Advance Schedule for the 13 Grandmother's Council 2014, Spearfish, SD

International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers

Advance Schedule for the 13th Gathering of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, 

in Spearfish, SD, September 4 - 7, 2014

View and Download Full 4-day Program

Pre-Conference Excursions with the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers

Download and Share Flyer

RSU Rogers State University Annual Fundraiser Taping, Claremore, OK

...featured guest chefs from the Tulsa, OK area. Minisa contributed and demonstrated a recipe for Wild Grape Dumplings given to her by her maternal grandmother, Harriett Hogue.

A cook book will also be produced featuring the recipe and others from the guest chefs and cooks in the NE Oklahoma viewing area. It will begin airing in November.

The segment was taped at and sponsored by the Hahn Appliance Warehouse and Reasor's.
Pictured is (left): Jennifer Sterling, Ex. director of Programing, RSU TV; (Right): Minisa Crumbo Halsey

Jennifer Sterling and Minisa Crumbo Halsey

Minisa Crumbo Halsey and Lou Puliese, Reasor's, Special Events Coordinator

SPIRIT TALK

BELOVEDS
The 13 Moon Calendar has been revealing itself as a Gift from the Creator, Mother Earth and Father Sky Sun to support whole vision and beingness to us, the two leggeds, as we remain and grow ever more into balance and harmony within the heart, body, Spirit and mind of The Tree of Life as given to us by the Master of All Breath.

I would like to thank Drunvalo Melchidezek and all sentient beings of the unified heart consciousness for the work so graciously and freely offered to each and every one of us that we might most fully recognize ourselves as the sacred, all ways, all days....

Please feel free to observe and interact with the 13 Moon image in your own creative brilliance to further the emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health and balance of all life, now and forever more. Be it known that the 13 Moon Inner and Outer Calendar of Days and Nights remains in a state of vital flux and growth, as does and will your experience of it as it seats and integrates the energetic daily messaging of the Father Sky Sun and imbues us with the necessary mannas by which to live and function, In A GOOD WAY!

May I suggest you initiate and physically create a Calendar of your own beauty? I invite you to enter images and writings to this site that we, The Contemporary Wisdom Keepers might continue to live and grow together in the Community to which we hue.

Beloved, we each mirror a unique aspect of beauty, truth and sacredness...for this I offer humble feelings of recognition and gratitude..

In the Spirit of Art and Beauty,
Dawn Woman

How To Fully Activate Pineal Gland Antennas (choose #5) by Drunvalo Melchizedek

Contributed by Dr. David Busch:
I once had an experience, at my first ceremonial adventure of this lifetime, around 1987, on Mic Mac Land in rural Vermont. This grandmother "happened" to hear me play one of my Native American flutes at a psychology conference in Atlanta, and she invited me to this gathering. At the time, I didn't even know such traditional gatherings still existed. I arrived late at night in a misting rain, and awoke before dawn to the sound of quiet singing. I followed the sound through the still misting rain to discover a dozen or so people under a little pavilion, a beautiful ageless grandmother from Canada, presiding. She said, "Now I'm going to sing a song to ask the grandmothers to help us." I closed my eyes as she sang, and thought of my two sweet grandmothers to whom I was so close; one half-Choctaw, the other one-quarter Creek and one-quarter Cherokee. Suddenly they were there, on either side of me, plain as day.. After a moment of awe, for the first time ever, I thought of Their grandmothers, and then there were four more sweet familiar loving women around me. And then, Their grandmothers... I found myself in a crowd of familiar women who loved me. Tears poured down my face like a faucet.. I was Home.

This morning, I wrote....

When a wise woman crosses over, she may take on the responsibility of facilitating the spiritual unfoldment of her grandchildren. I believe she would then put the most attention on the ones who paid the most attention to Her. So let's be more aware of our guardian angel/grandmother/spirit guides, and never in a pretentious or exaggerated way. It's magical enough, as is.

It only follows that the spirit grandmother would then bond with her great grandchildren when they are born, and so the web expands, grandmother's spiritual response-abilities expanding with her consciousness and love, helping us all unfold into beauty with as few bumps and bruises as possible. Gratitude and humility grease the wheels.

Love flowing out through the Web, from the Center, all those hands connected, supporting us here today.

This is a good day to Live!
Hechetu welo.
I love you Gramma.
Walked Away

Contributed by Reginah WaterSpirit:
Aho Tribe,

Just got home from Gathering of Circles in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Our Will Star Heart is a past speaker and this was the twentieth anniversary of the event. I was asked to do a workshop that Bear Heart and I did for many years, but, I decided to alter it a bit. Another friend and past speaker for this event is Melinda Garcia, PhD. When I told Melinda that I was going to have the participants come forward to say "whose shoulders they have stood upon" to be the people they are today, she offered another point of view. Being a Panamanian indigenous person, she always seems to give me a way to look at and say things in a beautiful, nature honoring way. Melinda said, " I see my life as a tapestry made up of all my ancestors. I am pulling the threads forward on this tapestry to continue to weave the picture set forth before me."

Her words inspired me to bring my Dream Catcher to the gathering to represent the larger web of life. I tied 4 strings on it. As each person came forward to share about an ancestor or mentor who influenced their life, I had them make a prayer tie to tie onto the Dream Catcher's strings which stretched out about four feet. We wound up with a beautiful assortment of colorful ties, each representing an elder who gave a gift to these loved ones, and, consequently all of us, including the 'more-than'humans'.Of course we offered the prayer ties to the Fire at the end with a prayer of gratitude.

I'd like to share the following, written about the workshop (WaterSpirit's We Are Not Alone Workshop at Gathering Of Circles 2014) by poet Sheri Young:

Whose threads have you been pulling forward in life?
On whose shoulders did you stand?
Tell the stories of theones
Who lifted you and held your hand.

Tobacco, cloth and string
A prayer bundle makes
Tied to the living web
We must participate

In the creation of
The story we will live
The story we will tell
The story we will give

We honor these gifts of love, compassion,
perseverance, bravery, strength, musical vibration,
wisdom, eloquence and empathy
passed onto us from those who held us up.

Yigaquv osaniyu adanvto adad naqvv utlogasdi nihi (Muscogee Nation-Creek Tribe language)
(May the Great Spirit's Blessing always be with you)

Reginah WaterSpirit
Brown Dove
A Passion for Kindness. Acting Justly. Walking Humbly with your Creator.

Milagro Collection Gallery, 127 Bent St., Taos, NM

Full Moon Cherokee White Eagle Blue Corn

Cherokee White Eagle Blue Corn

Full Moon First Harvest

Aquarius Full Moon, 8:41pm, August 10, 2014

Gun Lake Language Conference and Gathering of Potawatomi Bands, Hopkins, MI, August 2014

The 2014 annual Bodewadmin Gathering of the Bands and Potawatomi Language Conference
August 1-10 Gun Lake, MI

Bozho Nikan, Hello, My Bone,
Aboard the birch bark voyager canoe at the 2014 Potawatomi Language Conference at Gun Lake, MI and the Annual Gathering of the Bands on the Match-che-be-Nash-she-wish Potawatomi lands at Hopkins, MI as we are prepared to push off onto Gun Lake. This large canoe is made entirely by hand with no metal incorporated. It is made from original designs and materials and is capable of handling the waters of Lake Michigan. This day, 16 persons were on board and paddling.

Potawatomi Elm House

Presented Colors

The Language Conference
The Potawatomi language has been in declining use and through Spiritually dedicated programs is acting to restore the language actively back into the culture at all levels, beginning with the primary immersion levels but classes are designed and available to all age groups... At the current rate the Potawatomi Nation will turn the language issue and resultant usage around in a generation. Good work all! AHO! Language is culture.....

Doors of Maple Sugar House

Copper Maple Syrup Cauldrons

The Gathering
There were many, many workshops offered, among them, the construction of the birch bark canoe. Also offered were extensive talks and hands on demonstrations on maple syrup production and products in the sugar house, wild rice cultivation, harvest and handling, basketry, hoop dancing for the children,earth oven construction, corn, milk thistle and wild rice soup teachings, copper metal construction, a wigwam built of huge sheets of elm bark, an overview of the migration and sacred prophesy, and so much more. It was impossible to take very many for they overlapped, we're through and in some cases extended for the three days of the gathering.

Women's Moon Camp Teaching Lodge - under construction

Inside Potawatomi Elm House

Roof of Fire House

There was a sacred fire which started our fire, carried by coal from the reservation fire. It was tended by the men (nene) 24 hours a day. The men sang fire songs and the women (kwe) offered the water ceremony and a water song. Daily sunrise and tobacco offering ceremonies occurred. We say, 'We just hope that every dawn, somewhere, a Potawatomi stands waiting to greet the Grandfather Sun and put down some tobacco'.

Elm Bark Potawatomi Wigwam

Food is our 'Medicine'
The registrants were provided with food cards for the duration of the gathering which allowed us to 'trade' them for Indian grown, cooked and served foods. There were extensive camp grounds, playgrounds, communal dance grounds, a women's moon lodge and teaching center, elder camp, indoor basketball court, indoor and covered outdoor dining areas, cisterns of spring water conveniently placed and many arts and crafts offered by the vendors.

It took place during one of the finest weather weeks of the summer but still, some mornings the lake was swathed in mists and fogs and occasional brief rain showers passed over.

There were many out of state attendees from out of state, notably members of the Prairie Band of Mayetta, KS and the Citizen Band whose agency of Shawnee, OK.

Wabaksekwe n'deshnekas: Minisa Crumbo Halsey
N'dogzewin Shawnee: my agency is Shawnee

Man with his Dog Birch Bark Canoe

Minisa Crumbo Halsey and Michael Bourbournaise

Conference End Pleasure Face