Grieve in Water

IS LUMBEE LOVE DEAD? 

When she is sick and dying, who last shall, vigil keep beside her lonely, lovely waters if not we, those indigenous to the waters of the ole Lumbee fail to protect her in the present? Will we stand up and safeguard her beauty as only we see it or do we discard her as a mere swamp, remiss of our duties owed to her bounty? 

by jojo brooks shifflet, Lumbee nation 




The grief in water doesn't leave us, not in this culture we live living, as if we are distant from cause and effect. The average person does not pay attention, or heed the warnings of scientists, or the obvious evidence on a walk along a stream in a forest, or a park's pool. Women are not respected at the significant levels their creation orders the world's original structures. American, or more specifically, European historic practices have not respected this state of being. This continued practice embedded in thought life and practice does not care for water in a sacred way.

Protesting companies fouling up our waters is different from care for water as a sacred responsibility with prayers, the words and songs of power delivered from the womb daily! This passes as social responsibility, but the custom of separating Life into parts indifferent from each other cannot see the whole when profit is the gauge measuring 'progress'. Measuring is destined to devalue one to gain the other, so water like Earth are in danger of irreversible poisoning. A population dismissive of sacred things, and sacred responsibilities is incapable of exercising compromise, or changing self to save a planet, or grasp how the elements live within our "who we are"!

In layman's terms, we are in a 'clusterfuck'! In respectable verbiage we are in a pickle! In reality, we are killing our grandchildren to feed our children! This is the spirit of a mentality resistant to change, reform and being human.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
Feb. 9, 2018

Water Carrier.

Sacred Art Work by Le Ah Tiamat titled, Sky Qwake

BOOK PROMOTION: A LUMBEE GERSHOM

Anita Jo Shifflet reading her book,

A Lumbee Gershom. (2018) 

alumbeegershom.com

Lonely and tired, the lovely young Indian woman with the white father and Lumbee mother embraced courage and chased truth as she looked into the angry eyes of a crowd that judged her. She knew she was the evidence her parents had broken the law by loving and marrying one another. She also knew her existence was evidence that racism exists in people of varying shades of color. Her two worlds melted into one as she looked directly into the eyes of her critics and began to speak.
"For I have been a stranger and have dwelt in a strange land...I am A LUMBEE GERSHOM." 

Anita Jo Shifflett, Lumbee author and lawyer promoting her book in November of 2016.

🌻 A LUMBEE GERSHOM🌻


Where Do You Dwell? Are you prepared for a journey into my world? A world where my skin deceived those that did not know the true me? A world where I grew up playing with the children of great writers, doctors, attorneys, United States Generals, and even United States Senators. Or would my real world interest you more? The world of my brown skinned mother and my people, the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina. A community filled with clapboard houses, mobile homes standing a top of exposed cinder blocks, old pick up trucks with strong brown arms propped upon doors making their way down old dirtroads, mule pulled tobbaca’ crates, the sweaty faces of the tobacco croppers with barefoot Indian children freely running through flat fields of sand and old Indian women sitting on front porches shelling field peas faster than any machine could possibly imitate.

Such scenes came from my hidden world…the world of A Lumbee Gershom.
Or does my secret world interest you more? A place where words like “miscegenation”, "mixed marraiges”, "Eugenics” and "forbidden love affairs” shaped my young adult life.
And the best part?
Every word is true…. Take the journey with me, JoJo…the original Lumbee Gershom.

ON SALE NOW $15.00 SIGNED TO YOU BY JOJO. BUY YOUR COPY NOW AT
alumbeegershom.com

a Lumbee story

I love this land dotted with abandoned old barns and smokehouses now filled only with memories of another time... they tell of a forgotten tribe in forgotten times and oh my, how much the old clapboard houses and fading worksheds can tell us if we would choose to be still and look at our past instead of speeding by it with disregard.

We are so blessed ...for we live in a land we intimately know like "no other place on earth." It is but the few who can make such a claim to the land they call home....We are the blessed....We are the survivors... We are the prodigy of warriors whose graves we drive past each day ...

And so I like to do small things, like stopping along the journey to really look at what resembles what must have been a plow or a tobacco crate or crib. And Many times I leave with only more pictures in my camera, but my brother, sometimes ...just sometimes, I leave inspired to be the best I can be because THEY...our grandparents and great grandparents were the best THEY could be everyday and I know this to be true, how? Because they survived so that we can now thrive.

And those words my friend, came from a rusty old red tractor sitting in a cleared field down "nyear" the schoolhouse....🌻
Best Regards,
JoJo Brooks Shifflett 

Anita Jo Shifflet with Dennis Banks.

One has to stand still to know this story, not move to know the motion of the past, and one needs to care enough to listen in silence without rushing to the next moment, the next thought! Jo Jo, in your story a phrase caught the rhythms, in my ear, of Ubuntu. I heard it catching the universality of your storytelling.

"I leave inspired to be the best I can be because THEY...our grandparents and great grandparents were the best THEY could be everyday ...Because they survived so that we can now thrive..."
This concept, Ubuntu, is far away from Western ideologies and much to do with Lumbee and other nations here on Turtle Island. This interconnection is a language you speak very well. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

a Lumbee woman's fashion tip.

Anita Jo Shifflet said, 

Anita Jo Shifflet said, "A true lady travels light and prepared ... black boots, a black handbag , red lipstick and ALWAYS has a good READ tucked in her handbag for those days when the subway is late and The Wall Street Journal is too grey!" 

This post is sponsored by the Makers of A LUMBEE GERSHOM...A Good Read for the Girl on the Go!!!
Check JOJO BROOKS SHIFFLETT out at Alumbeegershom.com

PROMOTING: A Lumbee Gershom!

Anita Jo Shifflet, Lumbee author promoting her book: A Lumber Gershom (2018).

Dear Customers...All Orders have been processed and will be shipped out January 27, 2018...All books will be inscribed and signed by JoJo. We apologize for the delay but had many orders to process. If you are interested in taking the journey with JoJo, You can still purchase your inscribed & signed copy for $15.00 at
alumbeegershom.com — with Anita Jo Shifflett.

The Magic of Standing Rock

The Magic of Standing Rock
by JoJo Brooks Shifflett 

I shall never forget the power of the moments at STANDING ROCK...The 12 days I spent there were overflowing with moments that literally transformed Indian boys into Native men and Native men into true warriors.

I knew as I watched Two Kettles walk across a frozen river at 10° below zero, I would in all likelihood, never again come as close to seeing the rawness of courage...It was a dark night and my eyes followed those 2 warriors I knew only as Two Kettles with my eyes until their bodies became silhouettes...I remember feeling ashamed I had not the courage those young braves possessed as they assured ME not to worry, that as long as I was giving all the bravery I had within me to stay behind and wait upon them to return, that I must be at peace with myself and allow them to finish the dark journey across a frozen river and up an exposed riverbank without me.

I admit, their words eased my guilt but the solemness of the moments before the two very young warriors left the safety of my warm rented car was thick and heavy and without pomp or ceremony.
I was worried for their safety as I had attempted to talk them out of their mission to retrieve a flag that was not even their own tribal flag.

You see I had done something I had not ever done...I had talked two people into something and I could NOT talk them out of it...I had convinced Two Kettles that the tattered piece of cloth was more than just another tribal flag. It was a symbol of my nation's alliance with them. To allow the feds to bulldoze it and dispose of it as trash I argued, was erasing some, even if just a small sum of my tribe's history as well as their tribe's history and the Miracle of Standing Rock!

You must help me save it, I told them, I am a stranger here...I do not know my way around your lands.
They said little at first...and then they spoke...

They call you the fancy lady, they call you A Lumbee Gershom... But they also call you the friend of Unci Dennis. So we trust you. And we are now concerned...we are concerned if we say no, that you may ask others who will lead you into danger...So Lumbee JoJo, You spoke of this flag and of history..Can you promise us it will hang in a place where people in your lands in the East will see it? We are NOT afraid of the frozen river, we know her well, that is why we fight to protect her, she has taken care of us...but we respect her power too...she knows greed. We will not step onto her if you want the flag for greed. We want the world to know what happened here! Can you promise us that Lumbee JoJo? Can you promise us you want the flag only to tell her story? Unci Dennis said your grandfather marched with him and fought with him in Washington D.C. He said your cloths may be fancy but your words are plain. so tell us Lumbee JoJo, why are you here? Why did you come to Standing Rock?

Before I could think of a truly articulate, persuasive statement, the truth in all her simplicity spilled out of me...

I wanted to see history.

The stocky, shorter one finally spoke. We can't even get them to show what is happening to us on mainstream news! So now you saw some history.. how will getting your flag back help us?

I just sat there at the casino bar beside them, listening NOT to anger but hearing FRUSTRATION. I knew the words they did not say, my heart hurt as one looked down at the casino bar before us and shook his head as he exhaled so deeply we all heard him sigh. 

And then one of those magic moments that defined Standing Rock happened. I told them how far I felt from home when I arrived at the camp.. And then I looked up and right at the entrance to Camp OCETI SAKOWIN was my tribal flag. I knew it was a sign I did the right thing by coming here.
And from there we began talking of signs and symbols. I told them I believed that every single tribal flag that flew at Standing Rock was a piece of history and must be preserved.
We cannot allow the feds to trash them. Each one now is the centerpiece of a great journey it went on. I want to take my tribal flag home, i said as straightforward as I could.

The tall one made the offer... O.k. JoJo, If we help you get the flag back, you give your word it will go into a museum? It must be placed in a place where it can tell the story...You will do this?
I promised it. I gave my word I would do all in my power to have it displayed in a museum back East where it would spark discussion of Standing Rock.

So in the light of day, we agreed.... We would retrieve the Lumbee flag under cover of night...and armed guards. Yes, that part...the part about armed guards they skimmed over... was the part I could not let go of. 

I was still dwelling on it as we were smudged that night before our short but potentially dangerous journey, and i was obsessed with it as I handed them all they had asked for, two flashlights, a plastic bag a map and a ride to and from the decided drop off point.

As I handed them the items I was shivering and my teeth chattered so hard I thought I would chip a tooth. Just wait till before dawn, they told me...If we are not back before dawn, you leave...
I looked at them and began to cry...This is wrong,, Not all this for a piece of cloth... please, come back to the hotel with me now...

The taller one grabbed my arm....Hey now, JoJo, we are not doing this just for you...Heck no!! We are doing this to show them they CANNOT erase us...they cannot bulldoze history...They cannot bulldoze Standing Rock.

Do not forget your own words...That flag symbolized our alliance, sister. Your people and my people...we gathered once at Standing Rock. 

As I watched them disappear into the night, I found the courage to wait alone in the dark Dakota night. The courage came in a single moment. A moment that was as brief as it was momentous...
And as with so many things that happened at Standing Rock, It is not time to tell the rest of the story...yet.

by JoJo Brooks Shifflett
unedited
typed into phone

March 21, 2018 

Flag of the Lumbee people held by tribal member and author,

Anita Jo Shifflett. (2018)

I had to read this and re-read it with the emotions your moment engineered. It is hard to fathom how dark the energies and intent of a people deeply opposed to the principles of water threats and death to those who are responsible for the Earth, our Mother!. It lingers, this propensity of violence towards women, as women like you take risks standing against this stubborn rock subjugating life for profit and privilege. That was one of my immediate reactions.

You know this, but others need to understand the basis of Native life: spiritual responsibility has natural responses in every act of living. Without the sense of spiritual responsibility in one's life any brutality can pass a litmus test. Without the people fully engaged in their spiritual responsibility chaos would race across all of existence creating terror within a type of hell too horrible to live through, and hard to describe to the simple minded or those living deep in denial...

I admire your overlapping telling of more than one story in one story. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

AFRICAN SHINNECOCK man

Edward Gumbs

Shinnecock and African heritage

"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future." --Lumbee proverb

THE SHINNECOCK INDIANS OF EASTERN LONG ISLAND.

The Shinnecock Nation is a federally recognized Indian Nation, located on the East End of Long Island adjacent to the Town of Southampton. Federal recognition was achieved October 1, 2010, after thousands of years of documented history on Long Island, and 32 years of struggle with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. As the 565th federal tribe, its banner has taken its place among other tribal flags at the U.S. Department of the Interior, BIA, Hall of Flags, Washington, D.C.

(c) Photo courtesy of Toba Tucker

I Love Ancestry

The beauty of masculine energy balanced and focused is penetrating, if evenly directed and centered within the being. The power of a man's beauty of face, spirit and body is as mysterious a responsibility as any. It is what the boys in my family are taught at some point, in a way unique to each personality. It has to because sexual energies come with lineage, and if that lineage holds within itself generations of social responsibilities the elders (the fathers and uncles) have to teach by example first, by words later. 

This young man brings it home. It is in his eyes, and in the way his right hand holds the sacred pipe, and how his body is poised to serve, to protect, and carefully begin a pipe ceremony. How a man holds a thing, a person, an idea, a trembling soul is the man. His looks into and upon the world(s) he sees tell a story of who he is to those important to his life. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.15.13

ELDER'S MEDITATION

Oh Great Spirit, keep me awake today. Let me hear the voices of our ancestors...let me hear the voices of the Grandfathers. Because everybody is doing it doesn't make things right. Let me hear the truth today and become a coyote for the people. Give me the courage to be willing to be different. Let me walk straight on the Red Road.

Elder's Meditation of the Day 
July 25, 2012

"People need to wake up. They can't hear God's voice if they're asleep."

-- Vernon Cooper, LUMBEE

Black Elk, a Sioux, talks about the hoop of many hoops. He says that above the people is a hoop, a conscience, the total belief of the people. If the hoop is sick, meaning dysfunctional, co-dependent, a lot of alcoholism, family abuse, violence, racism and sexual abuse, the people can get used to this and think this is normal. In other words, the people are asleep. If we have left the spiritual way of life, the people are asleep. If we are giving our power to another entity, the people are asleep. In most tribes, there are Coyote Clans. The job of the Coyote Clan People is to wake the people up. They need to become a nuisance and irritate the people. We must return to the spiritual walk.