AMERICAN WHITE WOMEN: unraveling the puzzle.

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." ~ John Paul Sartre

Luxore exquisite in this moment defines, expresses women's appreciation for the free flow of creative reproduction in the parallel realms of essence, becoming and fulfillment in the expression of divinity and the need for touch, and the reciprocation of loving the man made for her life. It is a simple formula complicated by history and history's misdeeds vomited upon white women by European men. Women's Liberation is from the yoke of European men's pre-existing condition, his predisposition to kill his own women, who won't submit to his limited view of themselves. It was not perceived how to liberate themselves until white women landed on the east coast of what they thought of as the New World and saw how the women of those Red nations lived in matriarchal nations!. . . ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/24/18 

Stillness. In the garden, the air, beneath the sea. 

a concept from photographer, 

Roland Dawson. (Nov. 22, 2018)

"… the lovely form, the composure is elegance; the flowing lines of this woman's own legacy of lovely form is in the spirit of what are necessities in the art of the feminine. Here is an image. Hold still breath, bring forth the sounds of songs, and in it a celebration of an essence (we) men cannot live without... There is more, but how far can language translate what cannot be touched?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/25/18

Another Look at Life!

Tree birth. 

Tree swing. 

Gallery of Native people 

Full of LIFE.

naked Black woman, Bria Angelique in purple light.

Native woman's introspective beauty of form and face.

In the eyes her people peer back into focus on an inner truth.

Naomi Sims, model and pride of Black America. 

Naomi Campbell at 42.

Cherokee HISTORY

This is a profound reminder and provides a deep penetrating look into why the dysfunction in the Cherokee nation needs to look back towards these times to see better the present state of affairs! This is applicable to all of us in our nations needing reconstruction and relief from the patriarchies that replaced what worked for centuries before the whites came! I am glad you shared this...

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/6/17 

Cherokee Women


Women in the Cherokee society were equal to men. They could earn the title of War Women and sit in councils as equals. This privilege led an Irishman named Adair who traded with the Cherokee from 1736-1743 to accuse the Cherokee of having a "petticoat government". Clan kinship followed the ...
mother's side of the family. The children grew up in the mother's house, and it was the duty of an uncle on the mother's side to teach the boys how to hunt, fish, and perform certain tribal duties. The women owned the houses and their furnishings. Marriages were carefully negotiated, but if a women decided to divorce her spouse, she simply placed his belongings outside the house. Cherokee women also worked hard. They cared for the children, cooked, tended the house, tanned skins, wove baskets, and cultivated the fields. Men helped with some household chores like sewing, but they spent most of their time hunting.

Nancy Ward, or Nan'yehi (nan yay hee), is the most famous Cherokee Beloved Woman. The role of Beloved Woman, Ghigau (Ghee gah oo), was the highest a Cherokee woman could aspire to. A Ghigau had a voice and vote in General Council, leadership of the Women's Council, the honor of preparing and serving the ceremonial Black Drink, the duty of ambassador of peace-negotiator, and the right to save the life of a prisoner already condemned to execution. One such prisoner was a settler named Mrs. Bean, who was captured in an attack on illegal white settlements on the Watauga (wah tah oo gah) River. Mrs. Bean taught Nan'yehi such skills as spinning, weaving, and the raising of animals, which Nan'yehi in turn taught the rest of the Cherokee. This provided the Cherokee with some food during the winter months, but gave them more work.

The title Ghigau also translates to "War Woman," and Nan'yehi earned the title by taking up her husband's gun when he was slain in a battle against the Creeks and leading her people to victory. 

Another War Woman, Cuhtahlatah, won honor during the American Revolutionary period by leading Cherokee warriors to victory after her husband fell. She later joined in a vigorous was dance carrying her tomahawk and gun.

It was important to the Cherokee that their losses be compensated with the same number of prisoners, or lives. Women led in the execution of prisoners. It was their right and responsibility as mothers. They celebrated the capture of prisoners with song and dance and joined in torture at the stake. Women had the right to claim prisoners as slaves, adopt them as kin, or condemn them to death "with the wave of a swan's wing."

In the Cherokee society your Clan was your family. Children belonged to the entire Clan, and when orphaned were simply taken into a different household. Marriage within the clan was strictly forbidden, on pain of death. Marriages were often short term, and there was no punishment for divorce or adultery. Cherokee women were free to marry traders, surveyors, and soldiers, as well as their own tribesmen.

Cherokee girls learned by example how to be warriors and healers. They learned to weave baskets, tell stories, trade, and dance. They became mothers and wives, and learned their heritage. The Cherokee learned to adapt, and the women were the core of the Cherokee. 

— author unknown, history well known.

Other sides to know about...

Native woman's simple but astounding complex of beauty. 2

Sanctity of Feminine is a secret to the crude, the willingly ignorant and

abhorrent to those who prey upon women's spirits and bodies.

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Shaniece Gomez‎ from LGBT = Liquor Guns Bacon And Tits Private Group.

2017

Deeply embedded beauty within Black women is different from other women. It is the energy.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12.9.15

Just to Look!

"Each woman comes center stage into the limelight as herself. 'As herself' can extend between who she dreamt, and created as who she is, and who she actually is. Either way it is all creation, and creativity bringing women into the arts requires authenticity, and commitment to their art. Fame is a by-product of attempts made to be in upper echelons of one's field, and what it takes to be the best at what you do as art, and for the love of doing it better and better each time you get a chance. Fame ask one thing: be prepared." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Jan. 25, 2017

Octavia Spencer attended the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards show. She is too fine! No, she is a bit beyond fine! What an impeccable spirit she has as a woman and an actress. It is unbelievable how utterly beautiful and physically flawless she is! I look at her and hear her talk and she is speaking from within substance, and I wonder within and aloud, "My Goodness, where'd she come from!!"

Well, that is how I react seeing her on television, or the big screen; even in the small Aunt Jemima roles she has played I remember being struck by her core. It is the core coming outwards that matches her profound beauty! That's what it is! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [Jan. 25, 2017]

Ornella Muti at the closing ceremony of the 56th Cannes film festival.

Native woman's introspective beauty of form and face. In the eyes her people peer back into focus on an inner truth.

Nicole Faria at the unveiling of first look of the movie

' Chitkabrey-Shades Of Grey' in Mumbai on April 10, 2011.

Porn Star - Jessa Rhodes

Dame Helen Mirren, thoughts of.

the Unknown in the Familiar.

Mystic Fire Native Heart

"Exquisite beauty of a Native woman's simplicity, and understated reciprocated love for others aglow in the stillness."

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Jan. 31, 2017

face of perception.

exquisite beauty of Bai Ling.

"Exquisite beauty of this woman wearing a three piece lingerie set from Casmir including a sexy open bra, a garter belt and a matching opened thong is the beginning of understanding what is hard to express."

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (Jan. 2017)

Native Voices: speak

Writer, Joy Harjo today said,

"\I really appreciate these words from the writer, poet Marcie Rendon. She gives voice to what so many of us are feeling. Writing towards understanding, making songs, and helping any way possible from here because I can't be there, are what is keeping me from the edge of despair.

Marcie Rendon : "to all non-native folks on here: the oppression is real; historical/generational trauma is real. the events in standing rock are triggering most native people's historical trauma - ...we 'feel' it to the marrow of our bones and flowing through our veins; those of us listening to and watching the news are experiencing secondary trauma - we open Facebook and expect the news to be of a massacre; our bodies are reliving history. it is nothing compared to the folks who are there but it does leave those of us not there with that feeling like watching a family member get beat up and not being able to stop it... when we hear that someone is missing we automatically believe the worst and prepare for the worst - so we get to figure out how to handle/heal from the trauma... and pray and be of assistance to those who are on the front lines in whatever way we can.... so, friends you need to understand where we are at each day - each moment of each day..."

Horse & rider, Destiny H. Buck

This cross worn by this Cheyenne is symbol of brokenness, broken promises

and the dichotomy of misdirected ministries creating insanity and alcoholism...

There were inherent promises implied and made by missionaries that eventually became the bane of existence for the People. The hope of Jesus, the Cross, Resurrection; all of those things were employed as tools to take land, rights and culture and identity away from the People.

So, the questions to ask seeing this man displaying a large cross begin in his quest to live with the white people who were the Fat Takers. Little has changed. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10.31.16

3 NDN Women of Substance.

wrestler, Endrit Preniq‎  

Zitkala-Ša was a Dakota writer, editor, musician, teacher & political activist (1876-1938)

Winter Flower, Ramapo has African blood...

Women's Strengths from form to seed.



Serena Williams by Annie Leibovitz in the 2016 Pirelli calendar !!!!



Serena Penaloza pregnant in the forest. photo © Jennifer Esperanza. Nov. 2012

 

WHAT SHE IS. . .

of Simone McLeod:



"I am looking into your face. It is not the beauty that holds me and keeps me looking into your face it is the statements you convey from the silence wrapped around you, and place in the shadows. Beauty isn't an announcement it is a state of being one's self, naked, firm, and in your story stoic, at times, and hard to categorize other times. What is beautiful to the eye holds my attention. What pertains to the heart stills the moment. What isn't said is as alive as what is conveyed in a glance, a song, a moment of awe and a reflection of essence..."  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.15.14 [Father's Day]

Ojibwe artist Simone McLeod
May 15, 2014 

 

Simone McLeod

May 14, 2014 

 

Tribute to a NDN woman

Chickasaw storyteller and actress Mary Frances “Te Ata” Fisher
was the first person to be declared an “Oklahoma Treasure” by the state.

 

Powerful SHE

Hyioka Bear Spirit

November 21, 2010

Hyioka Bear Spirit
Nov. 5, 2010

an NDN woman



Dancer's breathtaking beauty.

 

Contempary NDN women



Maya Vildosola

by C. Davis photography



Native woman's tats

 

Zitkala-Ša

Zitkala-Ša (1876–1938) (Dakota Yankton woman: pronounced zitkála-ša, which translates to "Red Bird"),[, also known by the missionary-given name Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a Dakota writer, editor, musician, teacher and political activist. She wrote several works chronicling her youthful struggles with identity and pulls between the majority culture and her Native American heritage. Her later book...s in English brought traditional Native American stories to a widespread white readership for one of the first times. Even though She has passed, Her battle continues.

Zitkala-Ša was an active member of the Society of American Indians, whose magazine was the American Indian Magazine. From 1918 to 1919 Zitkala-Ša served as editor for the magazine, as well as contributing a great number of articles to it. These were her most explicitly political writings, covering topics such as the contribution of Native Americans to WWI, land allotment, and corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Many of her political writings have since been criticized as being too assimilationist in nature, calling for recognition of Native American culture and traditions while at the same time advocating citizenship rights that would bring Native Americans further and further into mainstream America.

Commissioned by the Boston publisher Ginn and Company, Old Indian Legends was a collection of stories gathered from various tribes and published in 1901. Directed primarily at children, the collection was an attempt both to preserve Native American traditions and stories in print and to garner respect and recognition for those traditions among the dominant white culture.

Zitkala-Ša had a fruitful writing career that can be seen as falling into two chronologically separated periods. The first period was from 1900 to 1904 and was composed mainly of legends collected from Native American culture and autobiographical narratives. She continued to write during the following years, but she did not publish. These unpublished writings, along with others including the libretto of the Sun Dance Opera, were collected and published as Dreams and Thunder: Stories, Poems, and the Sun Dance Opera by P. Jane Hafen in 2001.

The second period was from 1916 to 1924. This period was almost exclusively made up of political writings. In this period, Zitkala-Ša moved with her husband to Washington, D.C. and published some of her most influential writings, including American Indian Stories in 1921 with the Hayworth Publishing House. She co-authored Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery (1923), an influential pamphlet, with Charles H. Fabens of the American Indian Defense Association and Matthew K. Sniffen of the Indian Rights Association. She also created the Indian Welfare Committee of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, working as a researcher for it through much of the 1920s.

Her articles in the Atlantic Monthly were published from 1900 to 1902. They included, "An Indian Teacher Among Indians" published in Volume 85 in 1900. Included in the same issue were "Impressions of an Indian Childhood" and "School Days of an Indian Girl". All of these works were autobiographical in nature, describing in great detail her early experiences both on the reservation and her later conflict with dominant American culture and its assimilationist influences.

Zitkala-Sa's other articles ran in Harper's Monthly. "Soft-Hearted Sioux" appeared in the March 1901 issue, Volume 102 and "The Trial Path" in the October 1901 issue, Volume 103. She also wrote "A Warrior's Daughter", published in 1902 in Volume 4 of Everybody's Magazine. These works also were largely autobiographical in nature, though there were some that told the stories of those she knew or taught in addition to her own personal story.

In 1902 she published another article in Atlantic Monthly, volume 90, entitled, "Why I Am a Pagan". It was a treatise on her personal spiritual beliefs in which she countered the trend of the time towards showing Native Americans as readily conforming to the Christianity forced on them in schools and public life.

Much of her work is characterized by its liminal nature: tensions between tradition and assimilation and between literature and politics which are particularly clear in her autobiographical works. In one of her most famous works, for example, American Indian Stories there is the obvious tension between her desire to provide a literary account of her life and to deliver a political message through the telling of the story. There is also the conflict which is the focus of the narrative itself between her desire to remain true to the traditions of the Yankton Dakota while as the same time being educated in an assimilationist manner. This tension, however, has been said to provide for much of the dynamism of her work.

Her works are still available today - almost 100 years after her passing. I am PROUD to call her an Ancestor... - Al Edwards

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cusww/ZS/rh.html



Zitkala-Ša was a Dakota writer, editor, musician, teacher & political activist (1876-1938)