Special Edition Calendar for 1993 from the Sierra Club.
Sacred Places: Native American Sites.
Introduction by N. Scott Momaday
Photographs (with related paragraph on each place) include:
Gay Head Cliffs, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Cedar Tree Tower, Mesa Verde, a World Heritage Site, Colorado
Monks Mound, Cahokia Mounds Atate Historic Site, Illinois
Petroglyph: Orca mother with fetal young, Olympic Park, Washington
Chief Seattle's grave, Suquamish, Washington
Fakahatchee Strand, Big Cypress Nat'l Preserve, Florida
Tsagaglalal, "She Who Watches," Horsethief Lake, Columbia River
Gorge, Washginton
Big Skylight Cave, El Malpais Nat'l Monument, New Mexico
Planetarium Cave, Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
Ocmulgee National Monument, Macon, Georgia
Shrine of the Stone Lions, Bandelier Nat'l Monument, New Mexico
Petroglyphs, Petroglyph Nat'l Monument, New Mexico
There was a time when the rivers ran clean, when the air was fresh
and pure, and people stepped lightly upon the Earth. It is time to
remember how to live with such reverence. Our entire planet, this
sacred place, is in great danger ... We are in danger of forever
losing our ancient and tropical rainforests, as well as the thousands
of species that inhabit them. It is time to remember that what we
sow, we shall reap.
The 1993 Sierra Club Calendar of Sacred Places is available for
$12.95 from the Sierra Club, or at such places as Price Club for about
35% off. The Sierra Club's address is: P.O. Box 7959, San
Francisco, CA 94120. If you become a member, all of their
publications can be obtained from them at a discount. Their
membership costs are $35 for "Regular," and $15 for Student or
Limited Income.
GREAT BOOK ON NORTHWEST INDIAN WOMEN/SPIRITUALITY/FOLK LORE:
Recommended reading for the year of the American Indian: DAUGHTERS
OF COPPER WOMAN, by Anne Cameron. It is her retelling of Northwest
Coast Indian myths shared with her by a few loving Native women of
Vancouver Island. This is her best-loved book, the one most praised
for its marvelous story telling and most treasured for its shining
vision of the social and spiritual power of women. The author was
born in Nanaimo and lives in Powell River, British Columbia. While
she is of Celtic heritage, she clearly has a Native soul. Book is
published by Press Gang Publishers, 603 Powell St., Vancouver, BC
V64 1H2, CANADA. Available in paperback $10.95. Her dedication page
says "with gratitude to the Nootka people of the village of Ahousat
who share their stories and their lives with me. Special thanks to
Margaret Atleo. In memory of Mary Little.
Herein is the Preface, and one of the poems at the back of this book,
to give you an idea of where the author
is "coming from"
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PREFACE
For years I have been hearing stories from the native people of
Vancouver Island, stories preserved for generations through an oral
tradition that is now threatened. Among the stories were special ones
shared with me by a few loving women who are members of a secret society
whose roots go back beyond recorded history to the dawn of Time itself.
These women shared their stories with me because they knew I would
not use them without their permission. Some years ago they
gave me permission to write poetry about Old Woman. The summer of 1980
I was told that, if I wanted, I could tell what I knew. The style I
have chosen most clearly approaches the style in which the stories were
given to me.
A few dedicated women belong to a matriarchal, matrilineal society.
These women prefer not to be publicly named or honoured. They prefer
that their identity, and the rituals of their society, be kept a secret.
I respect their wishes.
Their reasons for sharing their truth, finally, after so many years
of protective silence, are explained in the stories. They wish nothing
more added to the explanation.
From these few women, with the help of a collective of women, to
all other women, with love, and in Sisterhood, this leap of faith that
the mistakes and abuse of the past need not continue. There is a better
way of doing things. Some of us remember that better way.
-- Anne Cameron
THE FACE OF OLD WOMAN .... from the text, page 146
"I didn't hear Granny get up, I didn't see her refill my cup of tea. I
didn't hear her slow footsteps as she headed off to her bed. I picked
up my pen, stared at it for a few minutes, then I felt my face go hard,
my mouth pucker, my body go cold, and when I came back to this world,
the stove was out. I was chilled and stiff, my tea was cold, and my
pages covered with what might be a poem, or maybe several poems, or
maybe a song, or maybe several songs, or maybe all of that. And I knew
then, and know now, that what we have protected on this island is not
complete, the knowledge is scattered, and if we offer all women what we
know, the scattered pieces can start to re-form, and those who need to
find courage, peace, truth and love will learn that these things are
inside all of us, and can be supported by the truth of women.
I am the sea
I am the mounctains
I am the light
I am eternal
This confusion is fog
There is light beyond
I sense it and feel its warmth
I move toward it
but not headlong
I fear to stumble,
to fall with pain.
There are women everywhere with fragments
when we learn to come together we are whole
when we learn to recognize the enemy
we will come to recognize what we need to know
to learn how to come together
I know the many smiling faces of my enemy
I know the pretense that is the weapon used.
I have been the enemy
and learn to know myself well.
The ones who talk only from the throat
see only with two eyes
hear only with ears
but pretend to do more
are the enemy
I walk amidst shards and fear laceration
I must dare to bleed, I must dare to cut myself
To amputate the festering pain
I willl learn to mix medicine bags for those with faith
I will learn to chant the power chant
I will learn to mix medicine bags for those with faith
I will learn to chant the power chant and play the healing drum
I will not fear moss voices, water songs,
small furty thyings with sharp teeth; or my own hesitancy
I am falling, I am falling
past star
past time
through space
and my own fragments
Oh sisters the pain
I am scatterd, I am scattered
gather fragments
weave and mend
scattered fragments
weave and mend
In golden light
I recognize the enemy faces
fear of our bodies, fear of our visions, fear of our healing
fear of our love, fear of sisterkind, fear of brotherkind
fear of fear
love is healing
healing is love
There are Women everywhere with fragments
gather fragments; weave and mend
When we learn to come together we are whole
When we learn to recognize the enemy
we will know what we need to know
to learn how to come together; to learn how to weave and mend
Old Woman is watching; Watching over you
in the darkness of the storm
She is watching; watching over you
Weave and mend
Weave and mend
Old Woman is watching; watching over you
With her bones become a loom
she is weaving
watching over us
weave and mend
golden circle
weave and mend
sacred sisters
weave and mend
I have been searching
lost
alone
I have been searching
for so many years
I have been searching Old Woman
and I find her
in
myself
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Let no one tell me that silence gives | Lyn Dearborn
consent, because whoever is silent | Naturalist/Person
dissents | dearborn@anchor.esd.sgi.com
Maria Isabel Barreno