This is for the cool. . .

Smoking outdoors is a release into the spirit, if one is so minded, or connected to the simplicity of spirit, the spirit of things and life forms surrounding us. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/02/18

Holy Smoke tradition

Cigars as ceremonial tool is sacred, powerful and effective in each realm.

- Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha

8.23.16

Cigar smoking old Cuban woman in Havana, Cuba. photo by Ania Blazejewska on Flickr.

Old Cuban Lady with Cigar

Photo by SCLR13 on Flickr

In Waters Where Whales Live . .

"In waters where whales live I dreamt, but never swam. I can't swim in water. I can flow in dreams in time with the ebb and flow of water, as I did and remember doing in my mother's womb. The dance in the womb is not different from dancing beneath the sea, the ocean, or the rivers of water upon the land. What is different is the safety of one, and the inherent dangers of the others.

Not being able to swim in either of the oceans I've waded in both from either side with the whales invisible to me, but present to themselves. The Black ancestors from one ocean, and the Red relatives from the other oceans don't sing of me, they murmur below where it is audible for me to discern their languages. I can intuit the stories of Africans in the Atlantic. Feeling every emotion from their individual lives during the Middle Passage I cannot enter the Atlantic until I leave an offering of tobacco with my words. Those moments come across as magical pulls into the deep where I suddenly realize it was at a place of no return, and began to feel the panic of drowning. As terrible and terrifying as panic is panic creates spontaneous actions and creative ideas surface. Drowning in those waters, and remembering I had not Medicine powers with Water Spirits the idea to let go as a child was revolutionary and it saved my life..." - Gregory E. Woods, DawnWolf,  Keeper of Stories

February 17, 2014 at 10:46am ·

 

Looks Good!

smoking on the street!!

smoke sacred, sacred smoke

People out of synch, out of touch with the sacred of Tobacco miss out on a single thing: relationship of the present, and the quality of Tobacco as a Sacred Being. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6.11.13

Xanny

 May 20, 2013

2 Natural Healers

Catrin Weiss by Florence Grube
Oct. 15, 2012

Catrin Weiss  is a natural healer. She is a German sister.

OUR SACRED MEDICINES

"Tobacco is the sacred herb of the East, the direction of Grandfather Sun, Eagle, and the Creator. We send our prayers up in its smoke, and Eagle takes them to the Creator. Thus, Tobacco also honors Eagle.

Cedar is the sacred herb of the South; it purifies as well as pulls positive energy into your sacred space with its smoke.

Sage is the sacred herb of the West, used in smudging to purify, and to send prayers to the Creator.

Sweet grass is the sacred herb of the North, a purifying herb used to cleanse the mind, body, and spirit. These herbs are also used in Ceremonies, for various purposes. - from Silvia Mamani

Deep Wisdom is a choice to receive.

"May I add to the sharing of knowledge what I learned from experience, and from the Okla-Choctaw elder, and teacher Rainbow Eagle? I'd like to share the more probing intimacies about our Sacred Medicines. Tobacco honors all energies. Sweet Grass makes no demands. It balances energies. 

The Cedar sets up pathways, and invites all into relationship. Cedar asks, "Will you be helpful with this new family?" Cedar has been known to offer, "If you are going to leave here is a song." This is an honoring. Cedar honors in a very big, yet subtle way. The Sage, or the Prairie Sage sets up the womb for decisions. It sets place for spirits to move, hold space and be a container for a time. Sage holds the Womb together. When using Sage ask of her to help you respect all energies. 

All of these Medicines have voices, and listen to us. This reciprocal relationship is beneficial as all good relations are, or could be." - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha

Vermont, USANovember 2012

Flashes into American Thought!

CVS Lets Go of $1.5B Tobacco Cash Cow - and 6 Other Bold Company Moves

By SUSANNA KIM (@skimm)

Feb. 5, 2014

I am so sick of and annoyed with this hollow triumph. The myopic approach to  health, and pollution is pitiful. Pollution is a complex problem and because Americans think simply simple minded attitudes become solutions and are passed off as successful approaches. The movement to remove smoking from restaurants and office buildings was a good one. Now, it is just a mean movement. It is mean and myopic more than anything else. As long as Americans focus on the fly on the wall they think the bug problem in their house is dealt with. - Gregory E. Woods, 2.8.14

II.
In spite of Jim Crow

1. Fisk University Graduates including W.E.B. Dubois (right), 1888

III.



Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a favorite character actor of mine. I didn't realize how famous he was until he died, so deep I was into the films he worked in.

Heroin? That is a helluva a drug. I remember the way it ripped through the Black community in the 1940's and '50's. Amongst musicians and hip cats in the community heroin ran around playing with lives. I remember how opium took comfort among white Americans in the last of the 19th century. I remember how and when the British started a drug trade in China where, and how the Americans started the opium trade in the virgin soil of Afghanistan. I remember how guns and drugs entered into southern California at the end of the Black Panther's movement was killed off by the government.

And after this actor, whose craftsmanship I admired, dies of an overdose there is a call to hunt down his dealer? Is that a call exclusive for famous white men? Because that doesn't happen in communities around the country. You die of an overdose and the police don't give a damn who sold it to you. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.8.14



IV.
Because of Jim Crow

2. Class from Roger Williams University in Nashville - 1899

V.
During Jim Crow 

3. Howard Univ. graduating class c. 1900

VI.
Black Women's vs. White women's sensibilities

singer Tracy Chapman
today

 

Tracy Chapman and Alice Walker were in a relationship when they both lived in Brooklyn in the mid 1990's. Walker discussed the relationship with an interviewer in The Guardian in 2006: “Why was it kept so quiet at the time? ”

"It was quiet to you maybe but that’s because you didn't live in our area,” she answers with a throaty laugh. She has written about the relationship in her journals, which she plans to publish one day. So why did they decide against using their relationship to make a big social impact like other celebrity lesbian couples, such as Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, have in the past? The idea seems to amuse her. “I would never do that. My life is not to be somebody else’s impact - you know what I mean? And it was delicious and lovely and wonderful and I totally enjoyed it and I was completely in love with her but it was not anybody’s business but ours.”

Alice Walker talks about her relationships (not always with men, not always a Black partner either) in some of her writing though, not always naming names. I didn't find her queerness to be a surprise because I studied her work. She even mentions women loving each other sexually or non-sexually in her definition of womanism. So queerness was included, in that aspect. I find the way she writes about the complexities of love and sexuality for Black women to be really important; some of the first stuff I read on the topic in my entire life. Started in adolescence. And Tracy Chapman is just everything! ~ Lioness Daiba Sala 2.7.14



"I have and have had deep feelings for Alice Walker a long time now. Her composure, intellect, beauty, the movement of her hands, daring, her writing skills and the steadiness of her eye, and voice drew me simultaneously into a study of her work and reflections of my own about various topics." - Gregory E. Woods 

Tracy Chapman 

Alice Walker, writer/scholar

VII.

Maya Angelou
 as a young woman 

 

“I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.” — Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou 

The Offering of the PIPE

"When you go back to Europe, tell your people that John Wayne didn't kill all my people, tell them we are alive and struggling for our rights. Tell them we are not dead but to survive we need to keep the traditions alive, you can help us do that! Go back to your people and run powwows, sing, dance and pray with your Chanupas "

words of Grandfather Fools Crow spoken to me (Keith Lord) in August 1970

SMOKING hot!!

“There was a time when it was very fashionable to smoke on TV, in the movies like Elizabeth Hurley here.. Cigarettes were used as a prop; a way to keep people baited, a well-timed pause, to light up the next cigarette, or used as an opening line asking for a lighter / cigarette. There are still some people today that like a cigarette, as much as they like sex. Their free choice, I s'pose…” Art is the Soul's Food

actress Elizabeth Hurley

“The flippant way of acting like tobacco and smoking are so passé, and wrong is disingenuous. The flippant way Americans like to toss aside major parts of their history is not fascinating. Interesting, yes, but it speaks volumes about the lack of something important and fundamental to existence. The story of Tobacco, and why it is sacred to us Native folk, and why it was gifted to the European was lost from the beginning of the relationship.

Today as a global power, and a young civilization the incredible leaps made from one extreme to another on major things like smoking, care for the pets, the environment, racial tolerance, etc. leave millions of people feeling trampled upon because the intimate and important steps in between those leaps is ignored. The dominant culture seems oblivious to what it feels like to be in the middle of these gaps, and is often astounded and incredulous at the assertions just made. It doesn’t change the facts of what it feels like to be disrespected by a group that doesn’t know it is disrespectful.” – Gregory E. Woods (9.10.12)

A classic image taken from the Tour de France series. Back in the roaring 20's, riders believed that smoking "opened up the lungs". This posters depicts race leaders Julien Vervaeke & Gerhard Geldhol dropping their arms, sitting up & enjoying a few puffs...

POTAWATOMI STORY: gift of the Medicine Wheel

Creation Story - Potawatomi 

Anishnabe found himself alone on earth. The Creator told him to give everything a name, and he did this, accompanied by a wolf. He discovered that only he, among the many species, was alone, without a mate, and he was lonely. 

He traveled to the Great Lakes and while searching, heard a beautiful song coming across the water. The woman's voice was singing that she was making a home for him. He fell in love with the voice and the song. In the days that followed, he learned how to cross the water and finally came to a lodge facing west. There lived a beautiful woman and her father, the Firekeeper. 

This was the first union - Anishabe and the Fire Keeper's Daughter. It determined the roles of men and women in marriage. They had four sons, who when they were grown traveled to the four directions of the earth. The son who traveled north had a hard journey, but learned that the melting snow cleansed Mother Earth. Because of the snow, the color for North is white. This son married the daughter of the Spirit of the North and was given sweet grass, the first gift of Mother Earth. It is kept in a braid like a mother's hair. 

The second son traveled east, into the yellow of the rising sun. He learned that fire is the essence of life and gained in knowledge of the Creator. He married the daughter of the Spirit of the East, and was given tobacco to use in prayer, to communicate with the Creator. The third son went south, which is the woman's direction from which comes seeds and other things that give life. Red, the color of life's blood, is the color for south. He married the Spirit of the South's daughter and was given the gift of cedar, which is used to cleanse and purify the home and prepare for food. 

The fourth son went West, toward the mountains. Marrying the Spirit of the West's daughter, he was given sage and learned that the setting sun represents the circle of life and its cycle. The color for West is black, for the dark time, and the sage, a strong purifier, is to keep illness away. 

Smoke from the cedar and sage is fanned upward with an eagle feather because the eagle once saved the Indian people when the Creator would have destroyed them. The eagle told the Creator there were faithful people on earth, and was sent out each morning to see if the smoke still rose from the lodges of those good people. Fanning the smoke with the eagle feather symbolizes the eagle delivering the message to the Creator that his people are still there and still believe. - from archives of Blue Panther

SURVIVAL OF THE THINKING

Model Hannah Doerksen embodies a concept of aloofness & the mysterious aspect of elegant womanhood captured by photographer Mikaela Lyrea stimulates thoughtful musings, and much later conversations. At first glance I am immediately placed in the historical context of a type of mystique Audrey Hepburn was known for sustaining in the eyes of her public. Those times birthed the necessity of  a mystique to survive as a woman, and to thwart the advances of the thousands of crude men in the shadows. What skills have been added to the survival mechanisms women must employ to walk and work in cities across the United States, and the Western world is dependent upon the level of crudeness of the men who walk and work in the cities.  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.22.12 

Photography/ArtDirection/

Styling: Mikaela Lyrea
Makeup and Hair: Seana Breh Gorlick
Model: Hannah Doerksen

All Rights Reserved Mikaela Lyrea Photography
©MikaelaLyrea

SMOKING

smoking Edit Magyar

Pipe Ceremony

Native American elder & his pipe

I wish there were better tributes, and connections to past actresses, and actors rather than our myopic approach to life. I wish this sentiment was applicable on a wider scale. Without the Griot tradition in place we have a myopic approach and view of things. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

A Story Of The Origin Of Corn And Tobacco - a Koasati story

Six Indian brothers traveled about. The youngest did not have enough to eat,
so he left the people and went off by himself. He took nothing with him
except an earthen pot which he carried on his back. He went on, camping each
night and traveling in the daytime. Going on camping in this way he settled
at a certain place near which he saw that two persons had built a fire. But
he stayed by his own fire watching it. In the morning the two persons saw
him and called to him to come over. When he got there they said, "Cook and
eat," and they gave him food which he cooked and ate. He remained to watch
the camp, but when day came those two men started out to hunt. After they
were gone that Indian took the little earthen pot, made it grow large by
snapping his fingers against it, set it in the fireplace filled with water
in which he had placed some food, and kept up a fire beneath until it
boiled.

The two persons traveled about and came back. When they got there he said,
"I am cooking for you." "Alas! (Hiha)," they said, "it is spoiled for us.
Now we must leave you."[1]

"To-morrow I will drive bear," said one of them. Together they went on to
drive the game toward him. They went on and camped four nights driving bear,
and saying to him, "You must drive bear this way." Then he himself went
along the trail. The Indian went. When he got where the men were standing
together they said, "We shot in this direction. The ground is bloody."

Following the trail for a while, they saw some red corn dropped on the
ground. The Indian took it and went on with it. Again they found two ears
(or kernels) of corn in the trail. He picked them up and carried them on.
Again they found two or three lying in the trail which he picked up and
carried along. Presently it was bright in front of them because there was a
big field there. When they reached it, it was something ripe (grain). The
men said, "You must stay here," and they went off. They showed him how to
make corncribs before they went. Then they left him alone. But they also
gave him tobacco seed, saying, "Plant some of this tobacco and smoke it."



Footnotes

[1] This is not clear. Perhaps he should not have cooked the food for them
because they were supernatural beings. They leave him after showing him how
to hunt bear and giving him corn and tobacco.



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.( Koasati )

Creation story from NDN country

Emergence from Nanih Waiya - Choctaw

A very long time ago the first creation of people was in Nanih Waiya and there they were made and there they came forth. The Muscogees (Creeks) first came out of Nanih Waiya, and they dried themselves on Nanih Waiya's earthen rampart, and when they got dry they went to the east. On this side of the Tombigbee, there they rested and as they were smoking tobacco they dropped some fire.

The Cherokees next came out of Nanih Waiya. And they dried themselves on Nanih Waiya's earthen rampart, and when they got dry they went and followed the trail of the elder tribe. And at the place where the Muscogees had stopped and rested, and where they had smoked tobacco, there was fire and the woods were burnt, and the Cherokees could not find the Muscogees' trail, so they got lost and turned aside and went north and there toward the north they settled and made a people.

And the Chickasaws third came out of Nanih Waiya. And they sunned themselves on the earthen rampart, and when they got dry they went and followed the Cherokees' trail. And when they got to where the Cherokees had settled and made a people, they settled and made a people close to the Cherokees.

And the Choctaws fourth and last came out of Nanih Waiya. And they then sunned themselves on the earthen rampart, and when they got dry, they did not go anywhere but settled down in this very land and it is the Choctaws' home.

This Myth was found in "Native American Legends" compiled and edited by George E. Lankford (August House/Little Rock Publishers, 1987, ISBN# 0-87483-039-7)

From Blue Panther Keeper of Stories

Tobacco is the Sacred Feminine

“Stories abound and wrap themselves around tobacco. Tobacco requires relationship. Tobacco is sacred. It belongs in our ceremonies. The medicine of Tobacco can guide through difficult prayers, and clarify. Our prayers wrap around the smoke traveling upwards toward Creator, whom we shall call He She Creation!”

-Dawn Wolf

Keeper of Stories 2009

TOBACCO

How Gluskabe Stole Tobacco - Alnobak

Long ago, Gluskabe and his Grandmother, Woodchuck, lived alone in a small lodge near the water. One day his Grandmother said to him, "My Grandchild, it is sad that we have no tobacco."

"What is tobacco, Grandmother?" Gluskabe asked."Ah, Grandson, tobacco is a great gift from Tabaldak, our Maker. If you are sick, you need only tobacco out in the woods, and you will find the medicine plants. Then, when you place some tobacco on the Earth, you can pluck those plants from the root and use them. Tobacco is a great comfort to the old.They can smoke it in their pipes and see all the happy days of their livesin the smoke as it lifts up. When you pray and burn tobacco, that smoke carries your prayer straight up to our Maker. Tobacco is a very good thing indeed, when it is used as Tabaldak intended."

"Then we should have tobacco," Gluskabe said. "Where can I find Grandmother?"

"Ah, Grandson," Grandmother Woodchuck said, "it is not easy to get tobacco. It is on a big island far out in the water. A person with great magic lives there. He raises tobacco and will not share it because of selfishness. He is very dangerous. Those who go to steal tobacco never return."

"Huunh!" Gluskabe said. "I will go and get tobacco, and I will share it witheveryone."

"Then Gluskabe went to the edge of the water. There was a hollow log there,and Gluskabe shaped it into a canoe. He put it in the water."Now," he said, "let me see if this canoe will go."

He pushed it with his foot, and the hollow log canoe shot out across thewater. It went one whole look, as far as a person can see."This canoe is not fast enough," Gluskabe said.The Gluskabe took a big white birch tree. He stripped off the bark and fashioned it into a canoe and put it in the water.

"Now," he said, "let me see if this canoe will go."

He pushed it with his foot, and the birch bark canoe went very swiftly over the water. It went two looks, but Gluskabe was not satisfied."This canoe is not fast enough," he said.Then Gluskabe fashioned a boat with ribs of cedar and the skin of a moose.He put it into the water and pushed it out and it went three looks. ButGluskabe was not happy with the moose hide canoe.

"This canoe," he said, " is not fast enough."Gluskabe looked around. There at the edge of the water was a great white boulder. Gluskabe turned it over, shaped it into a canoe and put it into the water."Now," he said, "let me see if this canoe will go."He pushed it with his foot, and it shot out across the water with Gluskabe  inside. It went four looks almost as quickly as one could think, leaving a great white wave behind it. Gluskabe was very pleased.

"Now I can go and get tobacco." He went back into the lodge.

"Grandmother," he said, "I am going now to steal tobacco. But first you must tell me the name of my enemy, the magician who will not share the tobacco.

"Grandmother Woodchuck shook her head. "Who will hunt for me and bring me wood for my fire and water for my cooking if Grasshopper kills you? No,Gluskabe, I cannot tell you his name."Gluskabe laughed.

"Oleoneh, Grandmother," he said. "When I return, you will be the first one to smoke tobacco in your pipe."

Then Gluskabe climbed into his white stone canoe. He pushed off from the shore, and the canoe shot over the waves towards the island of the magician,Grasshopper. As the canoe sped along, Gluskabe sang. Grasshopper, you are going to travel,Grasshopper, you are going to travel,You must leave your home now,Grasshopper, you are going to travel. He sang his song four times. By the time he was finished, he had reached the island, and, sure enough, just as he had wished in his song, Grasshopper was not there. The cooking pot was still on the fire, and the beautiful claypipe decorated with bright stones was beside the fire, with smoke stillrising from the bowl, but the magician was nowhere to be seen. Gluskabepicked up the pipe.

"Grasshopper," he said, "you are not going to need this anymore." Then he placed the pipe in his own pouch. Inside the lodge on many racks, tobacco bundles were drying. Gluskabe took them all and placed them in his canoe. He took all of the tobacco and did not leave a single seed. All around the fields were the bones of those who had come to steal tobacco and were killed by Grasshopper. Gluskabe gathered all the bones together and then shouted."Get up!" Gluskabe yelled. "Your enemy is coming back."

Then all of the bones came back together, and all of the people came back to life. They were very happy, even though some of them had been in such a hurry to return to life that they had gotten the wrong bones. Some of them had legs or armsthat were too short or too long. The old people say that is why there arecrippled people today. Gluskabe shared the tobacco among them. He mended their boats, which had been broken by Grasshopper, and sent them back to their homes.

"Tobacco is for everyone," he said. "You must always share it and give it freely or it will not do you good."

Then Gluskabe climbed back into his white stone canoe. He pushed it with his foot, and it flew back across the waves to the place where his GrandmotherWoodchuck waited."Grandmother," he said, "I have brought tobacco. Never again will it bescarce."

Grandmother Woodchuck was very happy. She filled her pipe with tobacco and smoked it and gave thanks to Tabaldak. She began to sing a song in praise other Grandson, Gluskabe. But as she sang, the magician, Grasshopper, came. He came across the sky in a magical canoe.

"YOU!" He shouted in a loud and terrible voice. "You have stolen my tobacco!" But Gluskabe was not frightened. He reached up with one hand and grabbed Grasshopper from his flying canoe.

"That is not so," Gluskabe said. "It was not right for you to keep it all to yourself. Now my children my children's children will have tobacco to enjoy." Then he rubbed Grasshopper between his hands, and Grasshopper became very small.

"Please," Grasshopper said in a small voice, "give me seeds so I can grow tobacco for myself.

"But Gluskabe shook his head. "No longer can you be trusted to grow tobacco.That will be the job of my children and of my children's children. But since you were the first to grow tobacco, I will give you enough to enjoy in your lifetime. Open your mouth." Grasshopper opened his mouth and Gluskabe filled it with tobacco. Grasshopper was pleased, but he spoke again.

"Give me back my canoe so that I can fly across the sky."

But Gluskabe shook his head. "It is not right for you to have such a magical canoe. I will split the back of your coat and give you wings. Now you will be able to fly on your own, but you will no longer be able to frighten the people."So it is that to this day tobacco is used by the children of Gluskabe and their children's children, and when they use it as Tabaldak intended, always giving it freely to others, it does no harm. As for Grasshopper, he flies about with the wings Gluskabe gave him and chews his mouthful of tobacco which will last him all his life. And he remembers the lesson taught to him by Gluskabe. If you ever pick up any grasshopper it will immediately spit out its tobacco as if to say, "See, I am willing to share."

From the Archives of Tiger Lilli Sakima

COMMUNITY & TOBACCO

Yairi Sanomaa
...But is it not like sacred tobacco, once used for ceremonies with respect? When the respect was lost, did it not become a dangerous addiction? I admire the ways of the hunter with respect, who practises the dance. I pity the hunter who doesn't know the dance, and I distain the hunter who mocks the dance and the traditions, and kills only for pleasure. My heart is wounded to see a mutilated carcass. I must nevertheless try to forgive all, because something made a creature of God, a human, an upright animal take pleasure in killing. This is not the way. I say this with respect and know in my heart you will agree, that when we hunt, or eat the flesh, we must be mindful of the sacrifice.

My skin is white, and I must call back to ancestors from long ago who also knew the dance. All humans once knew the dance.

I speak with great respect to all people. I must have courage to speak. All plants of the forest and field are sacred. Tobacco grew wild before cultivation and people, the upright animals, knew it was sacred. They began to ... See Morecultivate it, but they kept their respect. In my past I was a tobacco picker, but by then the respect had been lost. The sacred plant was harvested in kilns and shipped to Imperial Tobacco. I had the addiction then, and did not pay respect. I had to learn it.
 
I learned from a friend, another tobacco picker from the Mohawk nation, that tobacco was sacred, not an industrial product. We smoked unpolluted tobacco, from the kiln. Imperial Tobacco poisons the tobacco with chemicals. They make it more dangerous, and addictive. I respect all those who are able to grow their own natural tobacco.

I know communities rely on the trade in tobacco. I respect these communites and will support them, not with the purchase of tobacco, for my addiction is broken, but by my words that I speak openly. I know the people of this land have many unsettled land claims. I know the history of European conquest. And I honour the people of this land and have stood beside them at the barricades in Caledonia, Ontario. Their cause is just. I respect the elders who know and teach the old ways. They know the truth. And I speak with great respect and with a small voice. I do not speak casually in this forum, but with care. If I misspeak, please forgive me, give me time, and teach me. Thank you. Aho.

Moon Red Thunder
The dance is what's important more than where you come from. IT's where you're going and who you are that counts. Such a great day today; enjoying light and blessings.

Gregory E. Woods
“Yairi, your Life has connected with Tobacco, the Hunt, and the Sacredness of those relationships. That relationship holds life, and traditionally held community intact in some tribes like one of mine. Rebuilding community in our lifetimes does reach backward. The Sankofa Bird teaches the value of a historical perspective in decision making, and Children hold us in the present in such a way we find ourselves shaping the future for them with an awareness we had not known lived within us. This circular capacity to create is natural. It is born from an aspect of our wholeness. Our wholeness needs practicality. Without the practicality of the linear approach to living we are outside of the what brings us together as a community. We are all dancing somewhere in the Circle, along the lines, and from within ourselves together, and separately in the present held by the breath of our Ancestors who dreamt of our futures.”

Sacred Prayer over Tobacco

photo of Snowbird Black Feather

Elder's Meditation of the Day - March 10 2007

"I know Grandpa told me that to smoke is Wakan (holy). The smoke you inhale represents the spirits of everything you put into the pipe. When you breather in the smoke, you are asking to become one with everything or to become whole." -Dr. A.C. Ross (Enhanamani), LAKOTA

The smoke allows us to go from the Seen World to the Spirit World. It is in the Spirit World where we are all connected. In this way, we can become one with all things. Our pipe is sacred. We need to be respectful of our medicine. When we smoke the pipe, we need to have good thoughts because these thoughts are shared with the Spirit World. The pipe, the smoke, the spirits, our thoughts - these things are Wakan.

Great Spirit, today, let my thoughts be Wakan

4th Sacred Medicine tobacco teaching by Snowbird Black Feather

Proper Uses

Sacred herbs are powerful, but when misused or disrespected, their power consume us. Tobacco can be a healer or a destroyer. It depends on how and how often it is used. When used in a sacred way, it can promote good health and assist with spiritual guidance and growth. When tobacco is used in a protocol way it becomes sacred. In the old days, tobacco was the most holy of plants and the most sacred of ceremonial objects. The Creator's spirit is in tobacco. When used in this sacred manner with the sacred pipe, the spirit as smoke enters the man, refreshes him, and then travels to the sky laden with thanksgiving. For hundreds of years, the people were taught this holy and powerful way to communicate with their Creator. If used correctly, tobacco can improve your spiritual, mental and physical well-being. Many Elders feel that any use of tobacco that occurs outside of ceremony is an affront to the Creator. Think about it! Nothing commercially marketed, chemically laced and mass marketed can be sacred.

Real Tobacco

It is important to remember that Native Tobacco is a different species that is indigenous to the Americas. Real tobacco is not the tobacco you find in smoke shops and stores. When we say tobacco in English we are not talking about a sacred plant. There are over 60 species of this plant. It grows wild in most sections of North America. However, it is no way related to tobacco and does not contain nicotine or other poisonous properties. The Great Lakes Ojibwe, and the neighboring Iroquois used it for a number of medicinal purposes, including as a remedy for stomach aches and fever. It tends to remove obstructions from every part of the system and is even felt to the ends of the toes. Indian Tobacco not only cleanses the stomach but exercises a beneficial influence over every part of the body. Our own native languages have a word for tobacco that is to be used in offerings. We need to address the energy within that plant by its native name so that we can understand the plant as it understands us. It is important to know the name of the plant in your native language. 

-Snowbird Black Feather

3th Sacred Medicine tobacco teaching by Snowbird Black Feather

Purification and working with a clear mind and heart are essential in asking the land to provide for people. This is keeping with the Native belief that if you do things in a good way, good things will follow. If careful attention is not established, the result will not be as good. Sometimes elders place tobacco on the water. This shows our thanks to the Creator, for the lifeblood of our Mother the earth that is provided to us. At this time we also acknowledge the moon who in her 28-day cycle cleanses the water by filtering it through the sands.

Respect

Respecting our tobacco should be taken seriously. Sacred tobacco is used for prayers of gratitude to thank the Creator of Mother Earth for our many blessings, such as good health, great fishing, and good crops. When any plant is picked or any animal is taken, Tobacco and Prayer must be given to show respect. By honouring all our relations we demonstrate that we have not forgotten our place within the web of life. To offer someone tobacco is to ask that you and the person receiving the tobacco be of one heart, one mind and one spirit. Tobacco is offered when you ask someone to do a ceremony for you, such as a name-giving, drumming or singing for someone, to do a smudging ceremony, a sweat lodge or sacred pipe ceremony; any ceremony. This signifies that you and the one doing the ceremony are of one heart, one mind and one spirit, that you have the same purpose.

Another way that is used to bring people together in unity is that it is used to heal rifts between people. If you have a disagreement that causes ill feelings or someone has treated you badly, or if you have treated someone badly, you can bring tobacco and ask to speak to the person. Then of course, you would do your best to heal the rift, not to make things worse, so tobacco assists us in making amends, getting over resentments, healing emotional wounds and in forgiving people. Even a little tobacco can be given if you do not have money for a pouch. It is the sacredness that counts, not the amount. The person can decide to accept your tobacco or reject it.

Some of our Elders still offer tobacco to everyone who visits them. Tobacco is given to elders when one is seeking advice. It is always good to offer tobacco when seeking knowledge or advice from an Elder or when a Pipe is present. It shows gratitude and respect for the elder whose advice you are seeking. Tobacco is given when you appreciate a teaching from an elder or even a younger person if you value what that person has told you. It is a way of showing respect and gratitude. -Snowbird Black Feather