Robert Jay, the author of Consciousness The Key To Freedom, called me back and we connected this morning. He said financial harassment in Maryland has slowed him down and he can’t go to press with the new book for two more months. The good news is he liked my edits on The Awakening; only three suggestions. I can make the changes within an hour’s work. (done!) He sounded in good spirits, and said he had workshops coming up in Alabama; they are very open to new ideas there right now, at least some. Up here in the north, that sounds odd, but in fact I think our northern cultural snobbery is way out of date.
Then I got a call from Linda Law, and we finally got a chance to discuss what happened with our education grant that got torpedoed. She has written many successful grants, which is quite a skill, and she said that this grant was the best she ever put together. She said the objections didn’t make any sense. They said they preferred more reliance on the historical site teams, but the grant that won had less sites, and proposed to use sites that have limited knowledge of Native American history, and who usually call on me for free advice! Her point of view is that there are plenty of other grants we could apply for. I have no idea about that, so to me it’s hard to be so cheery. But Linda knows her stuff, so I agreed to have another meeting.
Peacemakers In Action
I talked to Tom Dostou for a while, and received his email. I learned that a life long dream of mine is coming true, a gift from my elder, the great Peacemaker, William Commanda. On September 24th through 26th there is going to be the first great gathering of Algonquin leaders in probably 400 years. This will take place in Maniwaki, Quebec. Tom and William are basing the event to some extent on my map and my research, using my statement about the gathering of the 84 nations (No Word For Time) in the time of prophecy. The concept of 84 nations comes from the ancient creation tale of hoops of seven nations times twelve. The idea of the Algonquins finally reuniting at the end of the seventh fire is as old as the hills. I think I’ve heard that all my life, and I’m sure William has too. Well, he’s going for it, and so Tom invited me to participate! This was quite a lift after learning so much bad news from Linda.
I called and left a message for Eddie Benton Benaise to confirm his address and will send him Paths of Light, which I will want his blessing on before Waniwaki. Eddie is not only “a legend in his own time” but is probably more of a legend than almost anyone alive today, as if Sitting Bull (whom he resembles) suddenly showed up in a supermarket! In my book Paths of Light Paths of Darkness, I did a critical “white guy” analysis of his writings on prophecy, and in fact they make perfect sense. He is the author of The Mishomis Book, one of the most important books on Native American culture, but little understood, and a founder of AIM (in its early days) and of the Red School House in Minneapolis. He is the Grand Medicine Chief of the Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge, the largest of the Mide lodges. We exchanged emails a month ago, then I got busy in NYC.
I went to the Inquiring Mind and took notes on a book about whaling, Whaling Days. It said that in the early days at least half the whaling teams in Cape Cod Bay were Native Americans; relative of mine, in fact. My Wampanoag ancestors were those whalers, and my branch of the family ended up owning their own whaling ships in Westport, formerly Liberty Town Indian Reservation. That branch of the family was named Boston.
I called Brian Wilkes, the webmaster for http://www.algonquinculture.org and agreed, on his suggestion, that the Center For Algonquin Culture should go under the non-profit umbrella of The Heritage Foundation, which his Standing Bear foundation is under. We’ve talked of this for years, but now it seems important. The Standing Bear Foundation (his name is Yona Gadoga, and if you speak fluent Cherokee, well, nuff said!) is going to focus more on restoring at-risk languages in the future. Right now, CAC’s language projects are not getting support from people of influence due to state politics, all of which probably has to do with gambling.
The highlight of my day was getting the garbage out late but just catching the garbage truck in time. This reminds me of one of my favorite teachings from Frank TiConti, the late Anishinabi elder and pipe carrier. He said, “Being a pipe carrier is a lot like being a garbage man….some roads are hard!” I used to laugh my head off at stuff like that, but today Frank is dead and I’m having a hard time getting support for my language programs so that our Algonquin children can speak their own native tongue. So it is true, some roads are hard.
I was talking to Little Eagle and he said that with Edwards on the ticket polls are showing a close race between Democrats and Republicans in the southern states from Virginia to Texas. I was talking on the cordless phone in the road and my neighbor came out to get his mail. My neighbor is the Republican State Representative from our district, who is moving. I guess he overheard me saying something nice about Democrats.
I also called the folks at home. Yesterday, mom told me a story of how when this nephew of mine was younger he was running around at a party with a staple gun and shooting it at people. She said that I stopped him and took the staple gun away and reprimanded him. He was very upset and out of control at that time and wasn’t exactly overjoyed at my reaction. We didn’t speak for a while after that. She said there was a great risk of blinding someone in the eye, and that he would now be very sorry if that happened, because he’s come to his senses. Now she says he is all into helping other people and being the peacemaker. He is now a very tall guy! I think she said he wants to be a policeman so he can take guns away from out of control crazy people. I don’t remember much about the original incident, but I’m glad he’s found his path, whatever it took to get there.
MoPress 
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