Members List:

CEO:
John Raymond
Keeper of the Lodge:
Sky Dancer
Members:
Strong Bear
Sun Walker
Sunset Wolf

Links Section

	WOLF'S HEART LODGE
	DAUGHTERS OF THE EARTH
	FLORIDA FRONTIER
	OUR BROTHER THE WOLF
	YONA & KAY - CROW BEAR TRADITION STORYTELLERS
	WE ARE ALL RELATED

Tsi Lu Gi (Welcome) Red Road Walkers to our website. Sons of the Earth is the circle gathering and drumming for the men of Wolf's Heart Lodge. All men seeking to learn the way of the Red Road are welcome - whether you are of the Blood, the Land adopted you or Spirit called you... if you come respectfully, with pure intent, we are ready to welcome you as a Brother. Our Lodge meets in the Tampa Bay area (St. Petersburg usually) once a month. We also gather monthly as a mixed circle (Wolf's Heart Lodge) with the women from Daughters of the Earth. Call me (Sky Dancer) at 727/343-4638 for dates and locations.

One thing the Indian people do well is adapt. This is why we survive. We must learn to keep our culture, but also to learn the good things that other races have to offer. Education is the future weapon of Native people. We must learn the legal system, health, science and engineering. Indian people have great contributions to make to the world. We need to educate ourselves so we can better protect the land and our children. Otherwise, we will lose the things and the land that we have.

Prayer is our entrance into the Unseen World. It is by prayer we can call upon the powers and laws of the Great Spirit. The Spirit World has powers and laws that are different from the Physical World. The spiritual laws allow healing to take place; they allow forgiveness to occur; they cause miracles to happen; they cause hate to disappear; they heal broken relationships; they guide every moment of our lives; they allow us to love even when it's hard. Prayer allows us access to the Spirit World.

Sun Walker - Earth Day 2004

Remember to offer smoke daily for these and other brothers and sisters in need: Grandmother Mechi, Grandmother Redbird, Dale, Earth Flower Woman, Healing Wolf, Redhawk, Silver Owl, Cool Breeze and our military far from home.

"A Warrior is challenged to assume responsibility, practice humility, and display the power of giving, and then center his or her life around a core of spirituality. I challenge today's youth to live like a warrior."

~ Billy Mills ~

Hope you are enjoying this warmer weather! Take a look at the event photos page to see what the Lodge has been up to recently. If any of you have photos that you would like to share taken at Lodge meetings and events, please give them to Many Ponies to scan, post and return.

Our own Sunset Wolf (left)
upon receiving his induction into the International Black Belt Hall of Fame
Contact him at thesandmantsg@aol.com and let him know how proud we all are!

Eagle Feather Fan
The eagle is my power,
And my fan is an eagle.
It is strong and beautiful
In my hand. And it is real.
My fingers hold upon it
As if the beaded handle
Were the twist of bristlecone.
The bones of my hand are fine
And hollow; the fan bears them.
My hand veers in the thin air
Of the summits. All morning
It scuds on the cold currents;
All afternoon it circles
To the singing, to the drums.

- N. Scott Momaday

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Lynn Carol Henderson, PhD at her gallery presentation of Voices from the Circle: Women's Ritual Art - joined by Wolf's Heart Lodge members Healing Wolf, Earth Flower Woman and Sky Dancer (among others). See Event Photos page for more.

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To our Elders who teach us of creation and our past so we may preserve Mother Earth for ancestors yet to come... We ARE the Land.

This is dedicated to our relatives before us, thousands of years ago-and to the 150 million who were exterminated across the western hemisphere in the first 400 years time, starting in 1492.

To those who have kept their homelands, and to the nation's extinct due to mass slaughter, slavery, deportation, and disease unknown to them, and to the ones who are subjected to the same treatment today.

To the ones who survived the relocations and the ones who died along the way.

To those who carried on traditions and lived strong among their people.

To those who left their communities by force, or by choice, and for generations who no longer know who they are.... To those who search and never find.

To those that turn away the so-called "non-excepted", to those that bring us together, and to those living outside keeping touch the voice for many.

To those who make it back to live and fight the struggles of their people.

To those that give up, and those who do not care.

To those who abuse themselves and others and those who revive again.

To those who are physically, mentally or spiritually incapable by accident or by birth.

To those who seek strength in our spirituality and ways of life, and those who exploit it-even our own.

To those who fall for the lies and join the dividing lines that keep us fighting amongst each other.

To the outsiders who step in-good or bad-and those of us who don't know better.

To the leaders and prisoners of war, politics, crime, race and religion-innocent or guilty.

To the young, the old, the living and the dead.

To our brothers and sisters in all living things across Mother Earth, whose beauty they have destroyed and denied the Honor that the Creator has given each individual... the Truth that lies in our hearts. ALL MY RELATIONS.

~ Pura Fe

Check out our environmental website - We Are All Related (see the links). Information on how you can be a better friend to the Mother.

Remember that every second is an opportunity to live up to your highest potential. With every decision you make, you are either moving toward your Earth Walk’s goals or blocking them.

"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion, respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes, they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home."
- Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation

- Sky Dancer, Keeper of the Lodge

Why are Indians sometimes referred to as Native Americans?
The term, “Native American,” came into usage in the 1960s to denote the groups served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs: American Indians and Alaska Natives (Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts of Alaska). Later the term also included Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in some federal programs. It, therefore, came into disfavor among some Indian groups. The preferred term is American Indian. The Eskimos and Aleuts in Alaska are two culturally distinct groups and are sensitive about being included under the “Indian” designation. They prefer “Alaska Native.”

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I wanted to give something of my past to my grandson. So I took him into the woods, to a quiet spot. Seated at my feet he listened as I told him of the powers that were given to each creature. He moved not a muscle as I explained how the woods had always provided us with food, homes, comfort, and religion. He was awed when I related to him how the wolf became our guardian, and when I told him that I would sing the sacred wolf song over him, he was overjoyed. In my song, I appealed to the wolf to come and preside over us while I would perform the wolf ceremony so that the bondage between my grandson and the wolf would be lifelong.

I sang. In my voice was the hope that clings to every heartbeat. I sang. In my words were the powers I inherited from my forefathers. I sang. In my cupped hands lay a spruce seed-- the link to creation. I sang. In my eyes sparkled love. I sang. And the song floated on the sun's rays from tree to tree.

When I had ended, it was if the whole world listened with us to hear the wolf's reply. We waited a long time but none came. Again I sang, humbly but as invitingly as I could, until my throat ached and my voice gave out. All of a sudden I realized why no wolves had heard my sacred song. There were none left! My heart filled with tears. I could no longer give my grandson faith in the past, our past. At last I could whisper to him: " It is finished!"

"Can I go home now?" He asked, checking his watch to see if he would still be in time to catch his favorite program on TV. I watched him disappear and wept in silence.

All is finished!

by Chief Dan George (chief of the Salish Band in Burrard Inlet, B.C.) Chief Dan George was born Geswanouth Slahoot, on July 24, 1899, in North Vancouver, B.C. and died September 23, 1981, Vancouver, BC

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The New Colossus
poem written in honor of the Statute of Liberty

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch,
whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning,
and her name Mother of Exiles.
From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome;
Her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

We don't fight for the government...
we fight for the People and the Land.

Native Americans today who excel at NASA and in the arts have made their achievements against great odds, but remain modest. Some carry on ancient traditions but also hold high positions at NASA. Many work to preserve their Native languages in grass roots communities. Native American people have also invented lunar modules and have received medals for their work that brought Apollo 13 back from its aborted space mission. They win Academy Awards, and make you laugh in comedy clubs, and enchant you as artists and actors and writers and athletes, and still do hundreds of cool things that now you too can finally study in school. So if your child ever decides to be “an Indian” for Halloween, help them dress up like a scientist or a farmer or an Academy Award winner or a movie star or a Ph.D. scholar... and if you really want to get it right, be sure to share the reason why.

What is The Red Road?

The Red Road is a long road winding began in the stars, spilled onto the mountain tops, was carried in the snow to the streams, to the rivers, to the ocean… It covers Canada, Alaska, America, Mexico to Guatamala, and keeps winding around the Indigenous.

The Red Road is a circle of people standing hand in hand, people in this world, people between people in the Spirit world, star people, animal people, stone people, river people, tree people… The Sacred Hoop.

To walk the Red Road is to know sacrifice, suffering. It is to understand humility. It is the ability to stand naked before the Creator in all things for your wrong doings, for your lack of strength, for your discompassionate way, for your arrogance - because to walk the Red Road, you always know you can do better. And you know, when you do good things, it is through the Creator, and you are grateful.

To walk the Red Road is to know you stand on equal ground with all living things. It is to know that because you were born human, it gives you superiority over nothing. It is to know that every creation carries a Spirit, and the river knows more than you do, the mountains know more than you do, the stone people know more than you do, the trees know more than you do, the wind is wiser than you are, and animal people carry wisdom.

You can learn from every one of them, because they have something you don't. They are void of evil thoughts. They wish vengeance on no one, they seek Justice.

To Walk the Red Road, you have given rights. You have the right to pray, you have the right to dance, you have the right to think, you have the right to protect, you have the right to know Mother Earth, you have the right to dream, you have the right to vision, you have the right to teach, you have the right to learn, you have a right to grieve, you have a right to happiness, you have the right to fix the wrongs, you have the right to truth, you have a right to the Spirit World.

To Walk the Red Road is to know your Ancestors, to call to them for assistane. It is to know that there is good medicine, and there is bad medicine. It is to know that Evil exists, but is cowardly, as it is often in disguise. It is to know there are evil spirits who are in constant watch for a way to gain strength for themselves at the expense of you.

To Walk the Red Road, you have less fear of being wrong, because you know that life is a journey, a continuous circle, a sacred hoop. Mistakes will be made, and mistakes can be corrected - if you will be humble, for if you cannot be humble, you will never know when you have made a mistake.

If you walk the Red Road, you know that every sorrow leads to a better understanding, every horror cannot be explained, but can offer growth.

To Walk the Red Road is to look for beauty in all things.

To Walk the Red Road is to know you will one day cross to the Spirit World,and you will not be afraid.

Come Join us in Circle!

If I could talk to my great-grandfathers I would tell them that much as changed... but love, like the wind, is still here. I think of you my ancestors, and honor you.

SNAKE

Mysterious secretive Medicine Being... Teach me and bring me Balance and Healing;
Transmute my body without and within; Speak to the Spirit that lives in my skin.
When that skin needs shedding give me rebirth; Help me to send my roots deep in the Earth.
Each life has a purpose to mold and to make; We all need the gift of our Brother, the Snake.

"One may be of any race or of almost any religion and walk the Red Road. The Road is a path, away. It's full meaning is the way one acts, the methods one uses, and what directs one's doing. There is more to the Red Road then spoken word or written words on paper. It is behavior, attitude, away of living, a way of "doing" with reverence - of walking strong yet softly, so as not to harm or disturb other life."

- John Redtail Freesoul
(Cheyenne-Arapahoe), Spokesman for the Redtail Hawk Medicine Society, from his book "Breath of the Invisible" a Quest Book.

Quartz is the mineral totem associated with the Earth Renewal Moon. Although all forms of quarts can affect people passing through this position, the greatest effect comes from clear quarts crystals. Quartz is a power stone. It is an amplifier, transmitter, and receiver of universal energy and it is helpful for transmitting healing energy. It strengthens psychic and prophetic abilities. Quartz crystal gives knowledge of your power and teaches caution in exercising it properly. It reminds you not to be too hard or rigid in your views and philosophies. Crystals bring clarity and renewal on the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual levels. They energize and balance the body's energy centers.

Yona

The Earth Renewal Moon is the first moon of Waboose, The Spirit Keeper of the North. This moon begins at the time of the winter solstice when father Sun starts his return from his journey South and begins to bring the warmth that quickens growth in the Earth Mother and all her children. The stone representing this moon is placed one-quarter of the way to the East in the northern quadrant, moving clockwise. The mineral totem for the Earth Renewal Moon is the Quartz Crystal, the plant is the Birch Tree, and the animal is the Snow Goose. The color is white. The elemental clan influencing this position is the Turtle clan. The Earth Renewal Moon teaches you to be as clear a receiver and transmitter of universal energy as the Crystal, as important a communicator of the ancient knowledge as the Birch Tree, and as respectful of tradition and ritual as the Snow Goose. This is a position with the potential for great power. The Earth Renewal Moon teaches you to be fluid, yet proper in conduct as well as clear, adaptable, prudent, and wise. People in this position have keen vision, are good ceremonialists, and can take large steps in their personal evolution. Snow Goose people need to guard against becoming blocked, against using their enormous power incorrectly, and against being so perfectionist they never have time for fun.

Birch are "deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Betula, native to the Northern Hemisphere and having unisexual flowers in catkins, alternate, simple, toothed leaves, and bark that often peels in thin papery layers." The American Heritage® Dictionary. Native Americans used the bark of paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) to make baskets, storage containers, mats, baby carriers, moose and bird calls, torches, household utensils, and, of course, canoes. The strong and flexible wood was made into spears, bows, arrows, snowshoes, sleds, and other items.

Snow Goose is the animal totem associated with Earth Renewal Moon. The Snow Goose, a beautiful white bird, has been called "goose from beyond the north wind" because of the direction these geese go when they migrate in the spring. Some species of snow goose travel 5,000 miles each year, flying in a loose V pattern. The snow geese are very gregarious. It is not unusual to see 20,000 or 30,000 birds all stopping to eat at the same location. At their nesting grounds they show respect for tradition by allowing the experienced nesters to have the first choice of sites. Both goose and gander stay with the eggs. Snow geese are nitpickers. They will spend hours picking mosquitoes or other insects off each other. Geese have much keener vision than humans do. The snow goose honks but when several thousand geese are approaching, the sound can be mistaken for anything from a pack of wild dogs to yapping coyotes. Working with the snow goose can teach you about the creative mystery, the universal powers, tradition, perfection, stability, community, ceremony, vision, and evolution.

Each morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping, give thanks for the life within you and for all good things the Creator has given you. For all the opportunities to grow a little each day. Consider your thoughts and actions of the past day and seek courage and strength to be a better person. Seek for the things that will benefit others (everyone).

"I have Indian blood in me... but I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!"

Come Drum with us in your Power.

In the very beginning, Creator gave us teachings to live by. These teachings lived in our hearts as spiritual truths that brought us abundant joy as we walked hand in hand with Great Spirit. We knew how to love, honor, and respect our fellow brothers and sisters. In Native American culture, these teachings were passed on by stories, and other word of mouth teachings during times of family and community bonding. These were precious times, part of Cherokee culture. However, we taught our children most of all by the way we lived, especially how we treated others, how we treated all creation with respect, and how we lived in the will of Great Spirit. Many os us yearn to return to this mode of living, and believe we can. For most of us, the statement "Abstain from doing evil," is pretty clear. However, more understanding can be gained from the wisdom of ancient Hindu writings, and teachings of ancient Jewish sages, that will help us learn to walk the Red Road in harmony with Great Spirit and thereby regain more of our Cherokee culture. How we treat others is who we become. The more hurtful things we do or say to others, or about others, the more tendencies (samskaras(Hindu)) we create within ourselves to do these things. We grow more and more into mean-spirited hurtful people who turn their backs on Creator. We move into a darker, and darker state of being. Evil behavior is an addiction that feeds on itself. There is a cure, however... for reverse is also true. The more we perform kind actions, with an attitude of unconditional love, and treat others with love, tolerance, and respect, the more these tendencies will begin to grow within our own hearts. We will move closer, and closer to walking in harmony with Great Spirit. Our joy will grow in direct proportion to our attitudes of unconditional love, accompanied by actions performed with loving-kindness. We can regain true Cherokee culture as that practiced by our ancestors. When we break old habits of evil tendencies, and develop new loving habits, we will become true Cherokee who walk harmoniously with Creator.

May Great Spirit guide you in your Cherokee walk.

Time works against education. The longer we wait to learn about our heritage, the longer our children have to forget who they really are, and the cycle continues until all hope is lost. My favorite saying is: "If not me, who? If not now, when?" If we don't teach our children about their heritage, who will? Where are all the qualified teachers that they ask us to wait for? Back in Oklahoma with their families? If we don't start trying to learn and teach now, when will we? Next month? Next year? Never?
- Paul Drew (Blue Panther)

THE WOLF
Wolves are shy, submissive animals. There has never been a documented case in North America where a healthy wolf has ever attacked a human. Gray wolves are part of the Canidae (dog) family and display considerable intelligence and adaptability. Like some dogs, they are very territorial and will claim certain den site, travel routes and feeding grounds as their own.

Check out our Wolves Link!
(see links area in column to left)