Butterfly Gardeners Association
Indigenous Board

Brooke Medicine Eagle
PMB C401, One 2nd Ave. East
Polson MT 59860
(406) 883-4686
bme@MedicineEagle.com, office@MedicineEagle.com
http://www.medicineeagle.com

Dear Alan, YES, of course, I am happy to join the other imaginals in the creation of this new butterfly of love, joy, peace, and fulfillment. For what else was I, were we, created? What more wonderful thing to do with this one precious life than to consciously join the Great Creator in this uplifting evolution. I would be glad to be on your honorary or indigenous boards. Many thanks. For All My Relations, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Chalise

Bio: " . . .the bridge into a new time must be a bridge of light; and thus all colors, all races, All Our Relations must be included in that bridge for the rainbow to form an arch across the chasm." *

Brooke Medicine Eagle is a Native American metis - an Earth wisdom teacher and catalyst for wholeness, ceremonial leader, sacred ecologist, Feng Shui practitioner, singer/songwriter, and author of a spiritual autobiography, Buffalo Woman Comes Singing. . Her beauty way awakens physical and spiritual health, offers Native American music and chants, promotes ritual honoring of Earth cycles, provides women's mystery teachings, and creates a sustainable, holy path for two-leggeds to walk. Her dedication is to bringing forward the ancient truths concerning how to live a fully human life in harmony with All Our Relations as we approach the crossroads into a golden age.

Brooke's new book, The Last Ghost Dance, which focuses on the practices of Earth magic and ascending into our greater humanity is now available. . Her new Wakantia training will awaken and challenge you to the next level of being human -- as an Earth Mage living in harmony and grace upon a renewed Earth.

At home in the beautiful Flathead Valley of Montana and in the White Mountains of Arizona, Brooke is the creator of Eagle Song, a series of spiritually-oriented wilderness camps; and is the founder of the FlowerSong Project, which promotes a sustainable, ecologically-sound path upon Mother Earth for seven generations of children.

Brooke's primary interest is in the renewal of ancient ritual forms for creating a beautiful path upon Mother Earth, today and for the future. To this end she is creating an in-depth training, Wakantia , to offer the opportunity for a deepening of Spirit which awakes us to an ascended level of humanity through committed practice and community.

Although of mixed heritage, her tribal enrollment is through the Crow Indian tribe in Montana. She has native blood from the Lakota and Nez Perce peoples, as well as ancestors from Europe. She teaches from her primary identification as a global family Earthkeeper -- a sacred path dedicated to nurturing and renewing the Circle of Life through the growth and healing of our two-legged family upon Mother Earth. She walks this beauty path in a way which combines non-traditional Earth Wisdom with a strong dedication to learning from the ancient voices which speak through Mother Earth and Father Spirit.

Recently she has been learning more about her Celtic roots through Scot and Irish ancestry, and has begun Song of the Nations - a series of learning opportunities, gatherings, councils, and Confluences sponsored by Feathered Pipe Foundation. Though these she creates unity and service with teachers and participants from many traditions around the world.

For the past several years, Brooke has been doing less public work and more personal spiritual work to clear herself and open to the next level of understanding for sharing with others. White Buffalo Woman, one of her guides, is sending through information about creating new kinds of gatherings which go much beyond our current form of workshops and conferences (Wakantia and Confluences and are two of these new and transformative kinds of gatherings). Brooke's current focus is on ancient information concerning the great and positive changes possible for our two-legged family to create as we move through the millennium to the prophetic turning of the Ages sometime around 2010-2012.

Brooke spends part of her year helping to ready Rainbow Hearth sanctuary in Texas as a place help others find transformative time for themselves. Through her own retreat time, Brooke has developed a great appreciation for the power of this kind of quieting. She says, "As we move into this new time, it is not about figuring out anything or even doing something different; the most important thing is to release old and unworkable patterns at the baseline of our consciousness, and to align with the heart of our truest and deepest Self. This will mean, then, that the great energies coming to Earth in the next decade can energize what we really want - what is positive and magical - rather than magnifying the past programs of limitation, stress and disharmony that we have been playing out."

Through all her work, Brooke invites you to heal yourself by taking spiritual action in service of All Our Relations.

*from Buffalo Woman Comes Singing

Corbin Harney (Honorary)
Shundahai Network
POB 338, Tecopa, CA 92389
(760) 852-4288
shundahai@shundahai.org
http://www.shundahai.org

Bio: Corbin Harney is an Elder and Spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, a Native people indigenous to Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California. Corbin is the author of The Way it Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth. He travels the Earth nomadically, just as his Shoshone ancestors roamed all over their land. Today, instead of hunting antelope or gathering pine nuts, his travels take him to speak out on behalf of Mother Earth. He spreads an urgent and powerful message to all of us, a message that transcends language differences and the borders of our maps. "The Mother Earth provides us with food, provides us with air, provides us with water. We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together, our power together, to save our planet here. We've only got one water, one air, one Mother Earth."

Corbin's speaking tour sends him all over the United States, as well as many other countries. He has recently returned from Japan. There he was a keynote speaker at the Atomic and Hydrogen Bomb conference. His experience working with nuclear victims throughout the world and the powerful message he brings of peace and respect for our planet touched the hearts of the still recovering Japanese.

Since 1957 he has worked with medicine women of Battle Mountain, Nevada, running the Sundance Ceremony, sweat lodges and helping sick people. As a medicine person, he has also been working steadily to preserve and protect the sacred sites and burial grounds of his people. He was raised to view all life as sacred. "Everything is alive and has a spirit to it.. The rocks, the mountains, streams, animals, plants, birds, oceans, and so forth."

He describes the dire situation that our environment has to deal with today, but he also offers solutions. With his gentle power, he tells us how damaged the Earth is today by toxins of all kinds- chemicals from mining and industry, and, worst of all, nuclear fallout from nuclear testing, storage, and transportation.

He speaks out about the contamination of our water. Sharing his visions with people, visions of the water coming to him and saying "I'm going to look like water, but some day nothing's going to use me." Corbin has seen a time approaching quickly where we will not be able to use our water at all. Where it is all contaminated, filled with poisons that we have put there ourselves. Corbin says "the water has a life, and we have to pray for it. All the water that comes from the Mother Earth, that's her blood", and we must work to heal it.

Corbin knows what he's talking about too, because his research has not taken place in an institute or university, but in the field, with the people, the plants and the animals all over this Earth. As a medicine man, he's doctored the Down Winders who are suffering horrible deaths from nuclear fallout. He's visited mutated children in Kazakhstan hospitals who lived close to the Russian nuclear test site. He's seen the extinction of medicine plants due to the toxins of mining and the disappearance of many birds and animals that once roamed his childhood homelands.

Besides the obvious first step of cleaning up our environment, Corbin offers another solution that is more esoteric. He takes us into the inner mind and spirit of a medicine person.. Where the spirit of each thing is what needs to be nurtured and talked to, in order to be strong, healthy and keep on living. He talks about song and prayer and talking to all the living things as a powerful solution to keeping them strong.

People who know Corbin have seen him communicate with the natural elements and living things, and they have also seen the results: Rain in drought areas, dry springs which "woke up" and came back strong after being sung to and prayed for.. Plants flourishing where they were sparse before.. And the increase of rare animals.

Perhaps this all sounds coincidental, but if one has had the privilege of spending time with Corbin, one realizes that the many results are really more than a coincidence.

It seems that what is really happening is a deep communion between a human being and the living spirit of different manifestations of nature. Good gardeners have a sense of this communion. Nature lovers often feel it. Corbin says it begins by acknowledging the living spirit in everything.. Appreciating it, respecting it, and talking to it through words, song or prayer.

This approach is so different from that of the dominant culture. It requires birthing a whole new "world view" to commence this exciting journey. You may say, "I'm not a Native person. I don't have songs and special powers. I can't talk to the animals, the plants, the rocks, the sun, the stars, the wind, the dolphins and whales... "

Corbin says, "Yes, you can. All of us are gifted. We just need to open up the gifts by praying in our own way, singing our own songs, and talking to everything out there with love and respect. Don't feel foolish. This is how everything has been sustained for millions of years. This will open up a totally new world for you. Amazing things will happen if you are patient. This is how we will heal ourselves and our Mother Earth."

Excerpt from The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth

by Corbin Harney

As I see it all around me, the trees are dying out, our water is contaminated, and our air is not good to breathe. Those are the reasons why today I'm trying my best to come back to our ways of thousands of years ago.

We have to come back to the Native way of life. The Native way is to pray for everything, to take care of everything. Our Mother Earth is very important. We can't just misuse her and think she's going to continue. We can see what's taking place: the animal life, the tree life, even the water is telling us, but we're not paying attention to it.

We've been told to take care of what we've got so that we can leave something for the younger generation. We've tried to practice that from the beginning of our life, but we forgot our way.

I never have spoken out until lately here, the Spirit coming to me and telling me, "Well, you are going to have to give us a hand here." In a vision, not too many years ago, the water came to me and told me, "I'm going to look like water, but pretty soon nobody's going to use me." These words came from the water, the Spirit. Now I see that the water has been polluted everywhere you go, and pretty soon we're not going to be able to use it.

All living things like to enjoy clean water. The rocks right here, they want clean water. The tree life has to have clean water. We are all one life, and clean water is something we have to rely on.

We, the people, are going to have to put our thoughts together to save our planet here. We only have One Water . . . One Air . . . One Mother Earth.

Joyce A. Kovelman, Ph.D.
Grandmothers' Circle of Peace and Wisdom Keepers, Millennium Project
10690 Winnetka Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311
(818) 998-4228 fax (818) 360-8126
ASOUL1@aol.com
http://www.essentialsforasoul.com

I know three on your board. Katherine Cheshire is in our circle, Corbin Harney and Katherine participated in the gathering known as ""Belonging to Mother Earth"" in 1997, in Virginia Beach. I helped Richard Schneider coordinate this event along with many others, including Mala Spotted Eagle (Rolling Thunder's Son) and Grandfather Wm. Commander (Algonquin/Mimac). I have read books by Brooke Medicine Eagle. I also know Lucille Green and Elizabet Sahtouris. Truly a small world. Also found the synchrony very significant and trust it.

Our circle is a Rainbow Circle, no longer interested in perpetuating Them vs Us mentality. We are for peaceful co-existence with all of nature. Our wish is for Peace with Earth and Peace on Earth.

As I read the stories I will add one of my own. When my second son was married in our garden, as the Rabbi and Priest made their benediction, a caterpillar came across the lawn and walked between the bride and groom and stayed for the remainder of their wedding vows.

Will look into memory for Butterfly story. Mostly butterflies are an important personal symbol for me and my family always gives butterflies in one form or another to me for various occasions. I am the family's Butterfly lady. Also, as mentioned earlier, I write about the Sacred Chyrsalis in which Humanity's future presently resides. It is my hope we emerge from our Chrysalis a more humane and evolved species.

Bio: Joyce is married and the mother of four grown children and grandmother of two. Joyce is an identical twin and Mother of a set of fraternal twins and has written a children's book, "The Reluctant Twin." Joyce returned to college after her children were partially grown and after 17 years of marriage. She just kept going and going - earning a Ph.D. in Anatomy as well as a Ph.D. in Psychology. Joyce also completed an NIMH post-doctoral fellowship in Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and has taught in the Medical School at U.C.L.A. Presently, Joyce practices psychology in Chatsworth, California. Her two books, "Once Upon ASOUL: The Story Continues... Science, Psychology and the Realms of the Spirit" and "Namaste': Initiation and Transformation," 1998, Jalmar Press, draw upon her extensive training in neuroscience, psychology and several spiritual traditions. "Namaste" has also been translated into Portuguese and published by Madras Editora in Brazil. She is completing her certification as Coach with the Hudson Institute in Santa Barbara, looking forward to helping people to discover their true purpose and vision and then to take the steps to realize their dreams and greater potential. Joyce is a multi-facet individual, psychologist, scientist, international speaker, a frequent guest on T.V. and radio, and serves as an official ECOSOC representative to the United Nations for the Institute of Global Education.

Joyce is President of The Millennium Project, a not-for-profit corporation devoted to Peace on Earth and Peace with Earth. She is also co-creator of Grandmothers' Circle of Peace and Wisdom Keepers based upon the Native American prophecy, "When the Grandmothers speak, the Earth will Heal." Ours is a circle of Rainbow nations; women of all ethnicities, ages, races, religions, and nations are invited to return sanity, integrity, compassion, and peace to our homes, our villages, our communities and our world.

Joyce weaves her world and her service from a foundation of science, psychology, and visionary experience into an expanded vision of reality and self. She is currently writing a book with a Vietnamese medical doctor, integrating an ancient Vietnamese Spiritual praxis with Western science.

Joyce is a mystic who dances, dreams, and invites our world into being. She visits Universes of the Mind and explores the invisible, hidden realms and dimensions of existence; and delights in sharing the many treasures and truths of her journey with all who are ready to hear, see, receive and love.

In this realm of existence Joyce honors and respects all our Relations, loves to needlepoint, meditates, travels, enjoys good food and wine with friends, and absolutely adores time with her two granddaughters and the rest of her family. She is honored to serve on this board with all of you. Arohanui

Matt Davison
Western Regional Director, SENAA International (Southeastern Native American Alliance)
mattanne@gte.net
http://www.senaawest.org
http://www.senaa.org

If you look back on your early days, you will find clues as to where your life direction will lead you. A big clue for me was at the age of 12, when a Cherokee man arrived in our community and issued an invitation to the children to learn the Indian Way. Maybe a dozen kids showed up. In the end, only a few remained. I was one of the few. This is when I first came to know about the importance of respecting Mother Earth and all that lives upon her. And this is when I understood that there are things you do not learn in school.

My life took a detour onto the 'Black Road' when I joined the armed services. I came out after four years a certified addict on a downhill slide. After too many visits to the ER, I learned another important lesson. All the while I was courting an early death, my mother prayed for peace to enter my soul…even as she herself was dying of ovarian cancer. In 1971, while visiting Ireland, the peace came, and I never abused any substance since that time. I learned there is power in prayer.

In my life, I've been a semipro football player, an actor, a playwright, a poet, a drifter, and a dozen or more other occupations. Balance came with my marriage and birth of my son. Accountability came when The Creator led me to my brother and mentor, Little Crow, of the American Indian Church. I've been with AIC for eleven years, and have been honored with the Red & Blue Blanket and American Indian Veterans Blanket, along with a stint on their Board of Directors. AIC will always play an important role in my life.

I became involved with Big Mountain after befriending a Dine' grandmother, while visiting traditional Hopi in Hotevilla. This was six years ago. Up to that point, like most Americans, I was ignorant of the forced relocation being perpetrated against the Dine' by agents of the US government. The first year of my involvement was creating a strong bond between my family and my grandmother's family. There was a time when Grandmother needed money to repair her Ceremonial Hogan on HPL (Hopi Partitioned Land). She asked me for the money. I went out and raised the money and took it to her. Hopi Tribal Police not only prevented her from making the repairs, they forced her and her elder husband from their sacred land on HPL, where their umbilical cords are buried and where their ancestors live in the wind. Today, Grandmother has all her belongings tied to a tree behind her sons home on NPL (Navajo Partitioned Land). She is a refugee in her own land.

I came upon SENAA (Southeastern Native American Alliance) a few years ago. Al Swilling, member of the Cherokee Nation and founder and of SENAA International, committed the focus and energy of this organization on ending the suffering/genocide of the resistors of Big Mountain. I correctly sensed that SENAA was not a self-serving organization, that they supported our Dine' relatives in both spiritual and material ways, and that they were not a fly-by-night organization. I joined SENAA a few years ago, and was asked to head up the Western Region. In the years that followed, all of SENAA has conducted worldwide Prayer Vigils, demonstrations against mainstream media for their complicity in genocide through silence, and material donations brought onto the land during information-gathering visits. Today, SENAAEUROPE is particularly active in motivating responsive governments in speaking out against the US policy of genocide against the First People. SENAA was on the land in February of 2000, when the combined forces of the Hopi Tribal Police, BIA Police and FBI gathered in Kykotsmovi for the 'final solution' of forcing the remaining elders from their land so that big mining interests could begin strip mining coal. Because of supporter presence on the land, the 'final solution' was postponed. Still, everyone knows that it is only a matter of time…and America still hasn't got a clue. Politicians and mainstream media continue to be unresponsive.

By day, I work with Joint Efforts, Inc., a nonprofit organization that serves the disenfranchised people of San Pedro, California and surrounding communities. By night, I serve my Dine' relatives through SENAA International. Last month, my wife and I were given the blessing of our first grandchild. When he is old enough, I will share with him all those things that I never learned in school or on TV. I will take him onto the land to come to know The People and their ways. And I will hope that he will follow in the path of his grandfather in attempting to bring change to a dominant society that is driven by greed and fueled by predatory self-interest. Prior to working with Joint Efforts, Inc., I worked with US Vets Initiative, helping homeless vets off the streets and into recovery, healthcare, safe shelter, and employment. And, for whatever its worth, I have a BA in Communication Arts, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

There have been neat things that were not mentioned...like have two of my plays produced in NYC Off-Broadway and one on PBS...or like giving poetry readings on the college circuit...or like being invited as a guest to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin...or building a prototype program called Citizen Advocacy, that helped developmentally disabled adults enter mainstream society through one-on-one volunteer life stills training. But, there is only so much you can put in a bio, and the above really didn't seem to apply to who I am today, as a solid supporter of Native American rights. I don't mind any editing or making changes. They're only words. Mitakuye Oyasin.

James Duncan
Trail of Joy
RR 2, Box 2233, Thayer, MO 95791
(417) 264-7717
toj@ortrackm.missouri.org
http://www.alice.net/tojwalk

My name is James and I am the son of Hiawatha, grandson of Ada Vann, seventh generation from Chief Joe Vann and Cherokee (Bird Clan) born at Tahlequah, Oklahoma on September 14, 1946. But even more important, I am a member of the family of people called Native Americans, that indigenous group of people that have from the beginning of time and still do live here in the Americas. We are one of the four parts of humanity.

On March 10, 1995 my wife Norma our five daughters and I started the first walk of the four journeys given in vision. We began in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and arrived on May 10th at New Echota, Georgia. The walk was called "THE TRAIL OF JOY, THE RETURN", it was done to complete the circle that began with the "Trail of Tears" and to reconnect the spirit of our people back with the lands of our ancestors. The Creator is calling for our people to move back to the spiritual road, this journey is needed to rekindle the sacred fire and spirit back in the people and all mankind. We need to reestablish spiritual centers and places for the clans mothers in the East and across the land where the roots of many families were torn out by the " RELOCATION". This relocation known as the "Trail of Tears" by many, affected all the indigenous people and divided us. The "Trail of Joy, The Return" walks and journeys are just another step in the healing. This is not only for our family, it is for all of humanity.

On May 10, 1996 my family and I began the second journey of the vision, back along the path of DeSoto. That journey started from where he died in southeastern Arkansas, about 5-10 miles north of what is now known as Arkansas City and traveled back along his route to south of what is now known as Tampa Bay. Planting trees for cleansing, for life and peace in each of what are now states where he traveled leaving so much death and destruction along the way. These trees are for a sign of renewal,forgiveness and rebirth. If the "Trail of Tears" and subsequent removals were the end of a way of life for the people of the southeast, then DeSoto's journey was the beginning of that end. It was a way of life that had lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. This is true all around our Mother Earth where humanity was brought so much death and destruction to humanity and to all our relations in the name of discovery and God.

We have, and will continue to travel and visit with our relations along the way, to visit with the Elders and the children, to share the visions and to share the call for a great Gathering of the Children of Mother Earth. We are losing our young ones to the modern world at an alarming rate, many are not seeing the beauty of their heritage and traditions that bind them together and to our Mother Earth. It is our prayer that with each journey, humanity will begin to have an even greater understanding and appreciation of each other, that once made us a great people. Prophesy has been given that there would come a time when we would be at a crossroads. The Elders have said that we are now there and it is time for all of our people to come back to the spiritual oneness that bound us to our Mother Earth and each other before European contact. Grandfather William Commanda once wrote that "forgiveness is the key to the awakening of the true meaning of love and understanding."