Autobiographies
"... People lost their love and forgot respect for our mother earth. The people who love money kill our mother earth (carelessly). Indians, and our Mamallacta family, love our forests as we love a beautiful virgin woman; this is how we treat them. We are one." –Chief Casimiro Mamallacta
The Mamallacta Family (Casimiro, Margurita, and Elias); Board Directors of TLG
The Mamallactas have been at the forefront of the indigenous unification movement in Ecuador, beginning with Casimiro’s donation of personal lands in 1962 to solidify formation of an early affiliate organization of FOIN. FOIN became the first Organized Federation of Napo Runa Indians, established in 1973.In 1992, the Mamallactas founded IMU to spearhead conservation of Sumaco-Napo-Galeras. They fought to legitimize it as a region worthy of high conservation status; this status was conferred in 1994 when it was declared a National Park.
The family, having ties to this rare, high biodiversity hotspot in the jungles of Arajuno, eastern Ecuador, proved their claim to lineages of unbroken ancestral occupancy. They thereby gained rights of oversight to ancient territory, through the Ecuadorian court system. Their stewardship practices became institutionally recognized, pronouncing them "guardians" over land subsequently awarded 'National Park' status.
IMU (the Mamallactas org: Puma at the end of the World) worked closely with RIC-Ecuador and the Federal Government of Ecuador to protect Sumaco-Napo-Galera cloud forests and gain them National recognition. IMU employs 6 park guards to oversee territories throughout the Bioreserve.Sumaco-Napo-Galera National Park eventually became a proclaimed a United Nations ‘Biosphere reserve’. A Biosphere reserve is an area of land inhabited by Indigenous people knowledgeable in ecological conservation, where the relationship of the people to the land is sustainable in nature.
Biosphere reserves contain rare ecosystems, positively managed by communities of erudite indigenous people over millennia. This results in the development of a beneficial symbiotic relationship between human beings and nature (mutualism). Systems evolving into mutualism create orders of stability that can endure virtually forever.
The rich ecosystems within a Biosphere reserve generally shelter a wide array of endangered and nearly extinct species. This is certainly the case with Sumaco-Napo Galera Biosphere reserve, home to the famed spotted jaguar, spectacled bear, anteater, tapir, giant armadillo, harpy eagle, condor, and other highly endangered plant and animal species. There are more than 654 species of birds, along with 470 species of fish and 6,000 species of vascular plants living there. "We Indians live entwined with nature. The leaves, the animals, the rivers—it is as if we and they were one and the same," Avils said "That's why we are forever asking the world to help us maintain our lifestyle, and this reserve draws us into the conservation effort."The Mamallactas are deeply devoted to their culture, playing major roles as teachers, leaders and exemplars of Native tradition. Elias Mamallacta has spent his adult life collecting oral tradition, recorded in stories, songs, and narratives. He has gathered endless volumes of Napo Runa cultural heritage. Elias is a leader in ecological sustainability practices, botany, and permaculture among Napo Runa Kichwa.
Casimiro Mamallacta as Yachaj (excerpted from The Explorers Club, Northern California Chapter “Exploring Inner spaces”; Jan. 24—Eva Blum, Ph.D. Behavioral Scientist at Stanford University Medical Center, MN; and Sandy Ross,
Doctor in Holistic Medicine
Two red and yellow macaws perch on a Rainforest tree; a toucan pushes his enormous beak through the leaves. Their feathers decorate the shamanic crown of Amazonian and Sierra Quichua Shamans to stand for his powers of sending his own soul during trance on a flight into the upper and lower spirit realms as he recaptures the lost soul of a patient. A temporarily peaceful looking ocelot rests, almost invisible, under cover of bush and grass. He is the fearsome "puma" (as all felines are called among the indigenous folk). The pre-eminent Shaman, he of the highest reputation, the greatest in power, the "Yatun Yachaj" is a PUMA-SHAMAN. He is fearless, fearsome, resourceful, swift, agile as a puma.
Such a one was Don Casimiro Mamallacta of Archidona, eighth generation Shaman from the Galeras mountain fastness… Don Casimiro was a paramount Shaman whose reputation had spread as far as the Ecuadorian Sierra!
When he was a youngster, as an apprentice Shaman, the boy Casimiro had done his ritual fasting in the Galeras mountains for months. Far from another human being, abstaining from salt, pepper, meat, sexual intercourse, intoxicating drinks, he underwent the trials required by the spirits. After he was hardened by the terrors of shamanic apprenticeship, young Casimiro was ready to encounter the puma; each unafraid of the other, they recognized each other, then each went on his way, unharmed. They were kindred spirits. That is how he became a Puma-Shaman. It was in the Galeras that the "Supai Huarmi", a woman spirit of the rain forest, instructed Casimiro in Shaman song, Shaman flute and drum, and the lore of medicinal and "spirit plants". She told him that there are two kinds of diseases, the natural ones for which a patient seeks help from curanderos and parteras (healers and folk-midwives) who use herbs to cure; and spirit-illness caused by witchcraft which requires shamanic power and wisdom to locate the harmful spirit arrow sent by a "bad" (black) Shaman; to suck it out of the victim's body and spit it into a special bowl which traps the "bitter arrow of envy" and prevents it from harming others, especially the Shaman!
The wood spirit of the Galeras, Supai huarmi, showed Casimiro the trance-inducing plants which would help him contact the spirit world: hallucinogens like the "soul-vine" ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi), the several species of solenaceae, in particular the deadly beautiful white or yellow-trumpeted relative of datura stramonium, our loco weed, "ali huantuj", Brugmansia insignis. She told him where to find a pale lavender flower, resembling impatience but growing like an ornamental shrub, the "chiri guayusa" (Psychotria albuviridula) that makes him feel cold, but augments his trance state.
Entranced, a Shaman' soul is no longer trapped in time and space. He sees the past and future as though it were the present; his freed spirit is here and there; like the Scarlet Pimpernel, it is everywhere. That is how a Shaman diagnoses what in his patient's former life has caused another's envy and thereby sent evil his way; that is how he predicts the outcome of a hunt or the death of an enemy…Trance abolishes dichotomies: the Thou is no longer opposed to the I; environment and self are one, ego and society are part of each other; the beast without is the beast within. When Don Casimiro dies, his family must not be present in the room, for at his death the Puma spirit that was his, will leave him. It will leap from his body and would attack anyone in his way as he streaks back to the Galeras mountains.
The strength of the community, of the family, of the marriage reside in this mystic merging of separateness into unity, so the Passion Flower Shaman of Salasaca taught Sandy and Eva and the rest of the Team. He told of the ancestors' story of a coming century when the Spirit Bird of the Andes, the Condor, dances in the Sky with the Eagle of the North; when the bird of rationality, science, economic know-how and enterprise flies together with the Southern bird of intuition and emotion bringing about harmony, peace and prosperity in the world. The elders say, this century is beginning now: "allow yourselves to feel" prays the Passion Flower Shaman's for his Western clients, as he stretches his arms wide towards a cloud flecked Andean sky.
Tom Dostou (Abanaki Chief); board director of TLG
Chief Tom Dostou Wabanaki (Eastern Land); Innu chief and North American Indian Nation 'Earth Guardian Chief' by blessing of Grand Algonquin Chief William Commanda; Board Director of TLG
Tom Dostou, Wabanaki Indian of the Bear Clan, is a member of the Midewin society and Native America Church. He is a chief of the Innu nation and sub-chief of the Algonquin confederacy. Tom Dostou has worked with the UN as well as governments and corporate leadership within Europe, Canada, Japan, and Africa. His efforts include initiation and development of a Native American alliance or United Nations of N. American tribes—while serving under the tutelage of William Commanda and Thomas Banyacya. Tom has led numerous awareness advocacy campaigns for the ‘healing and defense of Mother Earth’.In 2006 Tom organized a peace walk in the N. Eastern US, leading 'a prayer of remembrance' for sacred sites and lands. The sites visited were long revered as 'temples' by the ancestors of tribes currently living there. Tom, and Lauren Silverbird, feel that sacred places should not be neglected in modern times. Tom and Lauren coordinated their efforts, and joined forces with the leaders of regional tribes in order to assemble this walk.
Tom has organized a number of these prayer walks over the past 10 years. In 1999, he and several Native American elders carried the atomic flame from Hiroshima to Chief Seattle's grave; there, from Suquamish, WA they traveled on foot to the UN building in NY City. The atomic flame was extinguished and reburied in Red rock, AZ, (by Hopi and Navajo medicine men) in the very place it was believed to have originated.
From 1970-1990 Tom lived with Innu peoples of Quebec where he found pleasure in the traditional, nomadic livelihood that the Innu, and neighboring tribes of Quebec, have maintained to the present day. The lives of the Innu are sustained by following wild herds of large game animals, which are hunted to feed and clothe the Innu clans. The tribes living alongside the Innu are Mohawk (Iroquois confederacy), Huron and Malicit; the latter two tribes intermixed with Algonquin peoples after leaving the Iroquois confederacy. 5 other Algonquin tribes occupy the vast territories of Quebec, including the Algonquin themselves; these are Mic mac, Abanaki, Cree, and TTikmaq. A number of Inuit peoples co-exist within the natural wealth of these lands as well.
Tom received a vision toward the end of the two decades that he lived with the Innu. This vision prompted him to leave the peaceful, communal life that he had grown to love, and to venture forth for the well-being of the planet and all humanity. Tom’s vision held unmistakable correspondences to the 7 fire prophesies known to the Algonquin confederacy.
The vision occurred in 1986 as Tom was leaving a sweat lodge ceremony. He saw the sky transformed to a brilliant shade of red as he turned southward. Gazing into the crimson sky he heard ‘voices of the knowing’ explain that the sight he witnessed was ‘America burning up’.
He was instructed that he could stay in the North (Canada) for 20 years, but that eventually these fires would reach Canada as well. He was told him that he would see all of this come to pass ‘if there is no change’ in the direction that humanity has been taking.Tibetan monks then came and spoke. They carried sacred Sanskrit texts that they had brought with them so they could be hidden from the world. The monks were worried that the text might be manipulated and misused. Suddenly he found himself holding a sacred pipe, standing in what looked like China. The thought came to him that China was a long way away and that he didn’t want to go there. He saw no reason to go to China. Suddenly he heard someone say, “listen here (stupid), you’re not going to China, you’re going to Asia. In 1992 and 1993 he traveled to Japan to help the Ainu peoples and prayed with a pipe he had been given at various places in Asia.
In 1994 he began working with William Commanda, who, being of the Abanaki people like Tom, he had known for the better part of his life. William was and is the first elected intertribal Chief of Canada; and is more specifically, the Chief of the Algonquin nation.
This work took him to the United Nations where the ‘cry of the earth conference’ was being held. During the conference he had the honor of meeting Thomas Banyaca, Martin Gashweseoma, Joe Chasing horse, Orvell Looking horse, Mark Thompson, Grace Yellowhammer, Roberta Blackgoat, and others who had become deeply involved in reaching out and speaking on behalf of the earth and those who support her well-being, as well as advocating a vision of peace and unity among all the peoples of the earth.
Thomas decided to do a prayer walk in order to bring about awareness to the message that the Hopi spiritual leaders had selected Thomas be the appointed spokesman for. In 1994 Thomas had him draw up a paper that would become an arrow point for the coming together of all indigenous peoples.
In 2004, before an assemblage of native nation’s representatives of North America, for purposes of consolidating all tribes into a single allegiance, William Commanda placed a chieftain headdress of eagle feathers upon Tom’s head, ordaining him a chief of the tribes. He was told to “Defend the earth”.Since then Tom has tried to give his chief’s eagle bonnet away; the few whom he approached, however, have turned him down. The challenge of ‘defending Mother Earth’ is great enough to reduce ‘that challenger’ to seeing themselves as utterly miniscule and ultimately powerless. “If you can’t do the job, why have it (the title)?” He feels that there are greater men than he himself, and it has become his task to find them. On one occasion he told me, “I’m looking for someone more worthy to give it to, what good is it doing just sitting in a suitcase collecting dust?” , on yet another he reaffirmed his feeling, “ I’m still looking for someone worthy of giving it too. I know that they’re out there. I just have to find them.” I retorted, “Tom, I think you better keep it. You know it’s the ones who don’t feel worthy of carrying something like that that deserve it. Trust can be placed in them. The ones who say, “over here, it’s me, I’m the one; I’ll take it.”, are not responsible with something like that. You gotta watch out for someone like that, especially if they’re trying to take away honor from a humble person who’s struggling to keep a good heart.
It’s an irony isn’t it? Tom added.
Something good is going to happen here. Its coming and I’d like to see you there when that day arrives. Its what you’ve given your life to. How few are willing to commit every hour and penny of their wealth to something that appears so unrealistic through the eyes of the world. To give the breaths of their being and the steps of every footstep to something idealistic, something that really means something to everyone, something that appears unrealistic to the point that all ambitions fail. The world cares nothing for it, discourages it, even humors it, and indeed disbelieves it. Who is willing to give every lone hour of their days for the full passing of their lifetime to something like that—even should they understand that this is truly the right thing to do? That man would be Tom Dostou.
Timeline of achievements
In 1992 Tom walked from New York to N. Quebec, ending on the Maleotenam reservation. This peace walk was done out of a hope for stopping the hydro-electric dam from flooding Innu lands. (An earlier dam had flooded the Crees out in the 1970s.)
Met Thomas Banyacya (Hopi Spokesman of Traditional Government) March 1992, year of indigenous nations, at UN.
In 1993 Tom became part of a walk to help bring awareness to the plight of the Ainu peoples of Hokaido Japan. This walk of prayer was an attempt to bring up the issue of fair civil rights for the Ainu, Japan’s original inhabitants. They were originally and still possess to some degree, a people of Caucasian features. They are the worlds first known potters as well.
Tom Dostou’s work with his original elder, Chief William Commanda (keeper of the Wampum belt of prophesies), lead him to journey to the UN in 1994. Here he met Thomas Banyacya and many other spiritual traditional leaders.
He visited the home Thomas Banyacya in 1994 and scripted document calling for the creation of UN of indigenous nations on April 1 (April fools day) of that year.
In 1995 he helped organize the sun bow walk form Massachusetts to Santa Barbara California (home of the Shumash peoples). This 7 month walk was done to bring prayerful awareness to the visions of native American sacred prophesies.
In 1999 Tom helped organize a prayer walk from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and from Chief Sealth’s grave in Bainbridge Island WA to the UN in New York city. From there, the Atomic flame which they had carried for 3,700-miles on foot was taken to Red Rock, AZ on the Navajo reservation where it was ceremonially buried. A group of Navajo and Hopi spiritual leaders ceremonially buried the Atomic flame there. Some of the original uranium used in the A-bomb, had been dug out of Red Rock, AZ, and later refined in Los Alamos, NM. This walk, carrying uranium from the Atomic bomb that struck Hiroshima, was done in honor of Dorothy Pearly. Dorothy, a Laguna woman from New Mexico, had died of leukemia in 1999 after working for years in a uranium mine.
Thomas Banyacya and Martin Gashweseoma 2004 meeting of N. American tribes to create alliance 2006 New England through tribal territories (Wampanoag, Naragensett, Pequot, Mohegan, Nyack) along Hudson river near Manhattan.
Sunbow 5 Walk
"It is time to walk," Grandfather Commanda told the gathering that Thanksgiving Day in 1994. "It is time to retrace the steps of the ancestors and find what was left by the side of the trail. It is time to walk now."
When Frank and Grandfather finished speaking, Tom Dostou (Nabesse Pishum) huddled with guest after guest, making plans for the long cross-continent pilgrimage that would start in just seven months, in June, 1995.
Tom was to be the head man. He had been afire with the idea of a long walk since the Cry of the Earth Conference in New York in November 1994 -- and since he had participated in a second walk for native rights in Canada. The walks had stirred him deeply.
With his wife Naoko Haga, Tom shared a vision of the Sundog, or Whirling Rainbow. When this natural phenomenon occurs, a full 360-degree circle of a rainbow appears in a wide ring around the Sun. Tom and Naoko spoke of it as the Sunbow, and added the number 5 to it to signify five colors of human beings: Red, White, Black, Yellow, and Brown. The long walk, Tom said, would be called the Sunbow 5 Walk for the Earth.
The Sunbow, or Whirling Rainbow, represents an emerging understanding. In some indigenous communities, it is considered a sign from the Creator. It has long been held that a time of great change, or transition on the Earth, would be signaled by an increase in the number of visible Sunbows.
These full-circle rainbows around the Sun, some say, may be understood as a sign to people of the necessity to live a life in respect and harmony with all the creations that make life possible: plants, animals, waters, minerals, winds, and other human beings respecting all races and religions.
But there is a lot to learn about the Sunbow. We are just at the beginning of our understanding.
Day 14 of the Sunbow 5 Walk - Thursday, July 6, 1995
As they were making their steps today the walkers realized that they had covered a far stretch of road over two weeks. They had walked across Cape Cod, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and then West along the shore of Connecticut toward New York City. This day -- the fourteenth day on the road -- the walkers covered about ten more miles across New Rochelle and the Bronx, ending at the Willis Bridge on the margin of Manhattan.
In January, a group of people from around the world began the cross-country Hiroshima Flame Interfaith Pilgrimage in Washington state. They are carrying a flame that was started from the burning embers of Hiroshima, Japan, after that city was destroyed by a U.S. nuclear attack in 1945. According to the organizers' Call To Walk, "We will be walking as a spiritual pilgrimage for world peace, disarmament, to end the Star Wars Missile Defense Program, and to save mother earth from further destruction. We will honor the Native people who have been victims of our nuclear development and listen to their message of peace. The events of September 11th and the resulting war have made this walk and our prayers even more urgent."
The walk will stop at nuclear sites and native lands across the country and conclude at the United Nations in NYC in May. The idea for the walk came from Jun Yasuda, a Japanese Buddhist Nun of the Nipponzan Myohoji order and Tom Dostou, a Native American activist in Massachusetts whose experiences on a peace walk in Japan inspired the organization of a Hiroshima Flame walk here in the United States.
The fire that was ignited 57 years ago on August 6, 1945 when the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, was ceremonially extinguished by a band of pilgrims May 27, 2002 at Big Mountain on Black Mesa in Arizona, in a high desert range sweet with the smell of sagebrush
In 1945 when the "Little Boy" bomb detonated 2,000 feet above Hiroshima, the city was instantly shrouded in an awful cloud. Witnesses beneath the cloud remember that they "saw another sun in the sky..." When the wave of light, heat and wind from the atomic sun reached the ground it roasted to a fine ash all that came before it. The wave raced outward until it reached the mountains on the edge of Hiroshima, where it was reflected to roar again through the city center. Over 140,000 human beings died during or shortly after the blast. Many more lingered ‹ dying later, or developing genetic mutations.
A man named Tatsuo Yamamoto recovered embers from the Little Boy blast 57 years ago. His family, with the help of a nearby monastery, has tended the flame continuously ever since, feeding it with prayers of forgiveness, understanding, and peace. This is the source of the flame the pilgrims carried across America, the flame they recently extinguished on Big Mountain.
Sarah James Gwich’in Director Tree of Life Guardianship Arctic National Reserve, AK
Sarah James is a board director of the Tree of Life Guardianship. Sarah is a Neets'aii Gwich'in Indian of Arctic Village, the northernmost Indian tribe in North America. Here she serves as a Member of the Arctic Village Traditional Council, and is a lifetime member of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. Sarah is also a Board member of the International Indian Treaty Council.Sarah has spoken worldwide at gatherings which include the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil and the First International Summit for Indigenous People in Guatemala. Sarah regularly attends the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples at the UN in New York City. In conventions worldwide Sarah communicates ecological awareness safeguarded by her people; this valuable knowledge, but for human gems like Sarah James, would likely—as indigenous life in general—remain a treasure unknown to the world. In 2002 Sarah was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize. In 2004, she was recognized for her indigenous advocacy contributions with the Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership. Sarah has been honored with both Bannerman and Ford Foundation Fellowships.
As a spokesperson and board member of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, James works to protect the Porcupine Caribou Herd's birthing grounds on the coastal plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She works for the health and welfare of Arctic indigenous peoples, caribou and other natural resources upon which the tribes depend. (excerpted from 2004 Buffet Award) She has become a national and global leader in the Gwich'in campaign to save the refuge and caribou.“The Gwich'in, who call this area 'The Sacred Place Where Life Begins,’ know that all is connected and that if the caribou calving grounds are destroyed, their culture and traditions will soon follow.” – Brian Hirsch, Ph.D. and Assistant Research Professor, Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska,
Anchorage, and Executive Director of Earth Energy Systems“The caribou is not just what we eat, but who we are. It is in our dances, stories, songs and the whole way we see the world. Caribou is how we get from one year to the other.” –Sarah James, The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA), March 18, 2001.
Her efforts, aligned with the cause of the TLG, help guard the land-based cultural livelihoods of indigenous peoples, both in the Arctic National Refuge, and worldwide. Coordinate with these efforts, she continues to address environmental issues and human rights in national and international forums.
Since 1989, Sarah has been a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, an organization that acts to challenge human rights violations committed against indigenous peoples. James joined the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council in 1996, where she serves on the Indigenous Peoples Subcommittee. This subcommittee advises the EPA in its development of federal legislation and policies aimed to secure environmental justice for indigenous peoples. She has served as an advisor to the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council Since 1998, and keeps a seat on the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments.
She has continuously worked to educate Congress about maintaining ANWR's protected status. In 2000, she traveled to the international climate change talks in the Netherlands to publicize the connection between global warming and the degradation of the Arctic. James is currently coordinating the efforts of various native peoples to develop sustainable sources of energy in the region. As a result of her work, solar power was recently installed in two Gwich'in villages. James also offers inspiration and guidance to the next generation of Gwich'in. This year, she helped organize the Gwich'in Young Peoples Gathering, a five-day assembly to celebrate and to strategize about ANWR conservation.” (Excerpted from Goldman Environmental Foundation)
She grew up traditionally, following the caribou migration. As a Gwich’in, she was born with motivation to care for her land. “Loss of the caribou would mean the end of my people, much like the loss of the buffalo resulted in the decimation of many indigenous cultures in the Great Plains over a century ago”, she says. But James did not choose to become a leader for the Gwich’in; that choice was made for her. For almost 20 years, Sarah James quietly served her people as a community health aide, in a log cabin with no running water, and founded a preschool. Then, in 1988, the elders and spiritual leaders of the entire Gwich’in nation – encompassing 15 villages and several million acres of remote land in northeastern Alaska and Canada – chose her to become the public spokesperson for preserving the caribou, the land on which they travel, and the Gwich’in culture.
James brings people from all over the world to Arctic Village and the Gwich’in villages to meet the Caribou People and better understand their way of life. She has traveled far to bring the story of her people to the world, speaking in many countries about indigenous rights, human rights, and environmental issues. To share the Gwich'in's message, she has performed caribou drum and traditional songs at the Cathedral Church of St. John, the Divine in New York City and at the first "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She has been a keynote speaker at conferences and symposia around the world and has provided testimony to both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
She is a board member of the International Indian Treaty Council, a national representative for the Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments, a special advisor to the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Watershed Council and a member of the indigenous people subcommittee of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.She has educated the Gwich’in about bioaccumulation of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), especially in cold Arctic regions, and how this disproportionately affects indigenous people who consume large amounts of fish and meat. She mentored a young, well-educated man from her community, who eventually attended United Nations-sponsored international treaty negotiations for the elimination of POPs. He is now a statewide spokesperson and organizer on the issue.
As a spokesperson and alliance-builder, James has worked with Arctic Village and neighboring Venetie to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and strengthen their traditional culture by using renewable resources such as wind and solar power (In remote communities, electricity is produced with diesel fuel and generators). In the summer of 2001, this vision became a reality with the installation of solar panels that produce power in the two communities. “This is the start of creating our own energy independence, of walking the walk”, she says. Sarah James has also launched an effort to create a community radio station powered by renewable energy. It will broadcast conventionally over the airwaves, and also on the Internet – in her people’s indigenous language as well as in English. She has involved her entire community in the effort. This use of technology will help preserve her people’s language and traditions. And then many Gwich’in voices will reach around the globe – speaking for the caribou, for the kind of energy independence that preserves nature, and for a way of life.” (Excerpted from Leadership for Change—2001 recipients)
“Maybe there are too few of us to matter. Maybe people think Indians are not important enough to consider in making their energy decisions. But it’s my people who are threatened by this development. We are the ones who have everything to lose.”“We are the caribou people. Caribou are not just what we eat; they are also who we are. They are in our stories and songs and the whole way we see the world. Caribou are our life. Without caribou we wouldn’t exist.”
"At times, the state of the world may appear overwhelming. We must always remember our successes to help us stay strong and never give up. We must speak with one voice and we must make a strong stand and believe that we can accomplish what ever we set out to do."—Sarah James
Sarah James is a ‘living statement’ that individuals, working cooperatively within networks of grassroots leadership, effectively change our world.
The Nature of Her LeadershipCollaborative leadership comes naturally to Sarah James because her culture requires it. Leadership within a tribal setting is a unique blend of humility, consultation with the elders and setting an example by doing.
Her role can best be defined as that of a collaborative teacher. Before taking public stands, she must confer with her people and receive their consent. “My work in addressing this issue, as directed to me by my Tribal Elders, is to educate people about the consequences of their actions and to speak out to defend our human rights and protect our culture and way of life,” she explains. “This includes educating both the ‘outside’ world as well as our own people.” Most of her work is done as an unpaid volunteer. By necessity and desire, she builds collaborative links to other organizations and people. “Indigenous peoples are an impoverished political minority with very little perceived power,” she says. “As a result, politicians and other decision makers ignore our concerns and perspectives. For our voice to be heard and projected …we necessarily must find and support allies wherever and however we can. Thus, I believe my work and leadership role must be broad-based and boundary-crossing.” While environmental organizations are natural allies, she has also cultivated strategic partnerships with religious groups, human and civil rights organizations, musicians and artists. “Part of this strategy was and continues to be to refocus the terms of the debate so that oil drilling in A.N.W.R. is not just seen as an environmental issue.”
The Future
Because of the way in which Gwich’in leaders are selected, James’s work will continue – even when she can no longer do it. This is also true because of the alliances she has formed, the communications technologies she has introduced so that other Gwich’in voices can be heard around the world, and because she has trained Gwich’in youth to protect their culture’s heritage. “My approach is to combine the strength and wisdom of our cultural knowledge and practices with the positive aspects of modern society and technology…while still being guided by our traditional values. Reaching out to our young people through school events, summer language immersion programs, cultural enrichment projects, and other activities are essential.” And, she emphasizes, the Caribou People’s struggle should inform other cultures about their own future. “It is so important to find the common ground of all people. Some people think this is so hard to do because we come from many diverse cultures. But the truth is, that we only must look down to the ground and see that we are standing on the same ground. We drink the same water, breathe the same air. We all have children and they have children and we want them all to survive in a healthy and just world…. We are all caretakers of the earth.” (Excerpted from Leadership for A Changing World)"We are caribou people," said James. "It's our clothing, our story, our song, our dance and our food that's who we are. If you drill for oil here, you are drilling right into the heart of our existence."
Henry Bainbridge (adoptive) and keeps the nagethligai whiteshield family name that was passed to him: Nagethligai is Dine. The Bainbridge name was inherited from England where Henry’s grandfather, Na’atoni, trained horses for a horse owner of the same surname.
Formative Period of the Tree of Life Guardianship (TLG); a summation of events based on the personal experience of one of the Board Directors, and Founder, of the TLG.The Calling
In late 1985, Markwood Hull (dine*/white; of Mede-Dakota descent) was inspired by a dream in which 4 Spiritual Leaders, or Kikmongwi, appeared before him, standing on the Hopi mesas; they communicated by their spirits without the use of voice. Significantly, they asked him visit their lands, within the 4 sacred mountains, and to postpone his planned travels to the Midwest. These four elders, holding sacred ceremonial objects in uplifted hands, kindly explained the situation thus: “You can go there anytime but this (traditional Hopi culture) won’t be around here much longer.”
Markwood jumped aboard a supply truck with his dear friend John Pappan (Omaha, Pawnee) and headed for the Sundance ceremony at Big Mountain on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. Once there, he began visiting Hotevilla (3rd mesa Pueblo), to retrieve his mail at the post office. On his fourth visit, coincidentally encountering the same Hopi katchina doll carver (Joho Dewakuku) there at the time of each visit, he was invited to live in Bacavi, with Joho and his family, on third mesa.
Markwood remained in Bacavi for 4 months before moving to Polacca, on first mesa, for another 9 months. During this time he got to know David Monongye, the Kikmongwi of Hotevilla very well. David became his first elder and mentor.
Markwood eventually moved down from the Hopi mesas to stay with Mary and Jennie Manybeads in Dinebito, AZ. Mary was ill from the ongoing relocation of her family, relatives, and beloved friends (who’d lived in the communities around Big Mountain since she was a child). Her sickness was resultant of severe despair, grief, and emotional confusion; the loss of her loved ones suffered her deeply. Combined with an uncertainty of who might disappear next, her health had begun to fail.
Mark and Mary soon developed a very strong bond. Mary claimed Mark as her first son in the Navajo way, because he was the eldest of her children. He herded the family sheep while she boasted to her relatives that he was the best shepherd in Dinebito. Mary was a very famous Navaho weaver. Her Mother Jennie was well over a hundred years of age (making her the oldest living person in AZ) at the time she filed her lawsuit, ‘Manybeads vs. the U.S. government’, in an attempt to halt further forced acts of relocation.
The Awakening and Core ConceptOver the next 3 years, Mark journeyed from Mary’s home to Hotevilla where David Monongye resided. During these visits he became acquainted with Hopi elder, Dan Evehema, and Thomas Banyacya. Mark hitchhiked to Kikotsmongwi on occasion, to converse with Thomas and his wife Fermina. Thomas was the official spokesperson of traditional Hopi communities; appointed by the key Chiefs of each village.
There were a total of 4 Hopi spokesmen, selected to help awaken the human world from the deep spiritual slumber it had fallen into. In those days, they kept hope that humanity might avoid a head-on course into self-annihilation. This, they knew through prophesy, would necessitate the unification of all humanity, and the return to a sacred way of life.
The divergence of humanity from God’s divine plan had begun to generate chaos in the natural and spiritual orders of existence; this, they saw, was beginning to severely harm all life on the planet. The Hopi use the word, “Kyonoskotsi” (meaning ‘world out of balance’, ‘life devoid of spirit’, or ‘life absent of sacredness’), to reference this modern era of human disorder.
If mankind awakens in time, much, but not all of the devastation foretold in prophesy could be averted. It was foreseen by the ancient ones that humanity could choose a path leading into paradise, characterized by harmony and peace, if they were wise and followed the teachings of the Great Spirit. (PonTaNey; the Hopi way to say, ‘ the right way’, or ‘that’s the Way’)
The detonation of the Atomic bomb confirmed that this had not occurred, but that the other road, the one leading to destruction, had been preferred. If humanity continues on the same track, neglectful and heedless to God’s calling, all heads will turn to the west, and a great storm will appear; nothing will sustain its force. Nothing will endure the wake of its ravages, and the Earth will be renewed.
This warning called the Hopi leaders out of peaceful seclusion, where they introduced themselves to the world. They began to travel to the UN to seek help from world governments. They began touring American cities to share formerly guarded spiritual teachings, and the powerful prophetic visions in their keeping. Knowledge that had been quietly tended for over a thousand years to keep it pure. This was the duty of Hopi people. They were chosen to be Guardians of this continent and keepers of certain sacred knowledge. The Hopi were commanded to help keep the order of Earth harmonious through special ceremonies. They are also the keepers of ancient stone tablets.
These tablets were given to each of four great tribes before they began their journeys toward the four directions of the Earth. This happened at the beginning of the fourth world; while the present age was young yet.
Prior to this time the people were all one people. When humanity reached its final destiny at the end of the fourth world, they would begin to blend and become one color again. The people would live in peace for a thousand years.
Until then, each was chosen to learn a unique gift according to the direction it would follow. The people would separate and journey, to the East, West, South, or North; along diverse pathways that the Great Spirit would stretch forth ahead of them. The gifts they gained were of fire, which is mind; of water, which teaches how to work with emotion; of earth, which connects us to one other, and to all our relations; and of wind, which is the spirit of all things.
The receipt of these ancient, sacred tablets, created by the Great Spirit and given to the people, happened before their separation into the four directions of the Earth. To reach the mesas where they live today, the Hopi had followed a cloud by day and a star by night, in prior times.When the four races reached their destinations, they would return to the center, bringing the stone tablets with them when they arrived; the circle would be complete. The Creator would have re-gathered the people together again. The plan of the Great Spirit, at that point, would be to awaken the human mind to oneness with God. Peace would prevail on Earth; for Earth would reflect the harmonious spirit of God, whose nature is peaceful.
If however, any of the brothers—representing the races of humanity—went astray, a Great Day of purification would befall the Earth. Humanity would be chastened and cleansed. A great shaking of the Earth would persist until the ‘fourth world’ people awoke and conscientiously found their way back to God. The storm would necessarily be unyielding; should they not awaken, no one would survive its wrath.
Destruction of this nature had already occurred in each of the former four ancient worlds. The severity depended on the purity of the people as each (former) epoch closed, and opened into a new age. Those who remained true in those times were led to safety, although not all of the pure always survived. Also, a few who were impure inevitably caught on to what was going on—how the spirit was guiding the true ones—and were spared by following them to safety. Thus, bad seeds invariably reentered each new world of humanity.
The storm which hovers on the horizon of our modern world, promises now, to inflict unbearable damage. If humanity, which is the mind of the planet; and the human spirit, which interacts with the spirit of life and God; chooses the right way, the storm can be partially averted and much damage curtailed. It can be ‘cushioned’. Otherwise, few will survive its fury. Those who heed these teachings, and commit their lives to them—living with honesty and integrity—are as criers in the deserts and in the wildernesses.
To struggle is our mission; the greatest struggle lies within ourselves—the struggle within our own hearts. This struggle must be clear, and it must be joyful; it must be to do good always; to be kind always. We must keep our hearts true, and not let them be seduced by selfish inclinations. If our heart is true, it is single; if we accept contradiction into our lives, we become ‘two hearted’. The ‘two hearted’ people are the ones that emerged as bad seeds into the fourth world when it began.
This is the last hope; the last opportunity for the unification of humanity. The elders teach us that even one person wields a great, unforeseeable, impact on the future. We are, each and all, ultimately responsible for deciding the fate of our Mother, the Earth, and the fate of her children. Singularity of purpose, wedded to love, changes the shape of Life.
It is our collective voice that determines the nature of things; yet each of us influences that collectivity directly. The effects of selflessness are profound; they positively enlighten the world. Selfless acts are doorways that allow invisible, sacred forces to enter the world. All people (all races and tribes) must align their hearts and minds and struggle as one—in a spirit of love, respect, and true friendship. Unity, Singularity and altruism are the only true powers of the Earth. They connect us with the Spirit of God. This is what the prophesies foretold; this is the message they bring to us in this darkening hour. This is the message of the Hopi messengers, as Mark heard it from the Hopi themselves; as best he understood it. Partly due to his dream, partly due to the humble strength and integrity of these elders, he took these teaching to heart. He struggled within himself to find a way to help humanity find a way to help the Earth.Regarding the sacred stone tablets given to the Hopi by Masau, Guardian of the Earth and Messenger of the Great Spirit, the true white brother is believed to return bearing a corner of a tablet kept by the Hopis. The Hopi made four migrations to each quarter of the continent four times before settling at Oraibi, AZ on the mesas. Four ears of corn, red, blue-black, yellow and white represent each direction and the races of humanity. A fourth ear of corn, multi-colored Indian corn, represents what Algonquin prophesies refer to as the ‘rainbow people’ who shall revive the ancient traditions. Hopi prophesies similarly describe a coming age where all the colors of humanity will blend to become one color and peace will reign on Earth; humankind will have returned to the original instructions set forth by the Creator, and be true mirrors of Divinity. It is of interest that Stone tablets are kept by the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya, the Tibetans of Asia, and mention is made of stone tablets in the religion adopted by European peoples.
Mark visited the round house at Key Shaye’s home near Big Mountain on special occasions where community discussions took place. Key (Navajo) was the appointed chief of the region. Several Hopi traditional leaders including Thomas Banyacya and Emery Holmes, were often in attendance at these Navajo council meetings. Mark got to know several Navajo leaders who lived nearby, including Roberta Blackgoat, Pauline Whitesinger, Catherine Smith, and Ashkii Bitsi or Masani Deel. He visited these elders and stayed to assist the later two sisters periodically. Mark was a good shepherd and gardener (even though he did lose Mary’s sheep a couple times for the better part of a day!!)
The MeansLater, while attending Navajo Community College in Tsaile, Az, Mark began developing an important relationship with his father, bizhe’e, Henry Bainbridge (Dine; Navajo). Henry’s home was just over the Chushka mountains in New Mexico. As their relationship grew, they began to visit Henry’s many friends throughout Indian America. Together, they covered a lot of territory, traveling to various Native American events and ceremonials, on many reservations across the United States. Through his travels Markwood developed a powerful network of friends and associates, many of whom were already deeply involved in Native American cultural preservation efforts. Mark and Henry continue their travels to this day.
The VisionMark’s second significant elder was to be Jim Walton, Tlingit Wolf/Eagle Clan moiety Chief. Jim, together with Harvey IronEagle and Ben Rhodd (Potawatomi), founded the Spiritual Unity of the Tribes, a native nonprofit organization. Markwood traveled to Saskatchewan, Canada from the Navajo reservation at the inception of these gatherings, in 1989.
He continued, thereafter, to assist successive SUT Gatherings in the contiguous United States, Alaska and Siberia. Mark worked with Arlene Hilare (Salish), to help bring a SUT gathering to Lummi, WA. The two of them served on the steering committee for the Lummi S.U.T. gathering in 1994.In Siberia, Markwood worked as consultant and chief negotiator, for Jim Walton and several villages inside the Sakha republic (several in remote wilderness areas). This work helped bring the International cross-cultural Alcohol Program, that Jim had spearheaded, to the people there.
The Realization of NeedOver more than two decades, Markwood began to observe a troubling upsurge in the degeneration and extinction of traditional, native societies. He experienced, first hand, a disconcerting trend of escalation, in the number and degree, of threats facing endangered peoples world-wide.
The earth’s few, remaining, intact indigenous cultures are collapsing with an ever-accelerating rate of incidence. This systematic collapse is demonstratively linked with ecosystem collapse. The voracity of this ominous, pandemic phenomenon, and the future portent it holds for humanity, disturbed Mark deeply. Seeking a way to help indigenous people find a way through the violence of these cultural-biological storms, Markwood founded the TLG.
The ImpetusThe actualizing impetus that led to formation of the TLG was, exactly, a small community of Huichol people who live in the village of Mara’queri, Nayarit, Mexico. The Huichol, or Wiraxika (as they call themselves), belong to an ancient culture that extends, virtually unchanged, back into the mists of the Paleolithic era. The Huichol are a hunter-gatherer people who originated the planting of corn, squash and beans about 9 thousand years ago. They are closely related to the Hopi Indians in AZ, and share similar visions and prophesies.
Access to healthy deer has become a formidable challenge for them, as Mexican deer populations dwindle. Deer are a most sacred animal which must be hunted for the Huichol way of life to continue; this ‘way’—dancing the trail of the deer—was set in place following the formation of the world by Tacutsi Nakawe, Great Creator Germinator of all life.
The community of Mara’queri struggles to gain water access, fire wood, and other basic necessities. They are obliged to work in commercial corn fields and take up jobs lying beyond family lands to obtain potable water. Water is transported and sold to them at an exorbitant rate. These difficulties arose due to non-sustainable land use practices (due to encroachment into their terrain), mestizo exploitation of deer populations for monetary gain; and a complex set of external pressures which have landed on Huichol communities.Searching for a remedy to these cultural threats (and others), Mark, and the community of Mara’queri, decided it was time to file the Tree of Life Guardianship—making it a nonprofit organization. Together, they devised several plans of action that would benefit Huichol Indians living in communities and villages in, and around, the Sierra Madres. They began to look into systems of support within the Mexican government as well.
The Gestatory Period (Incubation)The TLG started with a spark of prayerful inception, originating with a concept. It then entered a gustatory phase of prayer and meditation, where it was fed and nurtured spiritually, in a variety of Native American ceremonials.
The period of incubation lasted roughly 15 years. During this gustatory phase, the needs of various Indigenous communities were assessed, evaluated, and reevaluated; a great deal of consultation and inquiry was implicit at this stage of development. The sum of this research, resulted in the formulation of TLG’s structural design and core strategy.
The Naming of the Tree of Life GuardianshipThe name of the organization was resultant of a prayer ceremony. Whilst preparing to journey through the mountainous homelands of the Huichol people, an all-night ceremony was set up in the four corners area of the Navajo reservation. The ceremony was put up to ask the spirits, God, and the ancestors, to bless the journey.
During that prayer service, a spirit arrow was shot deep into Huichol country. The prayer sponsors were told to follow this arrow, and that, “when you find it (reached the place it led them to) you will find a blessing there”.
During this ceremony spirits pronounced the name ‘Tree of Life’. That following morning, Markwood wrestled within himself as he dreamt of his concerns for indigenous peoples of the Earth; and the dangers besetting them. The medicine man, who’d conducted the prayer ceremony on the previous night, stood calmly, behind him, and to his left side. Mark held a cornhusk tobacco in the fingers of his right hand. He was told to use the ceremonial smoke, “take four puffs, and give it to the Tree of Life”.There standing present before him, he beheld the ‘Tree of Life’. When he had finished doing as he was instructed to do, a wonderful and beautiful emotion coursed through his whole being; the blessing was complete.
The Birth of the Tree of Life GuardianshipIts ultimate birth, resulting in a corporeal structure, came through the midwifery and support of the Huichol village of Mara’queri. The final confirmation of birth, was realized during a Huichol pilgrimage in the vast deserts of Wirikuta. Wirikuta is the Holy land from whence all creation sprung forth. The processes of creation are forever generated from that ‘place of perpetual creation’. It was there, that Kayumari (the Huichol holy being) spoke. It was there that Mark listened.
In Mara’queri, the TLG was gripped with acute birthing pangs. The birth pangs, signaling the emergence of the TLG (as a legal entity), arose out of the practical dilemmas that the people of Mara’queri endured—whilst suffering to keep their cultural way of life alive.
Modesto, a Huichol medicine man, and strong champion of the TLG mission, attended the TLGs first board meeting in Seattle, WA. The love that his family keeps, for their ancient ways of life, acted as the scintillating spiritual impetus—the breath of life which carried the TLG foundation forth into this world. The TLG was born to help his family, and families like his, world-wide; through the help of persons kind enough to support such efforts.
The Blessing of the Tree of Life GuardianshipThe Tree of Life Guardianship was blessed, after its birth, with a Kiowa prayer service conducted by Henry Bainbridge.
Upon incorporation, Henry opened a spiritual pathway for the TLG. Henry did this ceremonially—using the medicine ways and altar that have been passed down to him—to bless the future life of the Tree of Life Guardianship as an organization. Markwood and his dad believe, that these ceremonials are an important, respectful way of approaching the Great Spirit.The Creator must be alerted, and humbly communicated with, in specific ways. All intention is there set down to the altar before God, and before the creation. Medicine and prayers are then used to work with the altar; according to the order of the altar: Each altar is different. It is there seen how and where things are going: Specific medicines are used to guide, to correct and redirect, what’s seen through the altar. All of the participants interact through prayer to assist in this work.
In this way, the object of a prayer ceremony receives the blessing of mysterious spiritual forces and holy persons, angels, and human beings. All of these beings and holy forces—all of ‘the willing’—serve as ingredients that God uses to form, fashion, and breathe new life, into the object of prayer. The Great Spirit is the central orchestrate, who—according to spiritual law—unfolds a pathway; for the life of all new creations. All meaningful things need be conducted properly; and in these ways, that is how it is done.
‘Prayer and sacred sings are used to prepare a harmonious pathway for any significant undertaking’; that could mean the consecration of a home, or the making of a career as an artist, musician, or scientist.
Indigenous spiritual leaders are what is left of the heart of a dying age, where beauty and harmony characterized humanity. This leadership can act to restore faith in essential sacredness of the nature of humankind.
‘A little love lights even the greatest abyss, and those who live to serve our elders are brilliant lights’.Chief Tom Dostou Wabanaki (Eastern- Land) Aylnu Board Director; Chief Tom Dostou, Wabanaki Indian of the Bear Clan, is a member of the Midewin society and Native America Church. He is a chief of the Innu nation and sub-chief of the Algonquin confederacy. Tom Dostou has worked with the UN as well as governments and corporate leadership within Europe, Canada, Japan, and Africa. His efforts include initiation and development of a Native American alliance or United Nations of N. American tribes—while serving under the tutelage of William Commanda and Thomas Banyacya. Tom has led numerous awareness advocacy campaigns for the ‘healing and defense of Mother Earth’.
Origins of the Tree of Life Guardianship: The BeginningIn 2006 Tom organized a peace walk in the N. Eastern US, leading 'a prayer of remembrance' for sacred sites and lands. The sites visited were long revered as 'temples' by the ancestors of tribes currently living there. Tom, and Lauren Silverbird feel that sacred places should not be neglected in modern times. Tom and Lauren coordinated their efforts, and joined forces with the leaders of regional tribes in order to assemble this walk.
Tom has organized a number of these prayer walks over the past 10 years. In 1999, he and several Native American elders carried the atomic flame from Hiroshima to Chief Seattle's grave; there, from Suquamish, WA they traveled on foot to the UN building in NY City. The atomic flame was extinguished and reburied in Red rock, AZ, (by Hopi and Navajo medicine men) in the very place it was believed to have originated.
From 1970-1990 Tom lived with Innu peoples of Quebec where he found pleasure in the traditional, nomadic livelihood that the Innu, and neighboring tribes of Quebec, have maintained to the present day. The lives of the Innu are sustained by following wild herds of large game animals, which are hunted to feed and clothe the Innu clans. The tribes living alongside the Innu are Mohawk (Iroquois confederacy), Huron and Malicit; the latter two tribes intermixed with Algonquin peoples after leaving the Iroquois confederacy. 5 other Algonquin tribes occupy the vast territories of Quebec, including the Algonquin themselves; these are Mic mac, Abanaki, Cree, and TTikmaq. A number of Inuit peoples co-exist within the natural wealth of these lands as well.Tom received a vision toward the end of the two decades that he lived with the Innu. This vision prompted him to leave the peaceful, communal life that he had grown to love, and to venture forth for the well-being of the planet and all humanity. Tom’s vision held unmistakable correspondences to the 7 fire prophesies known to the Algonquin confederacy.
The vision occurred in 1986 as Tom was leaving a sweat lodge ceremony. He saw the sky transformed to a brilliant shade of red as he turned southward. Gazing into the crimson sky he heard ‘voices of the knowing’ explain that the sight he witnessed was ‘America burning up’.
He was instructed that he could stay in the North (Canada) for 20 years, but that eventually these fires would reach Canada as well. He was told him that he would see all of this come to pass ‘if there is no change’ in the direction that humanity has been taking.
Tibetan monks then came and spoke. They carried sacred Sanskrit texts that they had brought with them so they could be hidden from the world. The monks were worried that the text might be manipulated and misused. Suddenly he found himself holding a sacred pipe, standing in what looked like China. The thought came to him that China was a long way away and that he didn’t want to go there. He saw no reason to go to China. Suddenly he heard someone say, “listen here (stupid), you’re not going to China, you’re going to Asia. In 1992 and 1993 he traveled to Japan to help the Ainu peoples and prayed with a pipe he had been given at various places in Asia.
In 1994 he began working with William Commanda, who, being of the Abanaki people like Tom, he had known for the better part of his life. William was and is the first elected intertribal Chief of Canada; and is more specifically, the Chief of the Algonquin nation.
This work took him to the United Nations where the ‘cry of the earth conference’ was being held. During the conference he had the honor of meeting Thomas Banyaca, Martin Gashweseoma, Joe Chasing horse, Orvell Looking horse, Mark Thompson, Grace Yellowhammer, Roberta Blackgoat, and others who had become deeply involved in reaching out and speaking on behalf of the earth and those who support her well-being, as well as advocating a vision of peace and unity among all the peoples of the earth.
Thomas decided to do a prayer walk in order to bring about awareness to the message that the Hopi spiritual leaders had selected Thomas be the appointed spokesman for. In 1994 Thomas had him draw up a paper that would become an arrow point for the coming together of all indigenous peoples.
In 2004, before an assemblage of native nation’s representatives of North America, for purposes of consolidating all tribes into a single allegiance, William Commanda placed a chieftain headdress of eagle feathers upon Tom’s head, ordaining him a chief of the tribes. He was told to “Defend the earth”.
Since then Tom has tried to give his chief’s eagle bonnet away; the few whom he approached, however, have turned him down. The challenge of ‘defending Mother Earth’ is great enough to reduce ‘that challenger’ to seeing themselves as utterly miniscule and ultimately powerless. “If you can’t do the job, why have it (the title)?” He feels that there are greater men than he himself, and it has become his task to find them. On one occasion he told me, “I’m looking for someone more worthy to give it to, what good is it doing just sitting in a suitcase collecting dust?” , on yet another he reaffirmed his feeling, “ I’m still looking for someone worthy of giving it too. I know that they’re out there. I just have to find them.” I retorted, “Tom, I think you better keep it. You know it’s the ones who don’t feel worthy of carrying something like that that deserve it. Trust can be placed in them. The ones who say, “over here, it’s me, I’m the one; I’ll take it.”, are not responsible with something like that. You gotta watch out for someone like that, especially if they’re trying to take away honor from a humble person who’s struggling to keep a good heart.
It’s an irony isn’t it? Tom added.Something good is going to happen here. Its coming and I’d like to see you there when that day arrives. Its what you’ve given your life to. How few are willing to commit every hour and penny of their wealth to something that appears so unrealistic through the eyes of the world. To give the breaths of their being and the steps of every footstep to something idealistic, something that really means something to everyone, something that appears unrealistic to the point that all ambitions fail. The world cares nothing for it, discourages it, even humors it, and indeed disbelieves it. Who is willing to give every lone hour of their days for the full passing of their lifetime to something like that—even should they understand that this is truly the right thing to do? That man would be Tom Dostou.
Timeline of achievementsIn 1992 Tom walked from New York to N. Quebec, ending on the Maleotenam reservation. This peace walk was done out of a hope for stopping the hydro-electric dam from flooding Innu lands. (An earlier dam had flooded the Crees out in the 1970s.)
Met Thomas Banyacya (Hopi Spokesman of Traditional Government) March 1992, year of indigenous nations, at UN.
In 1993 Tom became part of a walk to help bring awareness to the plight of the Ainu peoples of Hokaido Japan. This walk of prayer was an attempt to bring up the issue of fair civil rights for the Ainu, Japan’s original inhabitants. They were originally and still possess to some degree, a people of Caucasian features. They are the worlds first known potters as well.
