Celebrate Native American Heritage Day in the United States!

Spiritual resource to share: our heritage

“For the first time, federal legislation has set aside the day after Thanksgiving — for this year only — to honor the contributions American Indians have made to the United States.”

This is the first year that National Heritage Day is being celebrated, having been passed into legislation by Congress and signed into existence by President Bush only one month ago. Although controversial, it brings out important points about what we honor and how we honor one another – specifically those tribes who first lived off this land that many of us call home now. It is purposely set for the day after Thanksgiving.

What I am honoring today is the noble and unselfish act of the Wampanoag Indians who kept the pilgrims from starving that first winter in 1621 – this act being referred to as our first Thanksgiving. Their ability to cross cultures, help at a basic humanitarian level, care for feed and teach a foreign group how to survive in an alien environment – is something we can work to achieve as our legacy to the world. It is a heritage to be proud of.

I am also honoring the work being done in my community. I’ve had occasion to participate in many community meetings about healing a divide that has come between the whites and the native tribes in my area. The call to understand one another has been made and a number of efforts have been underway – Ojibwe is taught at the high school, community groups have been educated about tribal customs, a church put on a workshop and talk about white privilege that was attended by an uncommonly large and diverse group, and much more.

I am also honoring a lesson learned about God and mankind. “Anishinaabe” is a word I learned that means “first or original peoples.” A tribal elder explained that in essence, we are all first people. I reasoned that we are all direct descendents from God. Diving below the surface of culture, traditions, history and character, we come to the purely primitive spirituality of who we all are: direct expressions of one God.

Looking at the world, we can claim our native heritage to Truth, to Love and to Life – all of which defines God. From the student at Oxford, to the hostage in Bombay, to the Ojibwe teacher in rural Wisconsin, to the grandparent in Buenos Aires – we share an amazing heritage under one God – from whom we are all directly connected.

This fundamental truth of our common heritage impelled the Wampanoag Indians to help another people to survive and thrive. It is the same fundamental truth that impels us all to prove our heritage and pray for one another, heal one another, and help one another. The outcome of this? Mary Baker Eddy explains it in terms most broad and practical:

One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

photo copyrighted by swisshippo - Fotolia.com


To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

restorative justice

Spiritual resource to share: healing our communities

photo from Waswaagoning Village

To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

-Proverbs 1

In this community group that has been meeting in an effort to support youth and dismantle racism, we regularly share possibilities and stories of how to go about accomplishing these aims.

This story is an incredible example of how establishing restorative justice can do much to heal the hurt and bring understanding to those who have committed hate crimes. Restorative justice has its roots in native American and Aborigine culture. It basically provides a way for the victim and the perpetrator to come together to address the wrongs done and find a healing solution for themselves and their communities.

In this story, Nick and Charlotte, from the Ojibway nation, are the ones whose property was vandalized and who set up a jail time alternative for the perpetrators. These notes were taken from one of our community meetings:

As many of you remember, five (white) local Lakeland area boys vandalized and burned the Hocking’s Waswaagoning Village (a remake of an Ojibway village) a few years ago. It was a terrible act of hatred fueled by drinking. The boys were eventually caught and faced 35 years in prison-each.

Nick and Charlotte both felt that sending these boys to prison was not going to accomplish anything good-that in fact they might come out more prejudice than when they went in.

They did something really quite remarkable in order to try and make sure these boys lives were not destroyed-they offered the 5 boys a path through Restorative Justice-the option to fulfill certain requirements over a two year period instead of going to jail for arson felony.

They spent a great deal of time working with these boys and developed a path for them to follow: the boys had to read 4 books, write reports, answer 5 questions about racism, pay fines and complete 250 hours of community service.

They also had to make a video describing what they did to share with others-in the hope that others would learn from the mistakes these boys made and not do such things. This process had a powerful impact on these boys and the Hocking’s, through their actions, have shown the rest of us that there are other options for enforcing consequences while helping teach youth to learn from their mistakes. We watched the first two interviews of the boys and then took time to talk and share responses......

In the end, the process was successful for those boys who went through the restorative justice process.

From this meeting came all kinds of ways to further the role of restorative justice in our own local courts, as well as discussion on how the video could be used as a teaching tool. Other ways to spread this message of restorative justice were discussed.

The impact of the patience, dignity, understanding and trust the Hockings had that this situation could be healed is an inspiration.

For more on restorative justice practices, click here.


To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.

I'll walk with you anywhere

Spiritual resource to share: humility




The Ojibway work “Dodaem” means “That from which one draws one’s purpose, one’s meaning, one’s being”, and comes from the root word “Doodem”- to fulfill, and “Doodosh”- that from which I draw my substance.



There has been a slow boiling racism going on in this community for years between the Ojibway (Anishinabe) and whites. Moving here last year, I hardly noticed it right away, but little by little, different experiences came my way that indicated this was a problem with deep roots.

Recently there were racist threats at the high school, a preventative lockdown was called and now there are regular community meetings happening -- all in the efforts to heal this festering division.

I went to one of the meetings last night. It was put together by a dedicated and earnest group who had already had some successes dealing with this issue. They set up the meeting, identified the mission of the meeting, some rules of engagement, broke the group up into smaller discussion groups and gave them all two questions to answer - all this as a way to get to some solutions. The meeting was to end at 8pm.

The trouble was, the whole meeting was unnatural to the way the Ojibway worked. They expected to share their hearts; not be timed as the came up with their answers to prepared questions. By halfway through the meeting, all the elders of the tribe had left. Out of about 50 people remaining, only about a dozen were Ojibway.

After the agenda was completed, each one started to speak. First chastising the group for not allowing people to come and speak what was in their hearts, then taking the group to task for not addressing the issue head on - racism. Others spoke of the need to tell the truth about racism.

Richard spoke.

Racism is a division where words of fear and anger separate us. But it is our love that will bring us together.
Our children - we keep burying them. Why is that? Something is missing inside and we need to find it to give it back to them.
I remember a teacher who accepted me. She was Finnish. She encouraged me to go to college and I did. It was that spirit of love that she had. That spirit that is in all of us.

In this group, I just met Greg. I would walk with him anywhere. I don't see his color, I just see his fuzzy face.
Racism scares me. But it is love that keeps me going.
When you don't get your way, don't walk out the door. Don't walk out on one another. We can apologize to one another.

I don't care what color you are -- you came here to help. I'll walk with you all anywhere.

The meeting turned. Others spoke, recognizing that everyone who came, stayed to help.

It doesn't matter what color you are. You are here. I want to welcome you here. Wherever the next meeting is, I'll be there.

We appreciate the hard work that has gone into getting us all together. We can change the structure of the next meeting. But I love this community and it tears at me to see it be divisive. I want this community to unite.

I am shocked at the racism here. I want so badly for this crap to stop.

We need a strong community effort. We need to keep working together. We need us all.

What moved me was the humility of those who set up the meeting. There was a passion to do something. The community is in crisis. And so someone had to have the courage to step forward and do something. Even if it meant falling on your face.

What moved me was the humility of the participants. Not comfortable with the structure of the meeting, they participated and then spoke their peace and graced the rest of us with their forgiveness and encouragement to keep going.

And I know that what will deepen this experience in all of our hearts is the humility and love that persists until healing is revealed.

We draw our purpose from the same source. We draw our substance from the same source and we are fulfilled by the same source. In humility, we will come together and find healing. More to report on later...............




Would love for you to share how you have overcome racism in your life and community...

...or be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.