Oct. 10, 2017 – We had an awesome ceremony today. As we all know, there has been so much tragedy in the world. We prayed for all who suffer including our own families and friends. Last week we had many non-native guests. These people were curious about the lodge and asked if they could come. The chaplain was not pleased about this, but even though he tried discouraging others from coming, we had a packed lodge again today.
Some of these guests are Christians and they told us they were ridiculed by their Christian brothers for coming to the lodge. They spoke up for themselves though, and explained how they had experienced so much love and sincerely deep prayers in the ceremony and the sacrifice of their own bodies for all the world meant more to them than anything they had felt in their lives.
So, our guests were all back this week including the Buddhists, the Rastafarians, the Muslims, and the Catholic guys. See, the problem is, people who don’t know what we do or what goes on at the lodge can only guess and speculate if they aren’t willing to come and find out. As I have always said ignorance is the cause of all suffering and pain.
When we finished, everyone was totally exhausted and dehydrated, including this old wolf, but the beauty is that together we all experienced true brotherhood. It will take me a day or two to recuperate. After all the rain, we started off with such humidity that we all were sweating profusely before the ceremony even started. Now in case you don’t know, when you have high humidity it makes it easier to dehydrate before you know it so I made sure everyone was paying attention to their water intake.
Dec. 2019 – We had a good lodge today. It was around the mid 20’s this AM with the winds blowing at the lodge. Felt nice and fresh, and yes kind of cool too. Most folks now days try to cover themselves with clothing to look like they are in the arctic. Doing this actually increases your chance of catching colds and flu. See when your body has all these clothes on, it heats up, which in turn opens up your pores and allows cold to penetrate into your bones and body.
When we come out of the lodge our pores are wide open. Rather than run and put clothes on, I let my body adjust to the cold and my pores will close. I don’t get sick. Being comfy weakens the body and mind. The rougher it is the better I can condition myself and discipline myself. I know it feels good to be comfy, and yes it is okay to do that some but not all the time. Some of the best times I have had is being half frozen, roughing it in terrible conditions and working through it. Doing what needs to be done.
I love storming weather. Life has many types of storms. If you run away from these storms you will run away from any true problems in life . When we face adversity and see it through, this builds character in us. And when you can stand toe to toe with anything and everything that will make you suffer, hurt, fear, or doubt, then you have gained a knowledge and respect not only for yourself but all that is around you.
It is not winning that counts, it is the fact that you faced your pain or fear and didn’t run from it. This is a lesson of life. We face each season, each day with new problems, and it is up to us to be ready for this, toughen up our minds, body, and spirit to see us through. If you quit on yourself, you will quit on anyone else. If you quit on yourself you will quit on Spirit.
Today’s lesson was about having the courage to step up and face ourselves, our weaknesses, problems, doubts, and fears. Just as we must endure the heat, we must also endure the cold, dry, wet, and strong winds or no winds. We strengthen our bodies, minds, hearts and spirit as one with all and we become one with everything, including our own true selves.
Every warrior is not the same, neither is every person, yet every person is a warrior in their own way. The question is, do you have the courage to face your truths, faults, and make the effort to change? We all must make decisions each day that affects everyone around us. Many have built so many walls around themselves that they live in an extreme maximum-security prison. Why? Because they put themselves there by locking out all the possibilities they could choose! People’s minds become so set in their own thinking, beliefs , fears, doubts, and prejudices, that they are stuck in the concrete of the prison they created.
Stop and think; if your mind is so set in your way of thinking that you are inflexible, what happens to you? Times change, environments change, conditions, elements and every single day changes. You must change your thinking, your preconditioned ways, if you are to elevate yourself. Yes, we all have roots, but we must be able to bend and flow with the winds of change. Otherwise our roots will be torn out of the ground and we begin die. We become stagnant and lose our capacity to produce fruit from our gifts and talents.
So today look at yourself and see if you really are a warrior. Be a Zena, Hercules, Geronimo, Crazy Horse, Osceola , Double Head, Billy Bowlegs, Chief Joseph, or any other warrior.
Today’s lesson begins with accepting the truth of weaknesses about ourselves and working to change the things that we can. Being honest about our flaws is never easy for most folks. We all have flaws that have kept us from truly accepting who we are and what we are, and what we are to become. Many folks don’t like who they are, or what they look like, or what they can’t do, or even what they do. These are all things that we each have the responsibility to try to overcome, correct or change.
Just as we have to accept the responsibility for the things we do, so it is that we have to accept responsibility for things we don’t do. So many times we all sit around saying how we wish we had done this or that, or wish we had another chance to do something over. Well, what is stopping you? Only you! There is nothing that we cannot try to change or try to do over if we just put forth the effort.
Oh, I can hear you saying, but I can’t live my youth over again, or I can’t be a kid again! Really? Shoot I ain’t never going to grow up! I’m born each day to a new day of life, ready to begin totally new. And that is what you must do. Be a child again starting each day new and begin to make the changes you want to make in yourself.
Join me and our group of brothers as we learn today’s Lesson From the Inipi:
We began the lesson on going deeper into our own selves to find the root of our problems and working on becoming better, men, brothers, sons, fathers, uncles, friends and spiritual warriors. To do so we each became a tree and pictured ourselves as this tree. Now, for the tree to be strong it has to have strong roots and the roots must be anchored in solid ground.
The only solid ground is truth and love, so it is very important that we expose our own deepest weaknesses and get rid of anything that is preventing us from growing. When we dig this out we cast it into the rock pit to be taken away by the hot stone people. Only then can we become babies and return to being innocent, pure, and receptive to truth and true love. This allows our roots to become strong in belief, truth, and ourselves, connected to everything.
Next we worked on our trunks or our bodies. This will be what supports us in our walk of life. So we must be willing to learn, to change, to evolve, and grow, not only physically, but spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and universally. Just as our bodies grow in life, a true spiritual warrior, must grow new and more each day. No matter what our religious beliefs, races, origins, or locations, we must become more and more enlightened with each day. To sit and stay the same is to become like stagnant water. Polluted.
Just as everything around you changes, your concepts, your understanding, your beliefs, must change and grow. We are all here for that purpose – to become so much more, to help others become so much more. Our own energy is supposed to radiate from us and touch everything in every level of existence, every universe, every solar system. We are never too old to learn.
Many people get to a point when they think they know everything they need to know about their beliefs and what life is all about. How wrong they truly are. For if they did know, they would know exactly what is next, how it works, how they affect the bigger picture, the plan that has been there all along. Yet if you ask them they can’t tell you the answers to the universe. Multi-universe. Dimensions.
And the same is also with many elders who get to a point they think they know all they need to know. Boy are they in for a surprise. When we are babies, someone has to look out for us. When we become really elders we become babies again. The circle and cycle of life teaches us all that.
Some say they know what they need to know! Really or is it that they think they do because they are scared of what they might find? Every religion tells you to seek and you will find, but how many people really continue seeking their whole life through? When is it you get to a point that you quit looking for higher enlightenment, knowledge?
So many try to tell me they have a learning problem or they can’t remember anything. Well, I say this: Spirit can do anything for you! What you seek can be shown to you. But first you have to truly seek.
How does a child learn? Does a child just sit and wait for everything to be handed to it? Definitely not! So what makes an adult, or an elder any different? Every being must learn. And continue to learn. Does not nature teach you that?
Hopefully you will learn something from these teachings as well. Ghost
Hello, my tastebud buddies! I’m gonna start out with a quick explanation of what creative prison cuisine is all about. Now, I’ve been in prison for over 37 years and let me tell ya, prison food is not exactly tasty, nutritious or sufficient to fill empty bellies. But I like to eat so much so that Booger and I have developed a plethora of recipes that can be made with only the food items available in 98% of the prison commissaries in the federal system, at 30% markup over retail, of course. They are also available in one brand or another in most any store out there too. (Disclaimer: Also not necessarily nutritious or healthy.)
These recipes are pretty inexpensive since I ain’t never been rich, but I’ve always been hungry, so they are all taste tested time and time again, and of course, “Booger” approved! Now I have recipes for several meal categories from the lockdown dinners for when you can’t get to a microwave, to the microwave extravaganzas that are sure to have everyone going, “Man, this is gooood!”
First, let me take you thru one that I just so happen to have the taste of in my mouth right now, cuz I just smashed one down the gullet for lunch, and for desert, you guessed it, another one. So folks, buckle up, open wide and prepare to be amazed.
I wish I had a Pizza Pepperoni Pizza Burritos
You will need:
1 pack of sliced pepperoni
1 bag of cheesy flavored rice (instant)
1 jar of mixed hot peppers in oil
Some Italian spice
Some minced (dried) garlic
Some minced (dried) onion
One 8 oz tub of cheese spread
2 crackhead soups (Top Ramen)
One pack of flour tortillas
Directions:
Now, take the pepperoni, and slice them into quarters with a flimsy plastic knife (or a real one if you’re that fortunate). Personally, I prefer the side-sanded prison identification card for a perfect cutter/chopper, but you get the point.
Take the pepperoni after they have all been quartered and toss ‘em in a bowl, the bigger the better.
Then take the 2 soups and slam them on the floor repeatedly till they are crushed into small little bitty noodles. Into the bowl you toss em.
Then the rice, bite the bag to rip it open, pour it in the bowl.
Now it gets tricky, take a cap of Italian seasoning, into the bowl, half cap minced garlic, into the bowl, and a cap of minced onion, also into the bowl.
Open the tub of cheese, into the bowl.
Take the peppers, drain 98.375% of the oil (just kidding, just drain the dang stuff out) and put the peppers into the bowl as well.
Now it gets fun. Turn on the hot water till it’s smokin hot, then add some to the bowl till you have covered the rice and noodles.
Stir till everything is mixed up really good, now let it sit for 15 minutes for all the deliciousness to seep together.
OK, now the cooking part comes in (or not, it will soak to deliciousness without cooking, but its better if ya cook it in the microwave.) So you put it in the microwave for 8 minutes. That will nuke the monkey mess out of it.
Then you take the flour tortillas and spoon liberal amounts of the concoction into them, then burrito roll them up and “presto magico” you have a delicious almost pizza pepperoni pizza burrito. These things are so good they will make ya wanna bite your own tongue off looking for another bite.
This easily makes 8-10 burritos and you can leave them out overnight, and re-heat them the next day, like I’m gonna do with one right after I get out of the shower. Smile!
OK, a warning, if you see a scroungy little black dog anywhere in the area where you have these burritos, better keep a close eye on them cuz Booger loves ‘em and he will think nothing of climbing up onto your counter and snatching one and running off to eat it. But really, these things are delicious. Enjoy…
Oh, I forgot to tell you and inquiring minds want to know… a foot pan is this plastic thing we can get from medical to soak our feet in. duh! Yes, I know, it isn’t meant to go in a microwave, and that can be hazardous to your health… but what isn’t around here? We can purchase microwave safe bowls from the commissary, but when cooking up a big batch, the foot pan gets the job done.
Pirate’s Peanut Butter Sandwich
OK, I’m crazy, or just a tad bit warped, but that has never really been a question. What is a question is some of my eating habits, and or combinations of foods that I love. Now this is a little something that necessity brought to me and I’ve been eating them ever since, in fact, I won’t even eat just a choke sandwich (straight peanut butter) anymore! “Oh No!” I’m spoiled! If it ain’t a pirate sandwich I won’t bother.
Here’s the skinny. You get a couple pieces of bread (generally liberated from the chow hall) and you take the peanut butter and put a goodly amount on both pieces of bread, not so much that its gonna squish out when you bite it and land on you, but enough to know you’re eating and to not be hungry after you do. Then, and here’s the secret that makes it a “pirate,” you take a slice of cheese, put it on the sandwich, press it together with the peanut butter, and you’re ready to eat a delectable tasty treat!
I can personally attest to the consumption over the many years that I’ve been making them of hundreds of these, and here’s another tip. Get you some regular potato chips to go with it, preferably the rippley kind. Man, a bite of sandwich, a couple chips in there with it and munch em all together, this is the bomb! Smile. And since I’m so good at already explaining what it takes to pull this munch fest off, I won’t add some lame “what you will need ” section, cuz if you ain’t got it figured out by now, well, it ain’t gonna matter. Smile. So Bon Appetite! and I know you’ll like it after all. It may sound weird but you like those little cheesy peanut butter crackers don’t ya? Well, there it is, the “AHa” moment. I especially like giving ‘em to Booger. It’s funny to watch him with his mouth all stuck together…
Shepherd’s Pie & Fisherman’s Pie
Wow, just the thought of these dishes makes me hungry but let me be clear, I make them both the same way in here but they have very different and unique tastes that are so good you will wanna slap your hand away from the last bite, because it’s (of course) the last bite.
Anyway, this all goes back to 1974, in Florida, in an apartment in the Cannon Point Complex, in Ft. Lauderdale, just down the street from Inveraray (a very expensive and trendy place to live). My mom was in the kitchen putting all this stuff together in a casserole dish and I was kinda just keeping an eye on the whole situation. At 14, I was too cool to want to hang out with my mom in the kitchen, but I was also too hungry not to. Then to my surprise Mom took some instant mashed potatoes and topped the dish with it. I was like, “Mom! That looks terrible!” She said, “Baby, just you wait to taste this!”
Man, that dish was SOOO good, and I never forgot the taste. So fast forward to a couple years ago, I was making a bowl of food not thinking anything of it, until I got it out of the microwave and tasted it. In an instant I was transported back in time to that moment in my mom’s kitchen…and Shepherd’s Pie has been a part of my diet in here since I re-discovered it. I promise you will like it too, and if you don’t then feel free to mail it to me. I’ve got a place for it. smile.
You will need:
1 bag 4 cheese instant mashed potatoes
1 crackhead soup (Top Ramen)
either 1 pack of yellow-fin tuna steak or 1 pack of shredded beef. (this will determine the name and taste of the dish, either Fisherman’s Pie or Shepard’s Pie.)
some minced garlic,
some minced onion
and 1/3 jar of mixed peppers
the peppers can be substituted with dried vegetable flakes, but isn’t nearly as good when you do, just something about those peppers that I love.
so you take the soup, crush it up, put it in the bowl, take the tuna pack squish it up kinda sorta, then into the bowl, also with the garlic, and peppers or veggie flakes, add a little water and then pour in half a bag, roughly an ounce and a half of the mashed potatoes, stir in a little more water so it’s all like gooey and kinda runny, but not watery. Take it to the microwave. Now here’s the magic secret touch that will turn this bowl up to yummy!!
Put your low wattage microwave on 8:00 minutes, let it run all the way out, and then stir it all together. A lot of the time is for it to cook down to a thicker consistency and also to meld the flavors together, it’s important to cook the heck out of it, so if you got a higher wattage microwave, 6 minutes will do it, so at least that. Now it’s ready and to make it enough for 2 just double the ingredients.
I promise you, it will be really, really good and I love food. If you have seen pictures of me you will see that I am in very good shape. Round is a shape. Smile. Okee dokee, this one is gaur-on-teed to be repeated and I really like both varieties. The fisherman’s is just as good as the shepherd’s version. Ok, enjoy, and if you’re like me, turn the lights out, close your eyes and savor the taste, as well as the memories of much simpler times…
2018 From Prison – Today our lesson is on deep prayers and focusing on the prayer as I was taught and shown by elders and Spirit. When we pray it is important that we visualize and focus on what we are praying for.
In the ceremony, we will use the old traditional teachings of mind control over our bodies to help us become stronger. I do not teach this at every ceremony. Each person has to work their way up to this level of focus and discipline. If they are not ready they will fail. If they get distracted they will fail. If they have doubt or fear they will fail. Just as in all things, the mind is very powerful, and this exercise today lets each of us discover what level we have achieved. I am more focused on my responsibility to demonstrate, teach, to protect and allow each one the freedom to work on his/her personal discipline.
We started this training at the fire where the brothers learn to become one with the fire. Those who have handicaps, medical problems, or are elders are not required to do this, but for the others, readiness to learn will be revealed by their deep prayer and ability to visualize themselves being the fire. When this disciplined control is complete students are able to bathe their arms, and face in the fire and not be burned. When a high level of discipline is achieved, practitioners can walk on hot coals, pick up burning logs and place them back in the fire.
Now, understand, this is not for show or to try to impress anyone; it is for the person to learn to discipline themselves, to truly become one with the fire so that later, when we are all in the sweat lodge, we are able to pray more deeply and better help all those we are praying for.
When the brothers each learn this deep meditation and prayer, called “stepping into the world between worlds,” and each is able to pick up hot coals and hot stones without being burned, the circle truly becomes so strong, that when we pray as one: one thought, one prayer, one mind, one heart, the power and energy becomes truly awesome.
Just as I have often said, each individual is like a spoke in a wheel. Weak spokes will eventually cause the wheel to break. A circle is only as strong as its weakest member, so it is important for us to help each other. By identifying the ones who may be having difficulty, or have not achieved this level, we can then work to help these brothers, lift them up and make them stronger.
Today, I did not expect any of the brothers to achieve a high level of concentration, but I was able to assess and assist each one on their different levels. These young guys are just now beginning to learn their red paths. None have actually been on their personal vision quest which is needed by anyone who truly seeks to learn their destiny or who and what is there to help them. Only when a person actually comes face to face with, and fully accepts their faults, weaknesses, doubts, and fears, and becomes one with that, can they truly meet and see their destiny, talents and gifts.
Through years of practice, I mastered advanced levels of martial arts and yoga, both of which require deep meditation…and I’m still learning. Even though I can no longer physically do the yoga poses, I still practice deep meditation just as such true masters as the Dalai Lama, Buddha, and so many Buddhist monks, and masters of martial arts have. When I was doing deep meditation practice, I used to meditate upside down in the headstand, balanced on my head only with hands folded across my chest and legs crossed in the lotus position.
It is said that the longer one can meditate this way the more oxygen gets to the brain, and this allows the person to go into the highest trance reaching for spiritual enlightenment. When traditional Native people do deep prayers, we step in between worlds. All time, all movement stops, we still our minds to total silence. It is in this silence that true spiritual enlightenment can begin because we have now surrendered the illusions of the world, of our eyes and mind, to find the essence of the life force energy.
Within all the world’s religions there is the practice of total silence and meditative prayer, though it may be called by different names. When a Native person speaks of “stepping between the worlds,” the practice is no different. In all meditative practice, our minds must be disciplined, trained to be quiet. Trained to concentrate.
In the Christian tradition, one simple example from the New Testament, Matthew 10:1, “Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.” Now, when the disciples had difficulties in carrying out healings, Jesus most surely taught that to be successful, they must have faith and focus and discipline, for the key is not so much the faith of the person they mean to heal, but rather the faith of the healer.
Practitioners of yoga and martial arts, athletes, doctors, and scientists all must push themselves to be disciplined. Imagine a firefighter who is not disciplined in an emergency, or a police officer, or a military service member when they are called into action. Training and practice, again and again, makes you stronger and more able to do things you ordinarily couldn’t do.
There is an annual event, The Golden Warrior Run, held in the desert amongst traditional Native warriors over the age of 80. They must run 100 miles in one night, from dusk till dawn. Oh, I can hear you now doubting their abilities to do this. Let’s take it mathematically. The average jog is 4-5 minutes per mile; slow would be, say, 7- 8 minutes a mile and maybe even slowest, 8- 9 minutes a mile.
Now, 9 minutes/mile is almost a slow walk, but would be 6.6 mph. So in 10 hours you would be able to do 66 miles. Now at the fastest, a 4-minute mile would be15 miles every hour x 10 = 150 miles. So you see it is very possible and in fact is done in the Golden Warrior run. Now if we figure it say, at 7 minutes/ mile would 8.5 miles per hour. 8.5 x 10 = 85 miles. Now let’s add another 2 hours making it a 12-hour run. Oh my, that is 102 miles. So if you didn’t think this was possible, remember, so many things are truly possible if we don’t let our doubts, fears, and mind block us from it.
In yoga we must open our minds and discipline our bodies in order to do things that most figure impossible to do. Same with martial arts. So in our traditional Inipi ceremony – handling the hot coals, rubbing the flames of the fire on our arms and face, sitting in the Inipi and breathing in the hot steam (breath of Spirit) – is really no different. Just think of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Old Testament. These were men of total faith.
In our practice, each member of the circle is and should always be pushing themselves more and more so as not to be stagnant or comfortable sitting in the same place. Our religious practice requires that we always try to be better, to become more. Every single religious teaching in the world urges us to grow and become more.
So if you have misgivings, I hope this helps you come to grips in your mind and heart about these teachings. Not all or even most will be able to reach the highest discipline, but each one will strive to become what they can. I have spent my whole life doing these things. So what comes to me is different than what comes to someone who has practiced 20 years longer or 20 years less than me.
“Love inspires us all to be better than we are, to do more than we would otherwise do, to say what we would not say, and to think what we would not have thought of. Love changes us completely.” ~ Ghost Dancer
2020 – Just back from the lodge. We had a wonderful ceremony, Nice and hot-hot. Yes we must give all of ourselves so that all those we are praying for do not suffer. Today’s lesson was about being truthful to ourselves so we can always be truthful to everyone else. Many people will always find a way to blame their problems on someone else. It will always be because of so & so or they kept me from doing this or that. When we are truthful with ourselves we will see that our problems are always our own fault, no matter what. It is the choices we make that puts us in the positions we are in. It is these choices that hold us back from succeeding or achieving what we wish to. But it is a lot easier to play the blame game.
I’m in prison and I’m innocent of any and all of the charges that got me here. But it is my own fault for choosing to stand out in front, make my voice heard for the injustices suffered by all Native people. I chose to voice my truth to the world and stand up for those who can’t stand up. I made a choice a long time ago. To follow my heart always. That was my choice. It wasn’t my mom’s choice. It wasn’t my dad’s. choice. It wasn’t any of my family’s choice. It was my choice. It was not forced on me. No one made me do it. I chose to follow the path. So I can’t blame anyone for what follows and comes with that choice.
No I don’t have to like my situation. I don’t have to stand by and let lies and bad things be placed on me that I did not do. I will fight for the truth of those things too. My nature is to disagree with authority. I’m hard headed and very independent. I was not a follower; I was a leader. I was born a true alpha. I accept that because it is true. I can’t change that. And I truly wouldn’t want to.
There always has been and always will be many folks who will never like me. I say what is on my mind and in my heart. Most folks don’t like to hear that. I never liked bullies and I will always have it in me to protect and help those who can’t help themselves. No matter the place or time. These are truths that I had to come to grips with. Everyone has truths within them, only you can be honest with yourself.
When we face our own truth it sets us free. Free from the worries, blames, anger and resentful heart that so many, many folks have. They can’t look in a mirror and say, “Hey you! I love you!” Why would they hate themselves? Most people will say they hate something about themselves – how big of feet they have, their eyes, their weight, their teeth, whatever. But that truly isn’t hate. If you really hated any of those you would do something about it. I love me. No matter if I’m in a wheel chair now, I still love me because I know the real me. Not what people say about me. Or the labels people have put on me or even the lies that have been told about me. I love me because I know me. I’m honest with myself and about myself.
Yes I’ve made mistakes. That is all part of life. Will I continue making mistakes? I hope not but only time will tell. We do our best to live, survive and accomplish things to make our world and the world of others a better place. Yes we live in our own little worlds, but are you living in your truth? I’ve lived most of my life in other peoples’ worlds. Not a world I ever wanted to live in. But since I’m in it, I try my best to make the world better all around me. This isn’t easy, but I manage to do it. No, this world is still nowhere the way I would prefer it to be, but I do make it so I can smile and laugh every day, even when I’m in pain, and surrounded by hatred, and so much negativity.
I can do this because I live in truth. I had to accept the consequences for following the path I chose. And I can’t be mad at anyone but myself. I am the one who was speaking out, I was the one trying to change the world all around me on the outside for others. But there was a larger, more powerful force that didn’t like what I was saying and doing. So the truth is I angered them and here I am.
Now, where are you? What is your truth? That is today’s lesson. Ghost
The Winter Solstice has been very important to traditional Native Peoples throughout history. The Winter Solstice begins the purification of Mother Earth. It is a time for us to reflect and purify ourselves and to let go of everything we have done during the past year – to reflect on all we accomplished and all we failed to do as well.
The winter solstice signals the shortest day and the beginning of changes in all life. Our Grandmother sun (for most eastern tribes) or Grandfather sun (for most western tribes) moves farther away from us and is seen less. The power of the sun has less effect on us and provides less warmth. The cold serves to remove all the diseases and pollution that need to be cleansed. This is Mother Earth’s way of showing us what we are to do. Just as the trees (tall people), plants, winged ones, 4 legged ones, and all life changes, so must we. A new cycle will begin at the Spring Equinox.
We all have some type of baggage that clutters our mind, spirit or body. We have clutter that we may never even think about as clutter. Just as a computer must purge least it become so clogged up with stuff it fails to perform, so must we. This is why during the Winter Solstice so many ceremonies are done.
Another reason is the Grandfather Moon (to most eastern tribes) or Grandmother Moon (to most western tribes) effects all life and becomes so much more powerful. As we know this power causes many changes in us and in all life. We use this time, as all life does, to become more loving and giving of our selves. We learn so much about our own selves and also what others have to share. In the old days, the elders would be storytelling to pass on these teachings. Many ceremonies and celebrations would be held. During the spring, summer and fall, there was so much work to be done. Now, in winter, we have time to do these things.
Hunting was always so much better in winter because all the worms and bacteria are now dead in the 4-legged ones after the 2nd frost or snow. This made it safer to eat the meats. Even the fish had lost the parasites that attacked them and lived in their flesh.
Our Muscogee Creek people did lots of purging by drinking the black drink during this time and fasting as well. This was the time for dancing the deer, opossum, raccoon, panther, moon, and wolf dances. Each of these served a purpose and helped the people connect even more to all life. When doing these dances, we connect more to each of these beings and also to each other. The dancing was not just for entertainment; they taught life lessons. For instance, a wolf or panther hunts so much better when it is hungry for if it misses, it doesn’t eat, which could cost its life. So the deer, opossum, and raccoon, must truly be more aware and alert to everything or they will become dinner for some other being. So, we too have to be more alert to all that Spirit has to teach us. Just as we have to be hungry to learn more, so we can eat and live. We are both hunter and prey in life, as all life is.
We also have to be hungry for spiritual growth, knowledge, and enlightenment. At the same time we must be alert and aware of all the temptations, illusions, distractions, and traps, that can destroy us or lead us astray. Silence is a true blessing. To sit in silence, all the beauty that surrounds you, becomes you. No, the world is never silent, neither is your heart or spirit. But if we try, we can learn to silence our minds which play tricks on us. This is why we must learn to discipline and quiet the mind, to release the clutter and grow spiritually.
Editor’s Note: Since childhood Ghost Dancer has been an outspoken activist fighting for the religious rights of all Native Peoples. For more than 27 years Ghost has been incarcerated in federal prison, wrongfully convicted of crimes he had nothing to do with. Those with the eyes to see recognize Ghost as a true warrior, an elder, a leader, a knower in the tradition of his Southeastern Muscogee Creek ancestors.
In 2015 I posed this question to Ghost: This morning I read a piece written by an ex-con who is writing a book about his 9-year experience in federal prison. He took a poll in prison asking other inmates and staff for three words to describe prison life. His own selected words were: seclusion, humiliation, and stagnation. What would your three words be?
Ghost’s Response: My three words would be different. To survive in prison the three words you must live within arechange, ascension, spiritual. In understanding human behavior, we come to understand that in prison you must learn to change, each and every moment, depending on each circumstance of our environment. To quickly adapt to whatever situation arises. Living this way is a test of our heart of love, compassion, and generosity towards all around us. We must let our personal spirit ascend to higher understanding, higher discipline, higher output, to effect all around us to see beauty, love even in the worst of conditions and treatment. Now we must become more spiritual and live in a spiritual way to not lose our humanity, to not lose our compassion, our minds, dignity, honor, morals, and soul.
Despite the gross injustice, Ghost has never lost his sense of purpose, his kind heart or his ability to make the best of a bad situation by maintaining his spiritual equilibrium. Throughout his incarceration Ghost has served as leader of the spiritual community of American Indian inmates. As we begin the cycle of renewal, may we all be blessed and inspired by Ghost’s teachings we call, “Lessons from the Inipi” written during recent years up until the beginning of the Covid pandemic lockdown.
Experiences, Insights & Humor on the “Long Road Home”
By Steven Maisenbacher
Walks On The Grass
It’s always amazing to me how I can manage to learn all the songs I do, especially in different Native languages, as well as their translations. How glad I am to end the year 2021, my last full year of incarceration, with a most special story.
Umo-ho or Omaha, as the first whites interpreted it, means “Against the Current,” or “The people who live there on the rivers and must travel against the current to visit the relatives and neighboring tribes.” The Omaha are a proud people, known for their beautiful women and fierce tactics in battle. They are a people quick to give all they have to a friend and by the same hand, death to enemies.
Those fierce days are over, but the Omaha are still the proud and beautiful people they always were. Now they are better known for their pow-wow every year, in fact the oldest continuing pow-wow in the nation. You might want to go check it out, right there on the Nebraska-Iowa line, and eat some fry bread for me.
Now, I want to tell you something as a man who has spent the last several decades trying to learn and live in a way that reflects my American Indian values and beliefs while here in these iron houses. This I know, songs are sacred. Not only that, but songs given to another are gifts of the highest honor. If a song has been gifted to you it means you have been given a piece of that person to carry throughout your life and to be with them every time you sing the song or even think the words.
Songs are powerful medicine, they reach out to us and make us move in fluid harmony with their very beat and rhythms. They make us feel things and think things, and most of all they lift our hearts to a level of “one-ness” with all that share the sounds. Songs give us balance, emotion, messages and power. Songs are prayers for the most part. Any true Native will tell you their songs are prayers. Each song is for different things or different reasons, but all are prayers. This is what makes them so very powerful.
Now I want to tell you about Ty, an Omaha brother I had the honor to meet. Ty and G., were cellmates for a time while both were in quarantine. G. had just returned from a hospital stay and Ty had just arrived with only the clothes on his back.
G. told Ty to look me up when he got to the yard and sent word to me to be on the lookout for him and set him up with the basic necessities from the “kitty” he will need to start doing his time. Providing a supply of personal care items, bowls and spoons, shower shoes etc. is something brothers try to do for one another everywhere. So I put together a bag of stuff and we met in the chow hall where Ty had managed to get a job.
During this time the entire compound was under code “red” operations due to the Covid restrictions. All the units were isolated pretty much, and there was no meeting in the yard, so seeing someone you didn’t live or work with was a pretty good cause for celebration. So Ty and I become friends of a sort thru my daily trips to work and breakfast on the way. Sometimes he would come out to visit a minute at lunch meals so we were able to talk in a very limited way.
Months went by until finally restrictions at the prison began to relax at times allowing people from different units to mix so Ty and I were able to meet on the yard in the evenings. We would sit at a table and go over the songs and things that bind us together. I knew it was getting close to the time Ty would be leaving to go home and just the other day he tells me to come out that night, that he’s got some stuff for the “kitty” and something for me.
So out I go and here comes Ty out to the table at recreation. I’m astonished when he gifts me with a handmade wooden box to hold my medicine bag when I am not wearing it. Inside the box I see a folded piece of paper and Ty says, “And I want to gift you with this song.”
On the paper is his song written both in the Omaha language and English translation:
Omaha Song
Come watch us dance, Great Spirit, come watch us dance.
the Omaha people will stand,
Come watch us dance…
What could I say? This is one of the highest honors any of the brothers I have met along the way has ever bestowed on me. This is the way our people pass along everything of a cultural nature, as a gift to honor the receiver as well as the giver. This custom is as old as the first sunrise and will be going on at the last sunset.
This is the embodiment of Native honor, to give a song is to give a prayer to be sung and shared with others by the person who receives it.
This particular song Ty tells me was written by his uncle, Mike, a spiritual man, a leader of sweat lodges, a practitioner of these sacred ways, a man of honor, who passed his song on to a man of honor – his nephew, Ty – who passed it on to a man he wished to honor – me. Yes, I am very honored and will continue to be honored every time I sing this song, a song from a proud and wonderful people.
We were able to meet a time or two afterward so Ty could help me learn the proper tempo and pronunciation. Shortly after we were granted the opportunity to hold the first sweat lodge ceremony at the prison since the pandemic struck nearly two years ago. This was a joyful time and for the brothers, singing our songs and prayers together in the Inipi, the “Breath of Spirit,” was good medicine for us all.
I may not get to see Ty again after he leaves, but he will always be with me, thought of as a friend, a brother and one warrior who honored another warrior with a song, a prayer, a piece of himself. This I believe is more powerful than anything I can think of. What honor!
Steven “Walks On The Grass” Maisenbacher, December 2021
Today’s lesson is about when to call things to us and when to let them go. Many people don’t understand the importance of when to decide and make a commitment to call things you need to you. And when to decide to let go of bad habits or such. Why? Because they forget about the power of our Universe, especially our Grandfather Moon. The power of the moon affects every living being on our Mother Earth. It affects all plants, all waters, all animals and all peoples.
Now most folks don’t pay attention any more to the waxing moon (first quarter) or waning moon (last quarter). When I was a young whipper snapper, my grandma taught me all about plants and the waters, teaching me when I needed strong medicine from flowers, stems or leaves, to harvest them under a waxing moon and if I need to harvest roots or such, do it under the waning moon.
When I was doing my vision quest and speaking to my Spirit Helpers, and Mother Earth, they taught me this also applied to when we need to bring something good to us that we need, and/or to let go of something we don’t need. Understanding all in the universe is very important to understanding our own selves and how we can and should be so connected to it.
When in our Inipi lodge we have everything in the universe represented just as everything in the universe is represented in our own body. To know one’s self is to know everything in the universe. This is the teaching and understanding of our prayers as well. Our prayers are power. Our words are power. When the things we speak and do are all in perfect balance and harmony with everything in the universe, our words and actions all become unbelievably powerful.
Editor’s Note: For more than 27 years Ghost Dancer has been fighting for his life against illegal convictions for crimes he had nothing to do with. Despite living in horrible conditions in federal prison all these years, Ghost has never lost his sense of purpose, his kind heart or his ability to make the best of a bad situation by maintaining his spiritual equilibrium and being of service to others. Throughout his incarceration Ghost has served as leader of the spiritual community among American Indian inmates. May we all be inspired by Ghost’s accounts of his “Lessons from the Inipi” written during recent years up to the Covid pandemic lockdown. epd
Experiences, Insights & Humor on the “Long Road Home”
By Steven Maisenbacher
Walks On The Grass
Well, I am getting closer to the final destination – we all are, one second at a time – but I want to touch on something that is kinda cool, maybe a tad bit dark but with a happy ending. see, for all my bravado in my younger years, I was actually petrified of dying. I was afraid and unsure of the end, tried to rationalize my fears and thoughts on the subject in a zillion ways, but after all, the one debt we all owe is a death. We all are born, we live for a finite amount of time, all of us, so we are born, we live, then we die.
The thing of it is, the world has been cooking up so many possible afterlife scenarios since the first sunrise. All the religions of the world have their own twist on what happens and where we go, so we’ve got plenty to cogitate on as far as that goes. But the one thing that scared me more than anything was going before I made my peace with the Creator and turned my life around.
Well as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to grips with the inevitable and found the biggest push toward inner self peace and understanding in one of the most unlikely places. My favorite band!
After you have read this little commentary, check out the band Dream Theatre and look for one of the older live versions of their song, “The Spirit Carries On.”
I’m sure that if you do this you will see why I am no longer a mess in my own head where death of this earthly body is concerned. I’m not exaggerating because I have faced some pretty serious issues since I discovered this particular ditty and it has given me much comfort.
The Spirit Carries On
Dream Theater
Free of the fear and the pain
My questioning mind
Has helped me to find
The meaning in my life again
Victoria's real
I finally feel
At peace with the girl in my dreams
And now that I'm here
It's perfectly clear
I found out what all of this means
If I die tomorrow
I'd be all right
Because I believe
That after we're gone
The spirit carries on.
Source: MetroLyrics
The song’s message allowed me so much more strength and defiance that I made it thru every issue. Eventually though, my day will come and I’m ready for it. Now, don’t get it twisted, I am in no hurry, I’m way too busy with future plans to even contemplate making a date to test the entire theory. But I will say try this beautiful song on for size and apply it however you can. It might help make a little less anxiety over the whole matter. I know it works for me.
Let me go on to say that while this may not be the longest jaunt I have laid out here for you, it has allowed me to toss out the fact that Dream Theatre is my favorite band, so while we are in the neighborhood let me also suggest you give a listen to some of their better tracks:
If you enjoy this sampling, you may want to Google some of my personal favorites: Raising the Knife, Misunderstood, Illumination Theory, On The Backs Of Angels, Metropolis, Sacrificed Sons.
These are just a few songs that I love and listen to at least weekly. As of late, I have also been on a retro kick and have been getting into the now defunct band “Head East.” I love all the stuff off of Flat as a Pancake and also Getting’ Lucky, but any of their live stuff is just good clean rock n roll, not too hard, not too soft, just right. Smile. And with that folks, I’m gonna close this one up. I do hope you will take the info offered up and check ‘em out.
I will probably be done with what I’m figuring to be book 2 “Along the Way” before Christmas and may or may not continue to write about my journey before I get out. So I’m wondering, what do ya think? If you will, please send your thoughts and comments. I cannot see this site from where I am, but Sings tells me of all the comments and I love to hear what you think. So thank you, especially to those of you who are in fact following and reading what I have to say. I love hearing about little emoji’s you post. That means a whole lot to me and lets me feel that maybe someone has faith in me…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Something really awesome just happened for Walks and he wants to tell you about it, so stay tuned to read about “The Gift” before Christmas. Sings
Journeys of the Spirit 