Thanksgiving Day to me...



Gregory E. Woods, Creek & Crow Indian African man

I am an African-American man. I am an Absaroka Muskogee Indian. I am a Keeper of Stories, and a Keeper of the Drum. The two responsibilities are related to each other, and have power in the telling today the day before Thanksgiving Day! Nothing offensive in here, but the Native story about Thanksgiving has to be told. The story is one of betrayals, and the murder celebration the immigrants held! But that story will not be told here. This story will be told:













I know a little about Turkey medicine. My friend Pam is an Eastern Band Cherokee. She taught Turkey medicine to me one day in the mountains of Virginia. I knew medicine was coming my way on the trip to the mountains. I was looking for it the whole ride up to the mountains. Just as we got to her property a large turkey walked out of the woods and collapsed dead. We stopped the car, and walked to his body, and left tobacco offerings with our prayers.

"What do we do with him?" Pam asked. "Take him to the house and listen." I said.

During the following ceremony Turkey’s spirit, in return, allowed us to take the wings, tail feathers, and the necklace the Turkey wore. We buried the Turkey in the northern part of the Medicine Wheel we had earlier built on the land. The necklace Turkey wore was given to me. Pam explained that hunters have another name for it, but she learned from watching their ceremonies the necklace under their beaks is a Medicine necklace with its own powers. Turkey’s are Keepers of Ceremony!

Pam would travel alone into the mountains and sit. She can become a ghost in the forest. Turkeys would land unaware of her and perform ceremonial dances as the sun set. She said one had to be completely still. Turkey People are very sensitive to movements subtle or not. Turkeys have a deep sense of ceremony. Deep in their dances they are balanced and attuned to the subtle elements at work around them. It is a natural teaching for the People, and by People, since we are talking about the colonial times; I am talking about Turtle Island’s indigenous people's relationship with living things, and our Grandmother Earth.

The immigrants remain, to this day, outside of these things for the most part and continually legislate and make laws from a framework that is disconnected from the subtle elements that move, engage, and try, in this day and age, to balance everything. Their paradigms have taught billions of people for the last few centuries their ways, and we all participate in the process of disrespecting our Earth, shortening our time on Earth, and neglecting our spiritual responsibilities to each other. These are my words.

Gregory E. Woods, (Dawn Wolf) Keeper of Stories
nov. 25, 2009

 

Ghost of the Wolf, by artist, Joe Belt Finished art on commission by the Ossahatchee Pow-Wow Association, to be used on posters, limited edition prints, and t-shirts promoting this years event.