Healing the World

Coretta Scott King

...."Women, if the soul of this nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul. You must speak out against the evils of our time as you see them. Those of us women who have been blessed with the privilege of bearing children have the sacred task of rearing them with a knowledge and understanding of our democratic heritage and the eternal values of love, justice, mercy and peace. As women and mothers, we have a common concern for the happiness of our children and their families, to unite our efforts throughout the world." ~Coretta Scott King

Hot Lyke Fire seated within a car

..."“People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” ~ Rosa Parks




Rosa Parks seated on a bus
Creek & Black Indian

Nguzo Saba principle:
Ujima, Collective Work & Responsibility
 

In the beginning was ...

Creek Indian story of beginning:

In the beginning, the Muskogee people were born out of the earth itself. They crawled up out of the ground through a hole like ants. In those days, they lived in a far western land beside tan mountains that reached the sky. They called the mountains the backbone of the earth. Then a thick fog descended upon the earth, sent by the Master of Breath, Esakitaummesee.

The Muscogee people could not see. They wandered around blindly, calling out to one another in fear. They drifted apart and became lost. The whole people were separated into small groups, and these groups stayed close to one another in fear of being entirely alone. Finally, the Master had mercy on them. From the eastern edge of the world, where the sun rises, he began to blow away the fog. He blew and blew until the fog was completely gone.

The people were joyful and sang a hymn of thanksgiving to the Master of Breath. And in each of the groups, the people turned to one another and swore eternal brotherhood. They said that from then on these groups would be like large families. The members of each group would be as close to each other as brother and sister, father and son. The group that was farthest east and first to see the sun, praised the wind that had blown the fog away.

They called themselves the Wind Family, or Wind Clan. As the fog moved away from the other groups, they, too, gave themselves names. Each group chose the name of the first animal it saw. So they became the Bear, Deer, Alligator, Raccoon, and Bird Clans. However, the Wind Clan was always considered the first clan and the aristocracy of all the clans. The Master-of-Breath spoke to them: "You are the beginning of each one of your families and clans. Live up to your name. Never eat of your own clan, for it is your brother."

You must never marry into your own clan. This will destroy your clan if you do. When an Indian brave marries, he must always move with his wife to her clan. There he must live and raise his family. The children will become members of their mother's clan. Follow these ways and the Muskogee will always be a powerful force. When you forget, your clans will die as people." 

Our Native Concern for our Collective Good!

Crow bate' known as Finds Them And Kills Them aka Jim 1928

Creek man circa 1868 

"It may be time, but do enough have the nerve to make that stand against all forms of evil, first within themselves, second around them and lastly on a global level?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.26.14




"This problem was created as "we" moved from being ruled by nature, to being ruled by laws/government. How do you go back?" - Shawn Oxley

 Now that's some bullshit! 

"We stand to learn a lot from the Native Americans. It's time we ask and listen to their wisdom." 

- Hollie Jones 2.22.14 

You are correct, Hollie Jones. But, there is a deep concern many of us Native folks have. Osama bin Laden in an pre-9/11 interview said, "The President does not have the heart to hear words..." 

You take out the word, President, replace it with white Americans, and reflect upon the collective consciousness of Europeans and Euro-Americans throughout their histories, and something very clear and evident arises to the surface. It is other relative's job to point these things out to our white relatives, but receiving the truths, the self-truths has not been the best attribute of our white brethren. Up until this day all ceremonial work, circles of reconciliation, and diplomacy stalls at the point the late Osama bin Laden pointed out. Americans didn't listen to him, or the ramblings and legitimate complaints and concerns Arabs had about their relationship with the United States, and the affect of Western civilization upon their world, and look what had to happen on September 11, 2001!

Listening, like prayer, is related to talk. Talk, reaction and intimidating action are the strong points of the Americans. Listening requires vulnerability, and vulnerability is a strength masked under the skirts, and a primal element of the breath of women. Vulnerability is etched into the fabric of women's makeup, but it is culturally loathed by American men and women. As one people we are not. As one people united and truthful to ourselves and each other we are not. We, as Americans, have more fear than anything else and our actions are reactions to the revelation of our truths, and our truths are dealt with through war! That alone disqualifies us from creating long lasting and peaceful solutions! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.25.14

Crow & Hunkpapa dancers at Crow Agency, Montana 1886 

Early Sport

HOW THE ALLIGATOR'S NOSE WAS BROKEN – Creek

"In the old days," said Fixco, the Seminole, "all the animals determined upon a big ball play. 

The 4-footed animals, with the Alligator for their chief, challenged the fowls, with the Eagle at their head, for a game. Sides were chosen, the poles put up, the ground measured off, and the medicine men conjured the balls.

"The day came and they all met on the ground. The animals ran around their poles, all painted and dressed up, while the birds flew and screamed around their poles. At last the ball was tossed into the air and the game began. The Alligator caught the ball as it came down and, grasping it in his teeth, ran toward the poles. The birds in vain attempted to snatch it from him and at last gave it up in utter despair. The Eagle, however, soared aloft and circled in the air till almost out of sight, and then like an arrow he swooped to the earth and struck the Alligator on the nose and broke it. The Alligator's wife had run along with her old man and was shouting at the top of her voice: 

"Look at the little striped alligator's daddy, just look at him," while all the animals shouted in triumph.

"But when the Eagle struck the Alligator all was changed. The Alligator's teeth opened on the ball and the Turkey poked his head in among the teeth, pulled it out, and ran to the poles of the birds and threw the ball between them.

"The fowls won the game and ever since that time the Alligator has had a sunken place on his nose where the Eagle broke it."


Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians, by John R. Swanton; Smithsonian Institution, USGPO, Washington, D.C.; Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 88 [1929] and is now in the public domain.(creek)



from archives of Blue Panther

CREEK I AM

"The way the Creeks treated enslaved Africans was considered a much different and kinder form of slavery than the way the white Americans, Cherokee, or Choctaw went about it. Families could work under different enslaved African owners and did not have to live on the same property as who they worked for. The enslaved Africans worked quite hard and were paid, but had to give most all of their pay to their owners, being allowed to keep a small amount. Lucinda was treated as a family member and did her duties. Her responsibility was taking care of the baby, amongst being an extra had for cleaning and cooking here and there. She was not beaten or disrespected. It was understood what was needed of her and she followed along."

Lucinda Davis was an enslaved African woman who grew up in the Creek Indian culture. She spoke the Muskogee Creek language fluently. The main information source was from an interview in the summer of 1937, at which time she was guessed to be 89 years old. Lucinda's parents were owned by two different Creek Indians. Being enslaved so young without her parents, she never found out her birthplace, nor the time of her birth. Her parents were both enslaved Africans who sold her close to her birth, because they left their own masters either by running away or buying back their freedom. When Lucinda's parents left, her mother's master sold her to Tuskaya-hiniha. Lucinda was brought up in the Creek family she was sold to.
- I Love Ancestry

"Her story draws a thin line between the Southern definition of slavery and the Creek understanding of family ties!" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Emma Curry Pitchlynn, born 1885

Emma, the wife of Garvin County Pioneer George Pitchlynn, (Chickasaw Roll number 3687), was born in Dublin, Montgomery County, Alabama in 1885.

She was the daughter of Arthur and Fannie Shaver Curry. Emma's mother was of Choctaw Descent. Her grandmother was named Caroline Shaver (1/2 Choctaw) and her great-grandfather was named John Ochiltree (full-blood Choctaw). Emma Curry was a pioneer of Garvin County.

She came to Wynnewood, Indian Territory in 1900 and married George Pitchlynn on December 10, 1902. She was a very religious person who cared dearly for all of her many children: Georgiann, roll no. 518, (born 1904), William, roll no. 114, (born 1905), Bertha (born 1907) and Theodore Pitchlynn (born 1908).

Animal Helpers - Creek

A man on a considerable journey stopped to eat his lunch beside a creek. Then a big black Ant came out and said, "Give me a piece of bread. Sometime I may help you out of trouble." So he gave it some bread. By and by he heard some talking in the water, and some small Minnows came up and said the same thing. He gave the Minnows some bread also. Then a red-headed Woodpecker came and asked for bread, which he again gave to it.

After this the man went on again and came to a town (talofa). There was a lot of wheat at a certain place in that town, and the people told him that he must move it and put it in barrels by morning or they would kill him. So they tied him down on the wheat and went away. By and by up came the black Ant which he had fed and asked him what the matter was. The man told him, and the Ant immediately went away and brought back a multitude of Ants, who soon had the barrels full. Next morning the people paid him for what he had done, but said that the next night he must dig up a certain tree, root and all, or they would kill him. This time the Woodpecker came to him and asked what the matter was.

"I am in trouble," he said, and he related what had been imposed upon him. Then the Woodpecker flew up and told the lightning and the lightning came down and tore the tree up, roots and all, so that in the morning the people paid him for that. They told him, however, that a horse loaded with gold had been drowned in a neighboring creek and that they would spare him if he found it by the following morning. So they tied him again and laid him on the bank of the creek.

By and by the little Fishes he had fed came and said, "My friend, what is the matter with you?" He told them, and they went down and brought all the money to land, but they said that they could not get the horse for the snakes (hotisagi) alone could do that, and they were only orderlies (hola`talgi). They made a pillow of the sack of gold under his head. The town people paid him for all the work he had done, and he went home a rich man.

Creek Myths and Tales of the Southeastern Indians, By John R. Swanton, 1929

Submitted by Wolf Walker.
From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories