We are a matriarchal society. Let us honor our clan mothers. Even our language honors the women. It is a female language. When we dance, the men dance on the outside of the circle. The inside of the circle is to honor the women. When you dance to the ceremonial sounds of the earth you are tickling earth mother, giving her joy for all the things she gives us to stay alive...!!!

In our way of life... with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the seventh generation of children to come. When we walk upon earth mother, we always plant our feet carefully, because we know that the faces of future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them. May we always remember them...!!!

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you, and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear. What one fears... one destroys...!!! In that destruction there can be no peace... there can be no harmony... there can be no balance...!!!

To be a medicine man you have to experience everything, live life to the fullest. If you don't experience the human side of everything, how can you help teach or heal...??? To be a good medicine man, you've got to be humble. You've got to be lower than a worm and higher than an eagle...!!! To be a medicine man you have to walk where others dare to go...!!! Let us walk together in harmony with earth mother...!!!

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. We could not take our possessions with us to the other world. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one's spiritual balance. We want peace and love. Therefore, children must learn early the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving...!!! Let us give and do our best in all that we do and give...!!!

The most important thing to remember about ceremony is that it is a way for humans to give back to the Creator some of the energy that they are always receiving. The earth mother constantly gives us two-legged human beings a surface on which to place our two feet... father sun warms us... and grandmother moon brings dreams. The element of earth gives us a place to grow food, and the ability to make homes and tools. The water keeps us alive. The fire warms our homes and cook our food. The air gives us the sacred breath of life. Through ceremony... we learn how to give back...!!! Through ceremony we make our connection stronger...!!!

We are all flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root, and the root is our earth mother. The garden is beautiful because it has different colors in it... and those colors represent different traditions and cultural backgrounds...!!! Let us respect the difference in others...!!!

After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, or have been revealed by brilliant scholars, or have been written in fine books and embellished in fine language with finer covers of leather and silk... man... all man... is till confronted with the Great Mystery...!!! It is this Great Mystery that will lead us to total fulfillment...!!!

The Great Spirit based us here to take care of this land and live for Him through prayer, meditation, ceremonies, and rituals, and to lead a simple life close to earth mother. That's what many have been doing. Governments talk all the time about human rights, equality, justice, and all those things, but they have never done anything for the native people, and for people who are trying so hard to live a good life. Never... So it's time that they do that... live up to their talk... otherwise... nature is going to take over... these are my words...!!! Earthquakes, flooding, destruction by volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, things like that...!!! It's already happening, and it takes that kind of thing to wake up many people who are controlling this land by money and power, and just ripping everything from the earth. They are doing something that is not right in the law of the Great Spirit, and in the law of nature...!!! These laws of nature will one day ring in the ears and hearts of every human being who have chosen to ignore them...!!!

The people who are living on this planet need to break with the narrow concept of human liberation, and began to see liberation as something that needs to be extended to the whole of the natural world. What is needed is the liberation of all things that support life... the air, the waters, the trees... all the things which support the sacred web of life...!!! Let us live a good life close to earth mother...!!!

The Giver of life... the Creator... did not intend that people abuse one another. Therefore, human societies must form governments that prevent the abuse of human beings by other human beings and ensure peace among nations and peoples. Peace is the product of a society that strives to establish reason and righteousness. Righteousness refers to the shared ideology of the people using their purest and most unselfish minds. All people have a right to the things they need to survive... even those who do not or cannot work. No people or person has a right to deprive others of those things... food, clothing, shelter, and protection. Human beings should use every effort to sit in council about... mediate... and negotiate their differences. Force should be resorted to only as a defense against the certain use of force...!!! Let us walk together helping each other live a good life...!!!

To honor and respect means to think of the land and the water and plants and animals who live there as having a right equal to our own to be here. We are not the supreme and all-knowing beings, living at the top of the food-chain of life as the inventors of all time... but in fact we are members of the sacred hoop of life... along with the trees and rocks, the coyotes and the eagles and fish and toads... that each fulfills its purpose. They each perform their given task in the sacred hoop, and we have one... too...!!! Let us respect each other in this sacred hoop of life...!!!

Wisdom does not belong to one person. We need to act in harmony with wisdom... but it does not belong to anyone. It is the lighted path of old and proven ideas through generation after generation of discovering natural law. May we seek paths to finding natural law...!!!

In the beginning we were told that the human beings who walk about the earth have been provided with all the things necessary for life. We were instructed to carry love for one another, and to show a great respect for all the beings of this earth. We were shown that our well-being depends on the well-being of the vegetable and fruit life, and that we are close relatives of the four-legged beings...!!! We are relatives of all living things, we are relatives of all life...!!!

Words that are said above have been said many times before. How many times do words have to be said before we give an ear to words...!!! Over the week-end a good friend came by and left his t-shirt on my chair with words written on the t-shirt. I will share these words with you. These words comes from The Tree of Peace Learning Center... everything in nature has its instructions... just as geese have been instructed by the Creator to fly in a particular pattern every year... our instructions as humans is simply to give thanks to the natural world... and by doing do... protect it...!!! Let us help each other find the common good in all things...!!!