A man found
the cocoon of an Emperor moth and took
it
home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon.
One day a small opening appeared.
The man sat and watched the moth for several hours
as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
Then it seemed to stop making any progress and
it appeared to the man that the moth had gone as far as
it could in breaking out of the cocoon and was stuck.
Out of kindness, the man decided to help the moth.
He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit
of the cocoon, so that the moth could get out.
Soon the moth emerged, but it had a swollen body
and small shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the moth, expecting that in time the
wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body,
which would simultaneously contract to its proper size.
Neither happened.
In fact, that little moth spent the rest of its life crawling
around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It was never able to fly.
The man in his kindness and haste, didn't understand that
the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the moth
to get through the tiny opening, were necessary
to force fluid from the body into the wings,
so that the moth would be ready for flight,
once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Just as the moth could only achieve freedom and flight
as a result of struggling, we often need to struggle
to become all we're intended to be.
Sometimes we wish that the Creator (God)
would remove our struggles
and take away all of our obstacles,
but just as the man crippled the Emperor moth,
so we would be crippled if the Creator did that for us.
The Creator may not take away all of our problems and difficulties,
but He does promise to be with us through our struggles
as we become better and stronger people.
National Park Service
seeks tribal input
By Della Klemovich
Milton, Ma.
The
National Park Service has pledged to work with
Native Americans
on plans for Harbor Islands national park.
The master plan for the new park, due in November 1999,
will be
formulated after researching which tribes used the islands
historically,
the National Park Service officials promised.
The research will include a focus on the internment of Native Americans
in camps on the islands in the 1600's at the time of King Philip's War.
Native Americans taken prisoner during the war
were held on Deer Island, among others.
Even members of friendly tribes who had converted to Christianity,
were eventually confined on the islands, when the colonists
suspended the civil liberties of all tribal people.
In a meeting at the Chickatawbut Hill Education Center,
representatives of the National Park Service, said that they
had budgeted an unspecified amount of money for the research.
"We'd like to work together with you on it," program manager Beccy Joseph
told representatives of several tribes, including the
Wampanoag, Penobscot, Mehigan, Mohegan and Delaware.
Burial
sites an issue
The tribal
representatives are part of an alliance
called the Muhheconnew National Confederacy,
a centuries-old alliance revived to protect sites,
especially burial grounds of importance to Native Americans.
Many are also involved in the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee
on Deer Island, which aims to protect Harbor Islands sites
of importance to tribes historically connected to the region.
Gary McCann, a consultant to the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee,
said that the tribe appreciates the efforts that
the National Park Service has pledged to make.
Edith Andrews of the Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head,
said that she hopes early discussions like this will lead to permanent
protection for Native American burial grounds on the Harbor Islands.
"We had a lot of 'praying Indians', on the side of the English,
who were nonetheless herded together into concentration camps,
mainly on Deer Island," Andrews said.
She said that the Wampanoags want to identify camp sites and burial places
and ensure that burial places are protected and respected forever.
New policy praised
One of the
saddest things, said Sam Sapiel,
coordinator of the Muhheconneuk Intertribal Committee on Deer Island,
is that the tribes themselves are unaware of their history.
To remedy ignorance, the new National Park could include
Native American museums, a Deer Island memorial to genocide victims,
a book- store and a shop offering Indian made crafts.
"This is history-making," said Linda Poolaw, an official of the Delaware
tribe.
This is the first time that we've ever been consulted on something like
this,"
she told National Park Service officials.
She praised their policy of consulting with Native Americans
affected by federal projects commenting,
"I wish you had consultation services 300 years ago."
The War that never was, but still is!
by Leonard Arel
The Europeans came to Turtle Island looking for gold, silver, silks and
perfumes.
What they found was an easy target, Native Country.
The Europeans came over in their real big funny looking canoes with no paddles,
across the Great
Waters on the East where Mother Earth meets Father Sky.
This war started
when the Red-man ran to the shores
to meet their new
guest with open arms and a friendly smile.
The new Guests
floated into the shores with their hands around guns,
canons and long
knives.
This war came on
my Ancestors so fast, that many of my relations
today still have
no idea this war is still on going to this day.
I received an
e-mail from someone the other day.
She asked if I
donated goods and funds to help all the countries
down in South and
Central America, Honduras in particular.
I told her that I
did. We gave until it hurt and then gave some more.
I asked her if
she donates goods and funds to all the countries up in North America?
She said, " What
do you mean all the countries up in North America? "
I reminded her
that, before this was America, this was Native Country!
I can name 15 to
20 countries, within this country, without looking real hard.
Most, if not all,
are very very poor.
They are poor
because, we, in this free country
the United States
of America tell them that,
we do not
recognize them.
Therefore they do
not exist.
So why do we have
to take care of them?
On the other
hand, if we do have to admit that they do exist,
we must admit we
took everything from them and need to pay for it,
at whatever price
they so choose,
or, give it back.
By now you must
see that this war can never be over,
until we complete
the genocide!
The Grandmother Elders
by Ruth E. Sweet aka
Magnolia Blossom
Grandmother Elder
is old and set in her ways.
Grandmother Elder
is stubborn and has seen better days.
Grandmother Elder
has learned her ways through the years,
that many of the
children will shed many tears.
The young ones of
today like to call us
Grandmother Elders with much wisdom.
But when we try
to show the way,
" Oh Grandmother go away,
this is another
day, you're in our way."
The word
Grandmother Elder is just another word,
it should show
respect, oh well, what the heck!
It's not time for
us to be heard, the young ones say.
We've better
ideas, so it is as I feared.
Go away
Grandmother Elder, we will show you the way.
Grandmother Elder
knows how to make things do.
We all know what
we've been through.
Sixty plus years
of gathering knowledge,
standing firm and
always ready to give a hug,
A gift to someone
who really needs a tug.
Cooking without
recipes, sewing without patterns,
Tolerating many a
difficult situation.
We've lived many
years in this Nation.
I am still
balking---slow in walking.
But this
Grandmother is still talking.
Maybe you're
waiting for your turn
to get
the title
of "GRANDMOTHER ELDER".
May 1997
resgrandm
Can a woman run a
Native Tribe?
(from a news article, author unknown)
Cherokee leader
extols Native American tribes'
sense of community, while many Americans
move toward isolation and separation,
Indian tribes
continue to share a sense of community,
author and former
Cherokee Nation Chief, Wilma Mankiller.
Mankiller read
from her works and spoke to the more than
200 people who attended a
program, of the sense of
community she says remains strong among the tribes.
" The most common
attributes among tribes across the country is
the same sense
of tribe, community and interdependence," she said.
"More and more,
people are isolating themselves from one another
and that's not
happening in our community."
The recipient of
the Presidential Medal of Freedom,
Mankiller spoke of the importance of finding
an identity and learning from the past.
" The most important battle
is that we don't lose
a sense of who we are," she said.
"We must always pay tribute to our elders."
Mankiller is
responsible for the recruitment of young Natives
for university
training in environmental science.
She continues to
commit herself to community development
and has designed
building projects for tribes across the country.
During her tenure
as Chief, the Cherokee tribal membership
tripled and the nation's budget doubled.
She authored " Mankiller: A Chief and Her People,"
which includes
the story of the Cherokee.
AHO Chief Wilma Mankiller
Walkingfox
One last story passed from my Elders to me:
The Teardrop
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