News from the Blackjack Hills of Oklahoma

From beneath the sun dappled oaks we, of the happy faces and glad hearts, would like to acknowledge and thank again, Pam and Jim for the great pics and Britteny Cuevas for the Cherokee double-wall basket teachings ... good memories️. Each of us from our CPN Potawatomi Women’s Drum Group East, Mskweminen Negdosha, and The RedBud Singers were able to take home a finished basket from the Sunday, May 19, 2019 workshop.

Britteny is the 2019 awardee from the Muscogee Women’s Group for Muscogee Woman Artist of the Year and a student at Bacone College in Muscogee, OK.

Migwech,
Wabaksekwe - Dawn Woman

Educational Conference, Choctaw Grand Casino, Durant, OK

Bozho and Greetings Kwe,

... a wonderful time was had by all CPN Dewebenkwe at the Educational Conference at the Choctaw Grand Casino and Conference Center in Durant, OK. The drums were ‘given-away’ and many songs were part of the larger program for Culture Night.

Note: Full Moon Ceremonies and Observations are coming up tomorrow evening (April 19, 2019) ... this is the ‘sugar making moon’ Zizbakwtoke’-gizes ... maple tree tapping, sugar, syrup and boiling time.

 ... if you can, consider putting down some sema, drum, sing and make some prayers in personal ceremony there, at home or on the road ... the next full moon is Saturday, May 18, 2019.

Migwech,
Dawn Woman

47th Annual Symposium of the American Indian, Apr. 8-13, 2019, Tahlequah, OK

47th ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN

April 8-13, 2019

Tahlequah, OK

 Minisa Crumbo Halsey and Donna Gourd

Ollie Starr, Candace Bird, and Minisa Crumbo Halsey

 

Tesia Zientek, Minisa Crumbo Halsey, and Stephanie Hawk

 

Bacone College, Muskogee, OK, April 12, 2019

I am honored to sit representing Bacone College (2299 Old Bacone Rd, Muskogee, OK). This Friday, April 12, 2019 at 1 pm, Room 222. The subject will be Resisting Conformity in Educational Choices.

Symposium Sessions -- Friday, April 12

Bodewadmin Dewebenkwe, CPN

Bozho!

Presented here are the thirty seven (37) drums constructed and painted by the

Citizen Band Potawatomi Dewebenkwe (Women’s Drum Group) of Shawnee, OK.

So much beauty and good medicine, Migwech.

Most of these hand drums were 12”-14” diameter.

The Dewebenkwe of the:

Citizen Potawatomi Nation

Shawnee, OK

They were made in service to the tribe who will ‘give-away’ on April 15 & 16 to members of the InterTribal Education Conference to be held in Durant, OK. The group has been invited and sponsored to travel with the drums and make several song and drum presentations during the days of ceremony and meetings.

Bama pi,

Wabaksekwe

Deep Fork River, south of Prague, OK

The Deep Fork River, south of Prague, OK ... today, on the way to Drum Group in Shawnee. It rained all night on the new garden ... the redbud trees are at peak bloom ... 

This is the big ripper of a wild river that passed by your grandparents home near Pierce, Oklahoma. Crossing the flooded bridges to see Grandma and Grandpa used to scare me so bad, Dad driving slowly over those suspension bridges with water flowing OVER the clanking planks ... it's the first time I remember being scared and then we would be with Gram and Poppa.
 
The Oklahoma Report.
 
Smiles,
Mom, Auntie & Dewebenkwe Sister

Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk'

Excerpts from 'Spirit Talk': It is from the unified and receptive language interaction of our mind, heat, body, and spirit languages that we are able to communicate with the realities and even messages from denizens of the natural world – refreshing and newly emerging spirit beings in the forms of plants, animals, the Grandmother Moon and Star Beings, the Wind, Fire, and Water Beings, and even the heartbeat of Mother Earth, the pulses of Father Sky-Sun, and the mind of the Prime Creator, the Master of All Breath …

The Medicine Wheel 4 X 4 wagon is building its wheels. The finely meshed and recognized gears of language that carry our loads, provide a center and direction, are beginning to be directionally and seasonally purposed to function as an inclusive true home and spiritual sanctuary. The home is under final construction and livable … always a dance and a song in the process of becoming at spring, or any given time. Welcome home traveler and seeker …  

Spring Equinox: The east-west arm of balance is the ‘hard road of life’. The east-west axis provides the essential cross balance with the north-south cross balance – spinal axis of harmony – the Good Red Road … This mental spring arm extends forward and out from the center, joining with the introspective, medicine autumn arm of the autumnal equinox. The Medicine Wheel is in an active and visible building process.