toys will be distributed during the Christmas give away but the warm clothes and blankets will be distributed right away. During Montana winters, the temperature can drop to 30 or 40 degrees below zero so warm winter clothing and blankets can be lifesaving.
Our goal is to help the children, the elders, the single parent families, or families unable to make ends meet due to the high unemployment rate, the difficult conditions and the extreme poverty on the reservation.The children need all the help and encouragement they can get!
List of useful donations :
- warm clothing such as knitted items for children of all ages from babies to teenagers, and for elders - jeans and T-shirts, all sizes - socks, gloves, boots, hats and scarves - blankets - toys for Christmas
Other items that would also be appreciated: grooming supplies like toothpaste, tooth brushes,soaps and shampoos, combs, hair brushes, hair barrettes, rubber bands or other types of hair or pony tail holders. Last but not least : pampers diapers or pull-ups.
Our collecting point is in Great Falls, where we can keep track of everything that is sent and thank everyone who participates in the drive. The boxes are then forwarded to our contacts on the reservation.
If you can, please help us with the shipment expenses which have been very hard to meet last year, due to the large amount of boxes. HYS is a group of volunteers and we have no other help than yours.
Even small amount of money are greatly appreciated, as well as books of stamps.
Please contact us if you are interested in arranging for a store gift certificate instead of mailing a package.
Donations should be sent to the following address:
Honor Your Spirit - Protect the Children % Sue Buck PO Box 901 Great Falls, MT 59403-0901 (USA)
Please contact suemontana@mcn.net for mailing information other than regular US Mail service. (Also please include your name and address if you would like for us to acknowledge/confirm receipt of your donations.)
If you cannot send items due to the shipping cost, you can still help by sending a money donation. Please be assured that it will be used only for the children and elders this winter and/or for their Christmas; even small amounts can help them. The address for money donations is the same as above. A receipt will be sent upon request.
Please contact us before you send money (email addresses listed below).
The last boxes should be received in Great Falls by 12/12/04 so please contact us as soon as possible.
The priority of our group, "Honor your Spirit - Protect the Children" is to make sure all donations get to where they are supposed to and recognized. It is very important to us to make sure that everything is distributed fairly and to those in the greatest need.
Contact Info:
Sue Buck suemontana@mcn.net
& Brigitte Thimiakis thimiakischool@the.forthnet.gr
"Your help makes a huge difference for those who have never received help. Your donations provide hope and encouragement to those who have never known these qualities.
Your concern and solidarity can improve the lives of many children, elders, families, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. There is still a lot to do but all together you can help us make these dreams come true.
Thank you for being a part of this project and supporting it."
Respectfully, Manuel Redwoman, Northern Cheyenne/Lakota/Arapaho
To learn more about the HYS projects, please read our Shipment and Group Project Status: http://www.geocities.com/honoryourspirit/shipment1.html Our heartfelt thanks to everyone for your support !

Geronimo’s power and legacy
Geronimo’s great-grandson reflects on the powers of the Apache chief, with a message for Indian country
By Brenda Norrell
Indian Country Today staff
MESCALERO, N.M. - Geronimo possessed extraordinary powers as the ultimate warrior of the Chiricahua Apache and came to know the power of unity, said great-grandson Harlyn Geronimo, preparing to unveil a plaque at Geronimo’s birthplace. Beneath a shower of stars, at the confluence of the headwaters of the Gila, Geronimo was born in 1829. "Geronimo stood for freedom, that was his major concern, to fight for his people’s freedom, so they could live within the Gilas ‘for as long as the wind blows,’" Harlyn told Indian Country Today. While the Calvary was trying to wipe out his people, Geronimo rose to be chief of his band, the Bi da a naka enda (Standing in front of the enemy.) Geronimo possessed extraordinary powers that made him invisible to the enemy. "Several times when the Calvary was close to catching him, he made his small bands invisible," Harlyn said. "Geronimo could also turn people into wolves. He turned the Calvary into wolves as they were running by." Down the way, once past Geronimo’s band in the Sierra Madres of Mexico, they returned to being soldiers. "He had the power to turn daylight into nighttime. These were the things that were told to me," Harlyn said. "Geronimo could control the rain and tornados. He used it to his advantage." Geronimo evaded capture so many times that the final search for him took several months and 5,500 troops crossing 1,645 miles, U.S. records show. Harlyn said if Geronimo could look across this mural that is Indian Country today, he would see that his prediction of the Apache Nation’s progress has become a reality. But, he would urge Indian tribes to unite. "One thing that would come to his mind is unity. Without unity, we as indigenous people are not going to move forward. This would be Geronimo’s number one priority." He said Geronimo would tell Indian tribes to fight to protect their way of life and preserve their languages. "Once you lose the language, you have lost everything." Geronimo would urge tribes to develop preschool classes with full day instruction in Native languages, to keep the languages alive. Urging Indian young people to focus on their education, Harlyn said tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are precious rights. "Focus on your education and elect leadership that will fight for traditional rights, so the state and federal governments can not encroach on tribal court systems." Harlyn, sculptor and longtime fighter for Apache water, timber and hunting rights, is preparing a 12-foot bronze sculpture for Geronimo’s birthplace where the memorial plaque is being dedicated in the Gila Wilderness. The former tribal councilman said he began sculpting in 1983 to take his mind off politics. Now, the 57-year-old grandfather is carrier of the great stories. Geronimo was born to Chiricahua Apache parents in 1829 and grew up during a time when there were no Anglos in Chiricahua territory. But times were changing. In 1875, the superintendent at San Carlos, Ariz., tricked him into coming there and held Geronimo in confinement for four months. "That started the Apache wars," Harlyn said. From there, Geronimo fought in the Sierra Madres of Mexico and returned with Victorio, who he fought alongside, to recruit warriors in the Mescalero region. At that time, Chiricahua Apache had three leaders in their territory, which stretched into Mexico. Geronimo was chief of his band from the Gilas to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Farther to the south, Cochise led his people in Arizona. In the Sierra Madres of Mexico, Juh led his people. "It was all Chiricahua land, down to north of Mexico City and to the Gulf." Apache women were also warriors. Harlyn recently portrayed his grandfather in the Discovery Channel documentary "Lozen." She was the Apache woman who fought fiercely with Cochise until he and his people were massacred by the army in the Sierra Madres. Then, Lozen became a fighter alongside Geronimo. When Cochise was slain, Geronimo was 100 miles away, fighting with Juh. Lozen joined Geronimo and fought with him for six years. "She had the power to detect the enemy’s presence. She got her power from the Holy Mountain," Harlyn said. Meanwhile, Lewis and Clark and others opened up the west and Indian people were tricked into signing treaties that were never honored, while the Calvary carried out genocide. "They tricked them into signing treaties, while wiping out small families," Harlyn said. After Geronimo’s final surrender in Skeleton Canyon near present day Rodeo, Geronimo was taken to Holbrook, Ariz., on the border of Navajoland, and placed on board the train that carried him to imprisonment in Florida. Where present day curio shops and blue dinosaur monoliths now stand, Geronimo took his last look at the sky bursting with stars that he was born beneath and touched for the last time the motherland that nurtured him. Geronimo died at the age of 90 in 1909 in Fort Sill, Okla. He never returned to the Southwest. Harlyn, however, said the Apache people remain an unconquered people and Geronimo’s legacy is alive. "We are still here and we are multiplying. "He was fighting for his homeland and for his people. He stood for freedom." While Geronimo could foresee a great future for his people, it is unlikely he imagined a new collection of relatives claiming his blood to capitalize on book sales. "Every time there is a new book published, there are new relatives," Harlyn said. "I don’t appreciate that." Harlyn also gave a warning to Indian people, to never let their guard down, for no one knows what the future will bring. With his special intuition, Geronimo predicted a large war would occur in the Southwest when the white sands and the lava beds merge in southern New Mexico, where Apache were 1,000 years ago. Harlyn heard these stories from Geronimo’s wife Kate, who died in Mescalero in 1964, when he was seven years old. Kate passed the stories down to Harlyn’s father and his mother, Maneulo Carrillo, who retold them to Harlyn during her last days. Harlyn’s father’s mother was the daughter of Geronimo, the only surviving daughter who bore children. Lana Geronimo was born in St. Augustine, Fla. in 1887. She named her son, Harlyn’s father, Juanito Via, at a time when the name "Geronimo" was not celebrated by heads of state the way it is now in New Mexico. "At that time, they didn’t want us to have the last name," Harlyn said. Geronimo left the legacy of a method: planning and strategizing to reach one’s goal. For instance, it might take all afternoon to kill a deer with one arrow, but after engaging in this, the experience would carry over onto the battlefield. Harlyn said this legacy -- of strategizing and planning to reach one’s goals " is a traditional way tribes can protect their people and their future. With Gov. Bill Richardson and an array of Congressional leaders invited to the unveiling of the Geronimo memorial plaque on Oct. 9 in the Gila Wilderness north of Silver City, Harlyn said his great-grandfather did foresee a time when Apache people would achieve tremendous progress. "He wanted the Apache Nation to progress. He saw this and made this prediction at that time." On the plaque at his birthplace are these words, "I was born by the headwaters of the Gila. "Geronimo," appears in large letters, with the words "Chiricahua Apache Chief, 1929 - 1909." Engraved is his image with a rifle in hand. Harlyn knows the ultimate legacy of Geronimo. Geronimo’s legacy was survival.

A Lazy Man - Seneca
Characters:
DAGWANOEnYENT - Whirlwind
HEnES - Panther
IN Geneseo there was a young man, an orphan, who went around among the people, staying wherever kindhearted persons would keep him, sleeping on the ground by a brush fire, and eating whatever was given to him. When he was twenty years old, he was as much of a boy as ever. A chief, who was rich and proud, lived in Geneseo. He had a daughter and two or three sons. One day the orphan stopped near the chief's house where people were burning brush. One of the chief's sons came out and said to him, "Don't you feel poor and lonely sitting around so?" "No," said the young man, "I feel as rich as you do." "Don't you sometimes think you would like to have a wife?" "Yes, I sometimes think I would like a wife if I could get one." "What would you think of my sister for a wife? Many men have tried to marry her, but she refuses everyone." "Oh," said the orphan, looking up, "I would as soon have her as any woman; she is handsome and rich." "I will ask her to marry you," said the brother, thinking to have fun with his sister. He went to the house and said to her, "There is a young man out there by the fire, who would like to marry you. Will you be his wife?" "I will. I would rather marry him than anyone else." "Shall I tell him so?" "You may." He told the young man, who said, "I shall be glad to have her for my wife." The brother, in fun, repeated this to his sister, who said, "I will go and ask him myself." She went to the orphan, and asked, "What did my brother say to you?" He told her, and she said, "I will go with you. Come to-morrow at this time and I'll marry you." The next morning the girl got leggings and moccasins for the young man. (He had never worn moccasins in Summer.) In the evening he came to where she was. He washed, put on the leggings and embroidered moccasins and tied up his hair. She told him then that he could go home with her, but he must not talk with any of the men, that one of her brothers was always fooling. The girl became the orphan's wife and he lived in the chief's house. In the Fall when the chief's sons were ready to go deer hunting, the young woman wanted to go. She had a husband and she thought he might be a good hunter. The man had never hunted but he said, "I will go and try." When the party had gone some distance, they camped and began to hunt. The young man found a place where there were wild grape vines. He made a swing, then sat in it and swung all day, didn't try to hunt. At night he went home without game. Each morning he went to the swing and each evening he went home without game. The brothers killed many deer. One day one brother said to the other, "Our brother-in-law gets no game, maybe he doesn't hunt." They agreed to watch him. The next morning they followed the young man, found him swinging and saw that the ground was smooth around the swing. Then they said, "We will not live with him and feed him. We will leave him, go a day's journey away and camp." They left the man and woman with only one leg of deer meat. The young man never ate much; the woman ate most of the meat. When it was gone, she began to be afraid of starving. One day, while the man was swinging, a horned owl lighted on a tree nearby. He shot the owl and put it under the swing where he could look at it as he swung. His wife was getting very hungry. That night when he came home without game, she said, "If I have nothing to eat to-morrow, I will be too weak to get up. You ought to kill something." "Well, maybe to-morrow I will kill something." The next morning the man went, as usual, to the swing. While swinging he heard a woman crying. He was frightened and stopped swinging. Soon he saw a female panther coming with three cubs. She was crying. As she approached, he heard a terrible roar in the North, the direction from which the panther had come. Then the man saw Whirlwind coming, tearing down all the trees in his path. He stopped on a tree near the swing. "You know now what harm you have done," said Whirlwind to Panther. "Why are you angry with the panther?" asked the young man. "What has she done to you?" "She has torn up my best feather cap." "Why do you think so much of your cap? It must have been a nice one." "It was nice." "What kind of feathers was it made of?" "It was the skin and feathers of a horned owl." "What would you think if I gave you another cap?" "How can you get one?" The young man picked up the horned owl that he had killed and threw it at Whirlwind. Whirlwind caught it, said, "Thank you, this is better than the one Panther destroyed," and away he flew. Panther thanked the man, and said, "I am glad that you had the owl, you have saved my life. Now I will help you. Go to that knoll yonder, behind it you will find two bucks fighting. Shoot them both. The one you shoot first will not run; they will fight till they die." The young man found the bucks and watched them till they killed each other. Then, taking a large piece of meat, He went home to his wife, who was almost starved. "I have brought you meat," said he, "I had good luck to-day." The woman sprang up, threw the meat on the fire and hardly waited for it to cook till she began to eat. They dragged the bucks home, skinned them, and had plenty of meat. The young woman dried the meat and tanned the skins. Panther told the man to always hunt near the swing and he would kill a great deal of game. When they had a large quantity of meat, the man said to his wife, "Your brothers are good hunters. No doubt they have plenty of meat, but I will find them and see." He started. On the way he killed a deer, and he carried the carcass along. He found the camp and looking in saw the brothers; they were poor and weak. He went in, and asked, "How are you?" "We are almost starved," said one of them. "We can find nothing to kill." "Your sister and I have a plenty. Come and live with us. I have meat here. Eat and then come to my camp." He gave them the deer and they ate the meat nearly raw, they were so hungry. When they started for the young man's camp he went ahead, got home quickly and told his wife he had found her brothers nearer starvation than she had been. During the night the brothers came. They were satisfied and remained with their sister and brother-in-law. After a while they all went back to the village loaded with skins and venison. Now the young man was rich; and he and his wife lived ever after in Geneseo Valley.
Seneca Indian Myths by Jeremiah Curtin 1922
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories.