WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:08.240 As our voices join together bring this night of celebration 00:08.240 --> 00:18.240 Let our hearts join together light the hymn star of creation 00:18.240 --> 00:20.160 We gather together 00:20.160 --> 00:27.520 I'm going to introduce those of us who went to the gathering and are going to share this evening. 00:27.520 --> 00:44.160 To my right is Lorna. This is Joe. Susan. And Diana. I'm love. 00:44.160 --> 00:50.000 I fired the ash that's in the bowl over there. I didn't like what that story was. 00:50.000 --> 00:56.240 Okay. The sacred fire is a lot of indigenous people have fire as their sacred item, you know. 00:56.240 --> 01:02.240 The Wechole said that as soon as they're traveling, as soon as they stop, they start a fire. 01:02.240 --> 01:13.520 So for Native Americans and other indigenous people, ceremony is started with the sacred fire. 01:13.520 --> 01:23.200 And so the grandmothers met on Monday morning at sunrise with the fire keeper and started the sacred fire in a sacred way. 01:23.200 --> 01:30.000 And because the whole it was from Sunday from Monday morning till Sunday night. 01:30.000 --> 01:43.040 So it was a whole week of the sacred fire. So that made us in sacred space the whole time with that sacred fire going. 01:43.040 --> 01:52.400 And we went Sunday night after the fire was out and collected ash, which is allowable. 01:52.400 --> 01:58.480 We could touch it until after the fire was out in the morning. 01:58.480 --> 02:05.840 Each grandmother had one grandmother did a ceremony three hours long and then one in the afternoon and one in the evening. 02:05.840 --> 02:12.080 And each time they would they would first go into it was like it was like a medicine wheel. 02:12.080 --> 02:16.240 It was like twenty seven stones. I think it was in two circles. 02:16.240 --> 02:20.080 And there was it was open to the east, just like a medicine wheel would. 02:20.080 --> 02:31.840 And they'd walk in and they do all the directions and they do they do their own particular ceremony to their indigenous culture in that fire. 02:31.840 --> 02:45.760 And then they would bring that out. And when there was downtime, we were allowed to go into that circle, give thanks to that fire or use it to cleanse yourself with or whatever. 02:45.760 --> 02:57.040 And at the end, when the fire was was going out at the end of the ceremony, we were they told us that we were welcome to go and take some of the ash and take that out with us. 02:57.040 --> 03:03.840 And that carried what had gone on that weekend in the in the ash. 03:03.840 --> 03:15.800 With a medicine wheel or circle around it was in the center of the big open power grounds that was surrounded by a circular covered bleachers. 03:15.800 --> 03:20.440 So it was all circular. The fire was in the very middle. 03:20.440 --> 03:26.800 So the question was for the sweat lodges, were the stones in the sacred fire or their own fire? 03:26.800 --> 03:29.600 They were in their own fire. Yeah. Yeah. 03:29.600 --> 03:34.400 And it was mixed sweats. Women and women had everybody had to be clothed. Yeah. 03:34.400 --> 03:39.680 I'd have a dress on below your knees. How many people were in this? 03:39.680 --> 03:43.040 I wouldn't think more than six. They were pretty small. 03:43.040 --> 03:50.200 There were six of them and they but only three of them would be functioning at one time twice a day. 03:50.200 --> 03:56.760 A man was talking and he was sharing how I didn't really see him. 03:56.760 --> 04:03.160 I don't know. I'm going to say he was 50. I don't know how old he was, but he was sharing how he. 04:03.160 --> 04:08.440 All of his life had had so much. 04:08.440 --> 04:19.320 Angst, anger, hatred of the white man for his life, for what we did to them. 04:19.320 --> 04:24.600 And he said about two years ago, he came upon this realization, 04:24.600 --> 04:31.640 the oppressor is just as traumatized as the oppressed. 04:31.640 --> 04:39.480 And when he had that realization, it totally lightened his attitude towards the white man. 04:39.480 --> 04:46.560 It's like, oh, you know, even though you were chasing and killing my ancestors, you were being traumatized as well. 04:46.560 --> 04:49.840 I mean, it's not easy to chase and kill someone. 04:49.840 --> 04:57.720 It's not, you know, it's not human nature. That's not the divine being that we are doesn't hunt and kill humans. 04:57.720 --> 05:07.440 And then he said, and somebody came up to me today and said, there's a woman here in this audience who I want you to meet. 05:07.440 --> 05:13.680 And he went and met her and he said, and she's real. 05:13.680 --> 05:20.280 I wanted to make sure she was real before I brought her to you and she's the real thing. 05:20.280 --> 05:25.400 I would like to introduce you to Custer's great, great niece. 05:25.400 --> 05:29.480 And she's and he said, and here she is. 05:29.480 --> 05:43.320 And he gave her name and she stands up and she says, I apologize for my uncle's wrongdoing. 05:43.320 --> 05:47.240 The whole audience just broke into sobs. 05:47.240 --> 05:51.400 It was just it was really amazing. 05:51.400 --> 06:01.360 What I can add to it is that she didn't know she didn't know where she was going when she took the trip with her sister or friend. 06:01.360 --> 06:04.000 She didn't realize that she would be on Cheyenne land. 06:04.000 --> 06:15.040 She didn't realize so it was it was it was it was a part of what was to happen there in the healing. 06:15.040 --> 06:21.680 It wasn't her intention to go there with this Lorna, Diana, myself and Joe, who camped together. 06:21.680 --> 06:28.560 We went to Little Bighorn and we took sacred ash from the sacred fire. 06:28.560 --> 06:40.160 The fire was started sunrise Sunday morning and the fire keeper kept the fire going all the way until Sunday sunset. 06:40.160 --> 06:51.400 He was a Lakota man. And so we gathered sacred ash, which is what is on the table, which if you have a container with you, you're welcome to take some home. 06:51.400 --> 07:02.600 And we went there and we had our sacred ash with us. And the first place we went to was to the the grave site. 07:02.600 --> 07:09.960 My ancestors were all army cavalry. My great grandfather was a cavalry. 07:09.960 --> 07:13.240 He could have been a Custer Betty. I have no idea. 07:13.240 --> 07:27.000 So I went there and I offered I just offered my understanding of their trauma to help heal that. 07:27.000 --> 07:32.360 And then we went to the Indian pieces and we did the same thing all all there. 07:32.360 --> 07:36.080 And it felt very powerful, very powerful. 07:36.080 --> 07:48.680 And there was we heard so many stories about how the Native Americans were treated, going back to grandmothers and grandfathers and great, great grandparents. 07:48.680 --> 07:59.440 And how even nowadays it is it has been hard, I think, because they've heard the stories and live in that fear. 07:59.440 --> 08:02.000 And one woman got up and said, I've always been afraid. 08:02.000 --> 08:06.720 I didn't know what to do and I couldn't go anywhere or do anything. 08:06.720 --> 08:10.840 And now I know that there are people here and now I can go forward. 08:10.840 --> 08:25.480 I wanted to share about the cavalry when we went inside to the little the viewing room, the museum or whatever it was, there was they had recreated some of the the the people that had fought in Custer's army. 08:25.480 --> 08:33.880 And looking at this gentleman, he looked so lifelike and so real, it really brought it home. 08:33.880 --> 08:36.040 And there was a little little thing talking about it. 08:36.040 --> 08:44.960 And it said, and I can't remember the percentage, but I think it was at least 60 percent of the cavalry were immigrants. 08:44.960 --> 08:51.480 So they were these poor people that were from another nation that had no idea what they were going into. 08:51.480 --> 08:56.000 They had no they were probably had nowhere to go and nothing to do. 08:56.000 --> 09:01.680 So the Calgary, Calvary or whatever was the way to go to survive when they came to the Americas. 09:01.680 --> 09:05.080 So that was really interesting to them. 09:05.080 --> 09:18.720 So what I'd like to speak to kind of follows Susan in that it's the ancestral healing. 09:18.720 --> 09:46.760 There there were many layers of intention for ancestral healing and one that I really came away with and learned a lot and I'm still learning and will always be learning about is my own ancestral healing and that it's a responsibility for me to tap deep into my ancestry. 09:46.760 --> 09:59.040 One of the things that was shared through story and through smaller circles in the evening, often. 09:59.040 --> 10:05.520 In our culture, a white culture, we look to. 10:05.520 --> 10:29.080 Other cultures to find healing and to find ways of of honoring prayer and ceremony. And what I came away with really strongly is that it's time for us individually to tap into our own ancestry, because we are all from indigenous peoples. 10:29.080 --> 10:39.760 And it's not really about taking somebody else's. Ceremony or ancestry and using that for our own healing. 10:39.760 --> 10:45.920 It's about tapping deep into and and and you have to go way back. 10:45.920 --> 10:49.920 That was really a powerful message for me. 10:49.920 --> 10:52.040 I don't take it lightly. 10:52.040 --> 11:00.920 I feel it's a very important message and it also. 11:00.920 --> 11:05.400 Allowed me to understand something about my family. 11:05.400 --> 11:17.000 We we talked in circle and and through listening to people share about how anger. 11:17.000 --> 11:25.240 Substant substance abuse. 11:25.240 --> 11:36.800 And and and emotions like that bitterness judgment can come from the scars that we carry through our ancestors. 11:36.800 --> 11:52.840 OK, and for the first time in my life, and I'm I'm not saying this lightly for the first time in my life, I felt like I could look at my mother's suffering with compassion. 11:52.840 --> 12:06.560 But in hearing the words that were shared, I was able to understand that she actually carries the suffering of many generations in her life without even really knowing it. 12:06.560 --> 12:15.520 And it gave me a chance to look at her through different eyes, which was really such such a gift. 12:15.520 --> 12:31.160 No, I remember being in the circle and watching that everyone having the traditions that they had and feeling that longing for that, because you know, my my heritage is so so many different so many different routes. 12:31.160 --> 12:36.320 I mean, there's so many different ways that I could go with that, that I've never really followed any of them. And which one would I follow? 12:36.320 --> 12:43.200 And, you know, and so so there was that that longing for having a tradition and a culture. 12:43.200 --> 12:49.080 And it also it brought me back to the fact that, you know, here I've lived here on bash on my whole life. 12:49.080 --> 12:53.760 And I've always kind of felt like I had to apologize for that or something. 12:53.760 --> 13:02.400 And watching the Cheyenne people being so proud of where they live and their homeland and being that their homeland that I thought, well, I need to take that back. 13:02.400 --> 13:08.400 And maybe it's time for us to have our own new traditions that we that we create. 13:08.400 --> 13:14.800 I would love to talk about when the horses and the wolves came in to the arena. 13:14.800 --> 13:19.800 And it was really amazing. But five of the grandmothers were riding the horses. 13:19.800 --> 13:24.720 And as they were coming in and they were. 13:24.720 --> 13:30.840 It's always hard for me to talk about. But I saw the the past. 13:30.840 --> 13:37.080 And the present come together and I and it became the now time and then it was healed and it was amazing. 13:37.080 --> 13:40.040 It was absolutely amazing. I just want to add something. 13:40.040 --> 13:46.680 I remember Grandmother Agnes telling a story about that ride. 13:46.680 --> 13:52.280 She was the one that led the horses in. She was on the first horse. 13:52.280 --> 14:02.920 She has a mountain named after her in southwestern Oregon and quite quite an amazing presence. 14:02.920 --> 14:08.120 She told a story. I don't remember what she said as far as the timing. 14:08.120 --> 14:18.120 But I think it was probably maybe weeks or or shorter, a little bit longer prior to the ride into the circle 14:18.120 --> 14:22.240 that she had a visit from her grandmother in a vision. 14:22.240 --> 14:31.280 And if I remember the story right, she she said that her grandmother came to her in this vision and her grandmother was a rider. 14:31.280 --> 14:35.160 She rode horses. That was her life was the horses. 14:35.160 --> 14:42.240 And in the vision, all her grandmother told her was get on the horse. 14:42.240 --> 14:45.560 She didn't know what her grandmother was talking about. 14:45.560 --> 14:55.760 But when it came to be that there was this opportunity for the grandmother, some of them to ride the horses in for the first time to welcome, 14:55.760 --> 15:02.080 she knew at that point what her grandmother was talking about. 15:02.080 --> 15:06.240 And she did what her grandmother said. She got on the horse. 15:06.240 --> 15:12.040 My experience of when the riders came in, when they came in, they came in on the horses. 15:12.040 --> 15:17.080 And then there was the Cheyenne were drumming a song to the horses. 15:17.080 --> 15:19.440 They drummed a couple of songs to the horses. 15:19.440 --> 15:24.080 And there was one horse that was in front of me that was kind of sideways. 15:24.080 --> 15:30.560 So that it was like it was looking at me and I could see I could see that was like an expression on its face. 15:30.560 --> 15:35.960 And the only way I can describe it was that I could actually feel what the horse was experiencing. 15:35.960 --> 15:41.160 And it was it was humbled and it was grateful and it was appreciative. 15:41.160 --> 15:51.080 It was all those things. It was like it was it was the horse going through and the horses going through the experience of the healing also because they were used. 15:51.080 --> 15:59.760 And when we went to Custer's, they were used by the the cavalry would shoot them and lie behind the horses to protect them. 15:59.760 --> 16:09.200 While they were in battle, there was a grandmother from Guatemala and she had brought enough herbs to do foot washes for 500 people. 16:09.200 --> 16:17.960 And so you can imagine what, you know, the compassion in that she wasn't able to do all those 500. 16:17.960 --> 16:26.920 But then the next day, when she had her prayer time, she actually went around and anointed everybody's third eye 16:26.920 --> 16:31.520 that she could reach with an oil that opens your cell memory. 16:31.520 --> 16:37.200 So that was like a really big thing for me. I cried for a while on that, too. 16:37.200 --> 16:47.800 The the last day when she gave her ceremony, she first asked the cloud people to come. 16:47.800 --> 16:53.680 To give us a little bit of a reprieve from the heat, because it had been one hundred and seven and one hundred and ten. 16:53.680 --> 17:01.320 And I'm not joking you. Fifteen minutes later, there were clouds in the sky. 17:01.320 --> 17:09.160 I wanted to start with one of the profound things that I heard there, which was. 17:09.160 --> 17:16.000 Allow the prayer to come. Which I thought was just just kind of blew me away. 17:16.000 --> 17:20.600 It's like, you know, how when you go to say a prayer, you're always just kind of blathering out something. 17:20.600 --> 17:28.440 But just to take that breath and allow it to come. I thought that was beautiful. 17:28.440 --> 17:31.840 And anyway, I kind of a backtrack. 17:31.840 --> 17:39.800 So the meeting grandmother Margaret was an amazing experience and kudos to Lorna to bringing her here. 17:39.800 --> 17:45.560 And when I said, oh, sure, let's go to July in 2012, I figured that's two years away. 17:45.560 --> 17:47.840 It doesn't really matter. And it kept getting closer. 17:47.840 --> 17:55.040 I was like, oh, wow, what the heck is going on? We're going to Montana. OK. 17:55.040 --> 17:57.480 So I wasn't really prepared for it, I guess. 17:57.480 --> 18:02.640 I didn't really know what to expect and I didn't know why I was going. 18:02.640 --> 18:05.400 And, you know, I was just kind of along for the ride. 18:05.400 --> 18:11.000 So we just blew in. We set up our tent. And the next morning, you know, I got up and everybody's out and about. 18:11.000 --> 18:13.440 I don't know why everybody's standing around to see me do this. 18:13.440 --> 18:24.680 But I get out of the tent and take the first step and I just trip and fall and hit my face right on the ground. 18:24.680 --> 18:33.920 I was like, OK, we are going to be humbled and kiss the earth before we start this journey. 18:33.920 --> 18:36.520 So it was good. So it was all good. 18:36.520 --> 18:45.120 But I kind of went there thinking, you know, I had this perception that the Cheyenne people would be thinking, 18:45.120 --> 18:55.600 who are all these people coming into our territory and, you know, and not feeling necessarily necessarily good thoughts about us invading their space and doing this ceremony? 18:55.600 --> 18:58.840 Who are all these white people pretending that they know what's going on? 18:58.840 --> 19:02.600 And I found that it was absolutely to the contrary. 19:02.600 --> 19:07.440 The Cheyenne people were just the most warm and welcoming people. 19:07.440 --> 19:11.320 And people came from all over the world. 19:11.320 --> 19:18.040 There was a woman from Scotland that was in her kilt and she was talking about how she was embracing her heritage and she was doing her thing. 19:18.040 --> 19:24.160 There was a woman from Spain who came and talked and she oh, my goodness, she was saying, you know, pray for us. 19:24.160 --> 19:28.840 We're in trouble right now. And they were just from everywhere. 19:28.840 --> 19:38.120 I was taken back by the landscape because it is so barren and yet so fertile at the same time. 19:38.120 --> 19:43.120 The contradiction there, it's like nothing could live there. 19:43.120 --> 19:47.840 And yet the sacredness of the land is so great. 19:47.840 --> 19:56.000 And on the last day we were there, I woke up thinking I just really miss the water in so many ways. 19:56.000 --> 19:59.440 I miss the sound. I miss the coolness. I miss the water. 19:59.440 --> 20:05.720 And both the grandmothers that day, their focus was on the water and the blessings of the water. 20:05.720 --> 20:13.080 And one of them talked about how we come into this world in a river. 20:13.080 --> 20:23.080 And another one was what she said that I found very profound was that every time you use water to just thank it. 20:23.080 --> 20:28.240 And so it's become a real it's just become a part of what I do now. 20:28.240 --> 20:31.520 When I drink my water, I'm just like, thank you, water, as I drink it. 20:31.520 --> 20:38.640 So I mean, she said, you know, when you flush the toilet, when you take your shower, when you get into water, so just be aware of that. 20:38.640 --> 20:44.400 At one point at the ending of the ceremony, there was somebody that got up and they were talking about the Cheyenne people. 20:44.400 --> 20:53.520 And she said, I made a commitment at every evening that I would say a prayer for the Cheyenne people. 20:53.520 --> 21:00.360 And she asked us all to get up and all make a commitment to say a prayer for the Cheyenne people. 21:00.360 --> 21:05.520 The last day, one of the chiefs, because there was a number of chiefs, wasn't there? 21:05.520 --> 21:13.560 Yeah, seven clans. And one of them got up there. 21:13.560 --> 21:19.120 And he had tears in his in his eyes. He said, this is good. 21:19.120 --> 21:24.200 This is hard. This is difficult. 21:24.200 --> 21:35.720 This is good. This is hard, but this is really good, you know, because so many so many people in their individual lives were healed during this weekend. 21:35.720 --> 21:39.640 The reason that we were there was not it was not about politics. 21:39.640 --> 21:43.800 It was not about all the things that you think that it would be about. 21:43.800 --> 21:49.440 It was really about prayer and ceremony and acceptance of everybody. 21:49.440 --> 21:53.120 And it was so powerful. 21:53.120 --> 21:59.160 The question is, what can we take away from this sharing? 21:59.160 --> 22:13.080 What comes to me is to remember to tap in to your divine self. 22:13.080 --> 22:25.160 That with that connection, you will be doing the work. 22:25.160 --> 22:30.200 Did it change you, each of you? And if so, how did it change us? 22:30.200 --> 22:35.960 And if so, how? For me, my summer was very full. 22:35.960 --> 22:42.800 I did three incredible pieces of work and. 22:42.800 --> 22:52.680 I feel clearer, like more really here. 22:52.680 --> 22:58.840 Well, again, I'm much more. 22:58.840 --> 23:08.680 Aware. Of water, number one, and, you know, and being very grateful, I mean, 23:08.680 --> 23:18.440 however it touches me, whether I'm showering in the morning, I'm just thank you water, whether I'm drinking, it's thank you water. 23:18.440 --> 23:30.760 I have. I have a lot of questions that I still need to answer, so there's there's always it's always a continuing journey 23:30.760 --> 23:36.400 that that this brought up that just kind of fueled a little bit more. 23:36.400 --> 23:42.920 Definitely more aware of prayer and the power of prayer and trying to incorporate it more in my life. 23:42.920 --> 23:47.160 I think that would be the changes. 23:47.160 --> 23:55.600 What did I take away? Well, you know, what what really lasts if it makes a strong impression? 23:55.600 --> 24:06.440 I was impressed by the power of a group, group energy focused on something higher. 24:06.440 --> 24:09.720 That was real. That was that was really real. 24:09.720 --> 24:15.760 What what certain people were experiencing intensely and what I felt. 24:15.760 --> 24:22.440 And it was real in the direction of helping and opening and connecting. 24:22.440 --> 24:31.800 And personally, just the conversations I had with Cheyenne men, three of them in particular. 24:31.800 --> 24:35.560 Never forget those. I don't know. 24:35.560 --> 24:39.800 It was like I was talking to somebody from another world. 24:39.800 --> 24:42.400 It was so different. It was new for me. 24:42.400 --> 24:46.720 I'm sure there are people here who've had those experiences a lot. 24:46.720 --> 24:47.960 Maybe they are that way. 24:47.960 --> 25:04.720 There was much that I. Felt in my heart through this experience and the interconnection of all things and how. 25:04.720 --> 25:10.080 I can't exist without water. I can't exist without the earth under my feet. 25:10.080 --> 25:15.640 I mean, I I'm here because of something or someone else. 25:15.640 --> 25:25.200 And and. I. That was that weekend for me in a lot of ways. 25:25.200 --> 25:37.000 And that I also felt that it was such an honoring and I'm very grateful that for this to have the opportunity to be there in this group, 25:37.000 --> 25:42.680 within this group and to not have any expectations of what was going to happen, 25:42.680 --> 25:53.520 but to be a witness and to be a part of a group that was holding sacred space for whatever was going to happen to happen. 25:53.520 --> 25:58.080 And it was safe. It was a safe place for that. 25:58.080 --> 26:02.360 And I feel that that's going to be in my heart forever. 26:02.360 --> 26:10.800 And it is my belief that we are all part of the collective consciousness. 26:10.800 --> 26:18.200 And every time someone speaks from the heart or gives someone well wishes or says, I love you, it's adding to that. 26:18.200 --> 26:24.920 And in the becoming of that collective consciousness in that space, 26:24.920 --> 26:33.160 things like what are happening now tend to cease and will begin to cease and are beginning to cease. 26:33.160 --> 26:40.680 So it'll happen less. And when it's in a group like it was when we went to see the grandmothers, it was amazing. 26:40.680 --> 26:48.680 Shine on the earth in the cosmos, in the inner light. 26:48.680 --> 26:56.920 Shine on illuminating and in this long, long night. 26:56.920 --> 27:15.000 Shine into you and shine into me and shine until everyone is dancing and free. 27:15.000 --> 27:23.000 I can see the candles lighting in heights across the land. 27:23.000 --> 27:33.000 I can feel our souls igniting as hand touches hand. 27:33.000 --> 27:41.000 And the whole world is lifted up in a shining web of light. 27:41.000 --> 27:51.000 And we are all there to behold the beautiful sight. 27:51.000 --> 28:11.000 We can again become a planet of light.