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Monday, December 9, 2013

BigMamaBlaze Top Secret Public Journal entry


I heard someone the other day say they were sick of "Indians" and their crying around about history.  They went on to say that "America" has given enough land to the "Indians" and now they have Casinos and a bunch of money, that Indians needs to shut up, better yet disappear.

I ask my local friends, is racism just a figment of my imagination?
I wish you could walk in my shoes.  I wish you could experience the looks I get, and experience for yourself what it is to an Indigenous woman in this town and in America.
There is nothing romantic about being an Indigenous person.  It is difficult, painful, frustrating, and requires an extraordinary amount of discipline.
It is painful every day, to pack around memories of the horror stories of my history and that of my people.  It is not a faucet I can turn off.
I must be quiet with my pain.  I fail miserably some days, at the "being quiet" part.  Believe me when I tell you, I can feel the hatred of others.  It feels like bees stinging me.  I'm just saying...
As I age I realize how strong I am.  To have come to my late forties and I'm not in prison nor do I have a criminal records of any sort.  I am not addicted to alcohol or hooked on drugs.  I am not homeless.  I have survived many tragedies and even more misunderstandings.  I have produced intelligent children who are balanced and mature.
I believe it has been a gift in many ways, this cultural dichotomy.  I was not given a clean womb to grow in.  My mother was called home to Creator when I was an infant.  I was stripped of my cultural rights by my own people because of the era in which I was born and because I am a woman.  I was buried in a foreign country's legal system as an infant and locked away from my heritage and rich culture.  I am first generation off the reserve (Canada terminology, American calls them reservations).  I have been torn in half from birth and my journey has been consumed with learning how to stitch myself back together.
I survived my youth.  I have survived years of anger and sorrow.  I am approaching becoming an elder (in Canada we are First Nations, In America we are tribes) in my culture, because we tend to die young, I am already an elder.  I feel calmer.  I have a deeper understanding of why I was separated from my Nation and country, family, and culture.  I grow closer to being a whole person with scars and longer a broken person.
I will share this as well, I have better days than others.  Some days I lament at the lack of knowledge many have about my race and our history.  I may feel this way for days or weeks.  When I come through those feelings, I inevitably feel like a warrior with a cause to share, to educate others of my journey and that there are thousands of people still alive that are just like me.




Saturday, December 7, 2013

Re-Educate - YellowWolf ft. Addie Elliott (Paint The Town Red)


Westcoastin' - YellowWolf / Barndawg (Paint The Town Red)


Sunday, December 1, 2013

A guide to balancing the elements

"A guide to balancing the elements



Ojibwa tea is a formula that was given to a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse by an Ojibwa medicine man (whose name seems lost to obscurity) as a cure for her mother's cancer. It is also called Essiac, which is Caisse spelled backward.
The medicine man was probably a member of the Mide (the Grand Medicine Society). Perhaps he envisioned the formula; maybe it had been passed on for generations. Whichever the case, it is a remarkable example of how the wheel may be used to create an herbal formula. The blend is made of four herbs, and four is the number of balance on the wheel. Notice how the formula's components visually increase in increments of four. We have roughly 1 part (by volume) of rhubarb root to 4 times that amount of burdock and slippery elm, to 4 times that amount of sheep sorrel.
Burdock and rhubarb root would be placed in the west, as they are gathered in the fall, and their medicinal qualities follow the body's deep internal rhythms. Slippery elm would be associated with the north simply because bark is one of the few things that can be gathered during the long frozen winters of the Far North. Also, the medicinal action of slippery elm affects the breath (spirit). Collected in mid-spring and healing to the skin, sheep sorrel leaves bring the aspect of the east to the formula.
What is missing from this equation? A plant element from the south. Why? Because cancer is an imbalance of excessive growth, and the energy from the south is growth. Not only physical growth but also the emotional, mental and visionary excesses of growth. To add herbs from the south (as some formulas add red clover blossoms) renders it less useful on a metaphysical level, according to the cosmology of the wheel.
The ultimate beauty of Native American herbalism is that it allows for your own personal preferences and differences. I have been told endless times when I ask about an herb, "Well, this is what worked for me, but I don't know if that will help you any at all." And if you choose to follow another theory of healing, do so - but follow it well.
Accepting our innate differences is an intrinsic part of healing. Medicine is and always will be an art as well as a science. The best we can do is to follow the Great Law of Peace and agree that if we can't agree on anything else, at least we can agree to get along with one another.

Nemenhah Certified for use as a Ceremonial Sacrament in traditional Native American Healing.
Governing Law: 42 USC Chapter 21c; 2000; c"


http://www.ojibwatea.com/essiac_medicinewheel.php  "

This is an excerpt from ojibwatea.com.  I do not claim copyright on this post.  I am logging for the record, a link to this website/storefront for personal use and to introduce to the public this useful medicine.
I have put the above post in a quotation to legitimize the site's ownership and copyright of the excerpt and image contained within quotes.  Please understand I am not paraphrasing or infringing on copyrights duly owned by the referred website.  Thank you.
Visit ojibwatea.com website/storefront for products and information.  Peace...BMB