We need each other...

"I don't discount the heart songs of people. The heart knows itself, but in the work of reconciliation there are some rules. There is a transitory phase the predator and the prey pass through. It is very much like a valley between mountains. Quite often whites leap over this part with sweeping words and story that plays on emotions. 


Do we ever hear Indians or Blacks publicly declaring "I have a white heart." The torment on and in the souls of people of color is fresh, and it never helps the way whites step in that pain with the same energy body that conquered into other people's identity and ceremonies. Many of us are so screwed up and hurting we go on automatic and in survival mode do things whites mistake as a passing comment, frivolous gesture. I don't think I have to go into detail, but on behalf of the many who aren't as articulate it has to be said. Reconciliation work between the races does not have full participation because most whites are incapable of a few things we all need if we are to eventually become a family, and sadly step out of the way hoping not to be called upon...


Dorothy Height, at Coretta Scott's funeral summed it the best. "The White man needs the Black man to help him with his guilt. The Black man needs the White man to help him with his fear."


We need each other. This work of reconciliation upon the Medicine Wheels is sacred, but it is hard and challenging. It is far beyond cliches and trying to make whites feel good about themselves in exchange for what we sacrifice by not sacrificing for the sake of our souls and our generations!


These are my words." -Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Medicine Wheel Garden: identity

Kim,


Sometimes the Creator leads us to ask the right question at the right
time. I believe your question was one that needed to be asked or you
would not have gotten the response that you have gotten. Never look
at a question as being wrong, but what has been learnt from it. How
many people did your question touch, lead to a better idea, help in
making a step closer to walking in the footsteps of the ancestors.
Many of us have taken many steps along the New Age road hoping to
find our way. It took my Grandfather over 3 years to get all the
trash out of me so that I could remember what I had been taught the
first 18 years of my life.

The New Age movement is not a bad thing because it is people looking
to come back closer to themselves, nature, spirituality. But it is
not the way of the ancestors. There are hundreds of thousands of us
who are of mixed blood, who have no connection to our heritage that
have this gaping hole in their soul that needs to be filled. I am
very lucky, I had a Grandfather that was raised traditionally and
passed that on to me. I look as white as the next person, and I am
not accepted at all Indian places, but here in MO they know me and I
am accepted and in parts of OK I am accepted. The true traditionalist
will never accepted the New Age learning due to they feel it is just
another way that the white world has found to rip off the Indian. It
may take many months or years for a person to get past this, but with
respect and an open heart you can overcome this obstacle.

Today I must go out because I have plants that I must gather today.
Take each day as it comes. Learn a little each day and ask lots of
questions and hang on for the ride.

Love
Raven
20 Mar 2004