Monday, October 4, 2021

Spirit Talk w/Minisa Crumbo Halsey, Oct. 9, 2021 @ 10a (MONAH)

A Morning Song will be offered with song words available. Then, we will sing together. Bring a drum, rattle, sticks, or any percussion instruments that comes to hand.

Sunrise Song Lyrics and Translation

Register 4 ZOOM

MINISA CRUMBO HALSEY

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Year of the Earth Horse, to Lillian Hogue Crumbo and Woodrow Wilson Crumbo. I am Muscogee Creek and Potawatomi Indian, Scots-Irish from my maternal Papa and French-German from my paternal Papa.

My education, in the ways of the Mother Earth and the Father Sky-Sun, who were and remain my first, most important and beautiful teachers, is grounded in the black jack hills of Oklahoma and the high mountain valleys of New Mexico. As a child in Sand Springs, OK, as I laid on the grass and looked up into the starry night sky, an airplane flew over and I said, "I want to go there". And so it has been. The natural world is my University.

The floor around Woody Crumbo's drawing table, my maternal grandmother Harriett Hogue's garden, milk cow and wood cook stove, my mother and first school teacher, Lillian Crumbo's kindergarten class at the Taos Pueblo Day School ... These places were where I would receive the first structured life lessons, lessons that would endure and reverberate endlessly to this day.

I am an artist and craftsperson of several disciplines: painting, silversmithing, basketry, potting, as well as quilting, cooking, gardening and writing. I am currently working on THE BOOK OF EARTH DAYS, which includes original illustrations and poetry.

It is a Medicine Wheel Teachings book, offering to accompany the reader through an honoring and interactive 'medicine' journey through a 12 month-13 Moon Calendar period, as it emanates from the mind of the Creator as a teaching of natural wisdom and nourishing element to the minds, hearts, bodies and Spirits of all Beings that live upon and within our beautiful Mother Earth and Father Sky Sun.

I am married to Jim Halsey, Impressario Extraordinaire.

I have two beautiful and talented children, Woodrow Rexford Carter; pilot and Tesla scholar, father and husband, of Prescott, AZ., Christine Heather Carter Rumford; wife, mother, skier and award winning realtor, of Vail, CO.

Woody Crumbo was a long time friend and admirer of the Koshare Indian Dancers Founder, Francis 'Buck', Burshears. In the 1970's Buck, Jane and 'Ma' Burshears invited the Crumbo's to move from Taos, New Mexico to La Junta, CO where they made their home for a number of years. Here, Woody maintained a studio and Lillian taught in the La Junta public schools. Both Lillian and Woody Crumbo were enthusiastic supporters of the internationally recognized and accomplished Koshare Indian Dancers.

Woody Crumbo, and many, many other dedicated and specialized teachers, mentors, interested friends and sponsors, mothers and fathers, spent much time with 'the boys', discussing varied Native American traditions and broader American and Universal ideals, lecturing in art appreciation, studying dance, face and body 'paint', song, drumming, regalia understandings and construction and appropriate deportment as representatives of the Koshare Indian Dancer tradition. It was and remains to be a vast and complex organization that requires committed input and participation from a myriad of persons and directions to function smoothly, efficiently and with satisfaction for both the core performing Koshare Indian Dancer organization and the attending public.

In the midst of this microcosm of the Universe, they spoke of and considered: the arts, vision and aspirations, interactive and cooperative actions, focusing on the desirable, appropriate and attainable goals as identified by and within Buck's vision for 'his boys'. Within this microcosm they worked, laughed, sweated together, forging life long alliances, and growing into manhood while striving to incorporate and maintain the Boy Scouts of America ideals, teachings and traditions, high grade point averages in school and then, they danced their hearts out in the Kiva and on tour. And so, the Natural World and helpers, continued(s) to teach, inspire and support brilliant and inspired lives as they move out from their Kiva, the teaching and ceremonial place of what it means to truly be a Human Being and into their larger lives in the World.

Woody Crumbo painted SPOTTED WOLF'S LAST REQUEST in the La Junta, CO studio and it was subsequently acquired for the Koshare Indian Museum, where it hangs on display today.

It is my very great pleasure to serve on the Board. I consider it an honor to carry on in the Crumbo-Koshare tradition. Would that their days measure many and joyful.

MINISA CRUMBO HALSEY

SPIRIT HORSE RANCH

MOUNDS, OK

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