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 --> 00:34.320 To my right is Lorna. This is Joe. Susan. 00:37.840 --> 00:41.840 And Diana. I'm love. 00:44.160 --> 00:50.000 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 Weechole 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 it was from Sunday from Monday morning till Sunday night. 01:30.000 --> 01:33.280 So it was a whole week of the sacred fire. 01:34.960 --> 01:43.040 So that made us in sacred space the whole time with that sacred fire going. 01:43.920 --> 01:52.400 And we went Sunday night after the fire was out and collected ash, which is allowable. 01:52.400 --> 01:55.920 We could touch it until after the fire was out. 01:57.360 --> 02:05.120 In the morning, each grandmother had one grandmother did a ceremony three hours long and then one in the afternoon and one in the evening. 02:05.920 --> 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 --> 02:15.760 It was like twenty seven stones. I think it was in two circles. 02:16.400 --> 02:20.080 And there was it was open to the east, just like a medicine wheel would. 02:20.080 --> 02:31.120 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. 02:31.120 --> 02:33.120 And then they would bring that out. 02:33.120 --> 02:45.520 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. 02:45.520 --> 02:56.960 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. 02:56.960 --> 03:02.640 And that carried what had gone on that weekend in the in the ash. 03:02.640 --> 03:15.760 With a medicine wheel or circle around it was in the center of the big open powwow grounds that was surrounded by a circular covered bleachers. 03:15.760 --> 03:18.640 So it was all circular. The fire was in the very middle. 03:20.400 --> 03:26.720 So the question was for the sweat lodges, were the stones in the sacred fire or their own fire? 03:26.720 --> 03:29.440 They were in their own fire. Yeah. Yeah. 03:29.440 --> 03:33.120 And it was mixed sweats. Women and women had everybody had to be clothed. 03:33.760 --> 03:36.800 Yeah. I'd have a dress on below your knees. 03:37.840 --> 03:38.880 How many people were in this? 03:40.160 --> 03:42.880 I wouldn't think more than six. They were pretty small. 03:42.880 --> 03:49.440 There were six of them and they but only three of them would be functioning at one time twice a day. 03:50.000 --> 03:56.640 A man was talking and he was sharing how I didn't really see him. 03:56.640 --> 03:58.720 I don't know. I'm going to say he's 50. 03:58.720 --> 04:06.720 I don't know how old he was, but he was sharing how he all of his life had had so much 04:08.400 --> 04:17.680 angst, anger, hatred of the white man for his life, for what we did to them. 04:19.280 --> 04:25.440 And he said about two years ago, he came upon this realization, the oppressor 04:25.440 --> 04:29.440 is just as traumatized as the oppressed. 04:30.160 --> 04:36.800 And when he had that realization, it totally lightened his attitude towards the white man. 04:38.080 --> 04:43.040 It's like, oh, you know, even though you were chasing and killing my ancestors, 04:43.040 --> 04:48.000 you were being traumatized as well. I mean, it's not easy to chase and kill someone. 04:48.560 --> 04:51.280 It's not, you know, it's not human nature. 04:51.280 --> 04:56.240 That's not the divine being that we are doesn't hunt and kill humans. 04:56.240 --> 04:58.880 And then he said, and somebody came up to me today and said, 04:59.760 --> 05:04.400 there's a woman here in this audience who I want you to meet. 05:06.000 --> 05:11.920 And he went and met her and he said, and she's real. 05:11.920 --> 05:15.280 I wanted to make sure she was real before I brought her to you. 05:16.240 --> 05:17.760 And she's the real thing. 05:17.760 --> 05:22.480 I would like to introduce you to Custer's great, great niece. 05:22.480 --> 05:26.880 And she's, and he said, and here she is. 05:26.880 --> 05:38.400 And he gave her name and she stands up and she says, I apologize for my uncle's wrongdoing. 05:40.720 --> 05:43.920 The whole audience just broke into sobs. 05:43.920 --> 05:47.440 It was just, it was really amazing. 05:48.080 --> 05:50.800 What I can add to it is that she didn't know. 05:50.800 --> 05:58.000 She didn't know where she was going when she took the trip with her sister or friend. 05:58.000 --> 06:00.720 She didn't realize that she would be on Cheyenne land. 06:00.720 --> 06:01.520 She didn't realize. 06:01.520 --> 06:10.800 So it was, it was, it was, um, it was a part of what was to happen there in the healing. 06:10.800 --> 06:17.760 Um, it wasn't her intention to go there with this Lorna, Diana, myself, and Joe, who camped together. 06:18.400 --> 06:25.280 We went to little bighorn and we took sacred ash from the sacred fire. 06:25.280 --> 06:35.280 The fire was started sunrise Sunday morning and the fire keeper kept the fire going all the way until Sunday sunset. 06:35.280 --> 06:45.360 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. 06:46.720 --> 06:51.600 And we went there and we had our sacred ash with us. 06:51.600 --> 06:57.600 And the first place we went to was to the, the grave site. 06:57.600 --> 07:06.720 My ancestors were all army cavalry. My great grandfather was a cavalry. He could have been a Custer Buddy. 07:06.720 --> 07:18.240 I have no idea. So I went there and I offered, um, I just offered my understanding of their trauma to help heal that. 07:18.240 --> 07:21.440 And then we went to the grave site. 07:21.440 --> 07:36.000 And we did the same thing all, all there. And it felt very powerful, very powerful. 07:36.000 --> 07:48.640 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. 07:48.640 --> 07:58.320 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 --> 08:02.960 And one woman got up and said, I've always been afraid. I didn't know what to do. 08:03.920 --> 08:10.720 And I couldn't go anywhere or do anything. And now I know that there are people here and now I can go forward. 08:10.720 --> 08:16.960 I wanted to share about the cavalry. When we went inside to the little, the viewing room, the museum or whatever it was, 08:16.960 --> 08:25.520 there was, they had recreated some of the, the, the people that had fought in Custer's army. 08:25.520 --> 08:33.760 And looking at this gentleman, he looked so lifelike and so real. It really brought it home. 08:33.760 --> 08:44.320 And there was a little, little thing talking about it. And it said, and I can't remember the percentage, but I think it was at least 60% of the cavalry were immigrants. 08:44.320 --> 08:51.440 So they were these poor people that were from another nation that had no idea what they were going into. 08:51.440 --> 08:55.920 They had no, they were probably had nowhere to go and nothing to do. 08:55.920 --> 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 --> 09:03.600 So that was really interesting to them. 09:03.600 --> 09:15.760 So what I'd like to speak to kind of follows Susan in that it's the ancestral healing. 09:15.760 --> 09:23.440 There, there were many layers of intention for ancestral healing. 09:23.440 --> 09:39.440 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. 09:39.440 --> 09:45.680 And that it's a responsibility for me to tap deep into my ancestry. 09:45.680 --> 10:14.160 One of the things that was shared through story and through smaller circles in the evening, often in our culture, white culture, we look to other cultures to find healing and to find ways of honoring prayer and ceremony. 10:14.160 --> 10:29.120 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. 10:29.120 --> 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 you have to go way back. 10:45.920 --> 10:50.000 That was really a powerful message for me. 10:50.000 --> 10:52.000 I don't take it lightly. 10:52.000 --> 10:56.800 I feel it's a very important message. 10:56.800 --> 11:05.440 And it also allowed me to understand something about my family. 11:05.440 --> 11:25.520 We talked in circle and through listening to people share about how anger, substance abuse, 11:25.520 --> 11:36.640 and emotions like that, bitterness, judgment, can come from the scars that we carry through our ancestors. 11:36.640 --> 11:52.720 And for the first time in my life, and 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. 11:52.720 --> 12:06.480 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. 12:06.480 --> 12:15.440 And it gave me a chance to look at her through different eyes, which was really such a gift. 12:15.440 --> 12:23.120 I remember being in the circle and watching everyone having the traditions that they had and feeling that longing for that. 12:23.120 --> 12:31.200 Because my heritage is so many different routes. 12:31.200 --> 12:35.120 There are so many different ways that I could go with that that I've never really followed any of them. 12:35.120 --> 12:37.120 And which one would I follow? 12:37.120 --> 12:43.280 So there was that longing for having a tradition and a culture. 12:43.280 --> 12:48.880 And it also brought me back to the fact that here I've lived here on Vashon my whole life. 12:48.880 --> 12:53.840 And I've always kind of felt like I had to apologize for that or something. 12:53.840 --> 13:00.320 And watching the Cheyenne people being so proud of where they live and their homeland and being that their homeland. 13:00.320 --> 13:07.120 That I thought, well I need to take that back and maybe it's time for us to have our own new traditions that we create. 13:07.120 --> 13:14.800 I would love to talk about when the horses and the wolves came in to the arena. 13:14.800 --> 13:19.040 And it was really amazing, but five of the grandmothers were riding the horses. 13:19.040 --> 13:26.320 And as they were coming in and they were, it's always hard for me to talk about. 13:26.320 --> 13:32.560 But I saw the past and the present come together. 13:32.560 --> 13:38.400 And it became the now time and then it was healed and it was amazing. It was absolutely amazing. 13:38.400 --> 13:46.640 I just want to add something. I remember Grandmother Agnes telling a story about that ride. 13:46.640 --> 13:51.600 She was the one that led the horses in. She was on the first horse. 13:51.600 --> 13:57.600 She has a mountain named after her in southwestern Oregon. 13:57.600 --> 14:02.800 And quite an amazing presence. 14:02.800 --> 14:08.080 She told a story, I don't remember what she said as far as the timing. 14:08.080 --> 14:18.080 But I think it was probably maybe weeks or shorter or a little bit longer prior to the ride into the circle. 14:18.080 --> 14:22.160 That she had a visit from her grandmother in a vision. 14:22.160 --> 14:28.800 And if I remember the story right, she said that her grandmother came to her in this vision. 14:28.800 --> 14:35.120 And her grandmother was a rider. She rode horses. That was her life, was the horses. 14:35.120 --> 14:42.320 And in the vision, all her grandmother told her was, get on the horse. 14:42.320 --> 14:45.520 She didn't know what her grandmother was talking about. 14:45.520 --> 14:50.480 But when it came to be that there was this opportunity for the grandmother, 14:50.480 --> 15:02.080 for some of them to ride the horses in for the first time to welcome, 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 --> 15:12.080 My experience of when the riders came in, when they came in, they came in on the horses. 15:12.080 --> 15:17.040 And then there was the Cheyenne were drumming a song to the horses. 15:17.040 --> 15:24.000 They drummed a couple of songs to the horses. And there was one horse that was in front of me that was kind of sideways. 15:24.000 --> 15:30.480 So that it was like it was looking at me and I could see, I could see that it was like an expression on its face. 15:30.480 --> 15:35.840 And the only way I can describe it was that I could actually feel what the horse was experiencing. 15:35.840 --> 15:41.120 And it was it was humbled and it was grateful and it was appreciative. 15:41.120 --> 15:45.920 It was all those things. It was like it was it was the horse going through. 15:45.920 --> 15:50.880 And the horses going through the experience of the healing also, because they were used. 15:50.880 --> 16:00.960 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 while they were in battle. 16:00.960 --> 16:09.120 There was a grandmother from Guatemala and she had brought enough herbs to do foot washes for 500 people. 16:09.120 --> 16:15.520 And so you can imagine what, you know, the compassion in that. 16:15.520 --> 16:22.080 She wasn't able to do all those 500. But then the next day when she had her prayer time, 16:22.080 --> 16:31.440 she actually went around and anointed everybody's third eye that she could reach with an oil that opens your cell memory. 16:31.440 --> 16:37.200 So that was like a really big thing for me. I cried for a while on that, too. 16:37.200 --> 16:47.760 The the last day when she gave her ceremony, she first asked the cloud people to come. 16:47.760 --> 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 --> 17:01.280 And I'm not joking you. Fifteen minutes later, there were clouds in the sky. 17:01.280 --> 17:09.200 I wanted to start with one of the profound things that I heard there, which was. 17:09.200 --> 17:16.000 Allow the prayer to come. Which I thought was just just kind of blew me away. 17:16.000 --> 17:20.640 It's like, you know how when you go to say a prayer, you're always just kind of blathering out something. 17:20.640 --> 17:28.480 But just to take that breath. And allow it to come. I thought that was beautiful. 17:28.480 --> 17:31.840 And anyway, I kind of a backtrack. 17:31.840 --> 17:36.560 So the meeting grandmother Margaret was an amazing experience. 17:36.560 --> 17:39.840 And kudos to Lorna to bringing her here. 17:39.840 --> 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 --> 17:59.840 So I wasn't really prepared for it, I guess. I didn't really know what to expect. 17:59.840 --> 18:05.440 And I didn't know why I was going. And, you know, I was just kind of along for the ride. 18:05.440 --> 18:10.960 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. 18:10.960 --> 18:13.440 I don't know why everybody's standing around to see me do this. 18:13.440 --> 18:17.640 But I get out of the tent and take the first step. 18:17.640 --> 18:24.720 And I just trip and fall and hit my face right on the ground. 18:24.720 --> 18:33.960 I was like, OK, we are going to be humbled and kiss the earth before we start this journey. 18:33.960 --> 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 --> 18:51.360 who are all these people coming into our territory and, you know, and not feeling necessary, 18:51.360 --> 18:55.600 necessarily good thoughts about us invading their space and doing this ceremony, 18:55.600 --> 18:58.800 who are all these white people pretending that they know what's going on. 18:58.800 --> 19:02.600 And I found that it was absolutely to the contrary. 19:02.600 --> 19:07.400 The Cheyenne people were just the most warm and welcoming people. 19:07.400 --> 19:11.320 And people came from all over the world. 19:11.320 --> 19:13.720 There was a woman from Scotland that was in her kilt. 19:13.720 --> 19:18.040 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 one 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 saying 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, suggest, 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 --> 20:53.480 And she said, I made a commitment at every evening that I would say a prayer for the Cheyenne people. 20:53.480 --> 21:00.320 And she asked us all to get up and all make a commitment to say a prayer for the Cheyenne people. 21:00.320 --> 21:05.520 The last day, one of the chiefs, because there was a number of chiefs, wasn't there? 21:05.520 --> 21:15.600 Yeah, seven clans. And one of them got up there and he had tears in his in his eyes. 21:15.600 --> 21:24.200 He said, this is good. This is hard. This is difficult. 21:24.200 --> 21:35.480 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. 21:35.480 --> 21:39.600 The reason that we were there was not it was not about politics. 21:39.600 --> 21:43.760 It was not about all the things that you think that it would be about. 21:43.760 --> 21:49.320 It was really about prayer and ceremony and acceptance of everybody. 21:49.320 --> 21:53.080 And it was so powerful. 21:53.080 --> 21:59.120 The question is, what can we take away from this sharing? 21:59.120 --> 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 --> 22:29.280 Did it change you, each of you? And if so, how? 22:29.280 --> 22:33.520 Did it change us? And if so, how? 22:33.520 --> 22:40.720 For me, my summer was very full. I did three incredible pieces of work. 22:40.720 --> 22:52.680 And I feel clearer, like more really here. 22:52.680 --> 23:07.000 Well, again, I'm much more aware of water, number one, and, you know, and being very grateful. 23:07.000 --> 23:18.440 I mean, 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 --> 23:26.320 I have I have a lot of questions that I still need to answer. 23:26.320 --> 23:35.080 So there's there's always it's always a continuing journey that that this brought up that just kind of fueled a little bit more. 23:35.080 --> 23:42.920 Just definitely more aware of prayer and the power of prayer and trying to incorporate it more in my life. 23:42.920 --> 23:47.120 I think that would be the changes. 23:47.120 --> 23:55.560 What did I take away? Well, you know, what what really lasts if it makes a strong impression? 23:55.560 --> 24:06.400 I was impressed by the power of a group, group energy focused on something higher. 24:06.400 --> 24:09.720 That was real. That was that was really real. 24:09.720 --> 24:15.720 What what certain people were experiencing intensely and what I felt. 24:15.720 --> 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 --> 24:39.760 It was like I was talking to somebody from another world. 24:39.760 --> 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 --> 26:02.320 And I feel that that's going to be in my heart forever. 26:02.320 --> 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 --> 26:33.200 things like what are happening now tend to cease and will begin to cease and are beginning to cease. 26:33.200 --> 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 --> 26:56.960 Shine on illuminating ending this long, long night. 26:56.960 --> 27:15.080 Shine into you and shine into me and shine until everyone is dancing and free. 27:15.080 --> 27:23.040 I can see the candles lighting in heights across the land. 27:23.040 --> 27:33.040 I can feel our souls igniting as hand touches hand. 27:33.040 --> 27:41.040 And the whole world is lifted up in a shining web of light. 27:41.040 --> 27:51.040 And we are all there to behold the beautiful sight. 27:51.040 --> 28:12.040 We can again become a planet of light.