How You Can Help
Traditionalists of the Americas Program
The Tree of Life Guardianship has a spiritual leaders, medicine persons, and elders program whereby we assist traditional Native Americans and their families with necessary goods and small gifts, as tokens of appreciation.
The Traditionalists of the Americas program of the TLG will focus on various Traditional Native American families in order to reach a wide span of territory across Indian Country. These families, being ‘traditional’ in their mind-set, are by nature very generous and altruistic.
What the TLG gathers and sends to traditionalists will be given in turn to many other Native American families in need. Traditionalists disperse what they gather and find joy in enriching their communities. Traditionalists are communally oriented and non-materialistic in their views. We don’t expect them to do anything; we simply trust them when we help them; this is simple respect. There lives have already earned our respect.
Ethics of Giving in the Indian World
How often has an ‘indian’ who has inherited several hundred thousand dollars spread that wealth across the reservation within a few months or a year. Indians live for the well-being of their relatives, not themselves. This is the low down, the fact of Indian life; so long as the people keep to traditional ways of thought.
We have a saying, “If you have too much then you’re not thinking of your relatives.” This means that you’re thinking only of yourself. Our reasoning then goes forward and we become suspicious of any person who is so selfish. This is not ‘our way’, so they have forgotten what it is to be ‘Indian’. That is like betrayal. And even more worrisome, self-centered individuals are prone to turning against others to profit themselves; this is the occupation of dark witches. Witches use their tongues to hurt others; they enjoy backbiting and other similar sicknesses. These sicknesses disrupt our communities and allow for destructive elements, spiritual, physical, and psychological, to enter our lives. In old times, witches were hunted in many ways; sometimes they were even killed. thus, the taboos against witchcraft are very close to the taboos against selfishness. These beliefs have helped Native Americans to think of others before ourselves, and to work together for the happiness of our future generations.
Generosity is the heartbeat of Indigenous culture; gift offering and feeding others are basic elements of individual hospitality, ceremony, and celebration. Communal sharing throughout communities is the oldest ‘social security system’.
TLG Traditionalists of America Program
We, the TLG, want to help keep these ways alive. We believe they are good ways to live. In honor of the Spirit of Traditionalists we have selected 9 spiritual leaders to be central gift recipients. (Some types of donations may be delivered through persons other than those listed below *see list that follows)
Custodial Riviera (Huichol Chief of Mara’queri village; Mara’akame and medicine man)
The other tentatively selected 8 individual Leaders are in process of contact and approval
*Note: Gifts to the Lakota Nation may go to Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, Rosebud, or Standing Rock reservations. These individuals may be one or more of the following: 16 persons awaiting approval procedures.
What to give:
In general:
1) Winter Clothing (all sizes)
The lands that these spiritual leaders live in get very cold in the winter, so winter clothing is always needed (new or in equivalent condition please; worthless and worn-out clothing is a burden to deal with). We will make sure that any Jackets, gloves, boots, etc. reach those who need them. They can also be ear-marked to a particular elder who you’d like to honor.
2) Grocery Money
3) Ceremonial Support Gifts
Gifts of California white sage, dried cedar (stripped from branches), sweet grass, beadwork materials, and elk or deer hide (raw hide or tanned) for ceremonial uses.
Beadwork materials
Beads (sized 11-13, cut or uncut) for making ceremonial paraphernalia; this includes feather fans, staffs, rattles, and other items. Vanessa Jennings is famous for her Kiowa cradle boards.
4) Postage money to help with the mailing or transportation of gifts.
All gifts will include the names of persons who donate them, unless you prefer anonymity. If you wish, your name can be mentioned in Native American ceremonies for purposes of receiving prayers for you and your family. Native American traditionalists believe in giving back to those who support them, and this is one of the ways it is done--through prayer. If you wish to be mentioned in ceremonials or prayed for, please indicate this when you send your gifts.
When you send a gift, please include the particular traditional elder whom you wish to receive it. If you have a particular tribe in mind, other than those that we are currently focused on assisting, please earmark your gift and state that as well. The TLG has active contact networks that can reach traditional elders living on most reservations in the United States and Canada.
Special Considerations:
Custodial Riviera and his community are suffering labor exhaustion as they work to keep water and wood supplies in sufficient stock for the village. They do not have a potable water source and struggle to labor in Mexican meztizo farms to raise money for the trucking of water barrels into the village. This is very expensive for them as they have no reliable income. The work for water further keeps them from traditional Huichol art and handicrafts which could otherwise help supplement their community economics. The gathering of wood captures a good half day effort from the males each day for a workweek of days. This situation, combined with the disappearance of deer from the area, has the village of Mara’queri in a trying predicament. Custodial and his community subsist through agricultural means, and a small number of livestock (a few pigs and cattle). They are in need of project financing for community development targets within their village, including a water source and deer farms.
Historical Origins of the Program
Prior to its incorporation, Markwood Whiteshield Hull, founder of the TLG organization spent much of his life amassing personal resources in order to help out elders on various reservations throughout the United States. One winter he was able to send 15 new coats to two Lakota families living in Wanbli, S.D., one of the most impoverished parts of the country. He was able to gift several Navajo families with vehicles; three cars and a pickup truck (personally owned by him). Since the official formation of the TLG, he gifted another car to an Ojibway family. He has also helped to bring groceries to many Native families who were struggling to make ends meet. (These gifts, and others, if calculated, would amount to several tens of thousands of dollars; half of that being in the form of food. Such things are never calculated however; being gladly given in a spirit of deep and humble appreciation.)
Markwood has been able to gift medicine persons with needed cedar, California white sage, sweet grass, parrot feathers, and drum hides. This service has become an integral part of his life and character over the past 2 decades. When able, he also invests time finding and cutting cottonwood roots from fallen trees (in creeks south of the Hopi reservation) to help Hopi families obtain material for carving Kachina dolls. One year he gathered Bacavi, a bamboo-like reed, and made flutes from it as tokens of gratitude to Hopi elders. Herbs, drum hides, beads, and other gifts are regularly required by Native Americans for the continuation of their culture.
These small contributions have enriched his life greatly and been a source of fulfillment to many traditional families on the Hopi, Navajo, Lakota, Shoshone, and other reservations. These goods and services have always been given completely free of charge.
Markwood is not the only Board Director who has found heart to help traditional Native American families. In fact, this generosity is characteristic of the entirety of the TLG directorship. Some Board Directors, like Dianne Walkup, and Advisory Board members, like Henry Bainbridge, have even been able to surpass Markwood in their charitable acts and generosity of spirit.
Traditional families are Indian families who have a deeply established, inter-generational commitment to keep their beliefs and ceremonial ways alive. It is very hard to live according to the old ways. The codes of conduct are very similar to the ways that Jesus taught people to live and conduct themselves. Today’s world finds very very few persons who are willing to walk that extra mile, give that dearly needed dollar without thought of repayment, and treat others equal to, or better than we treat ourselves. The traditional ways are very strict in these matters of living ‘the Indian way’. Sadly, most Indians are very poor, and the costs of open-handed generosity, and helping others with Indian ceremonies is expensive (a traditional family may weave rugs and silversmith jewelry for a month, saving all that they can as a joint team, and take on extra jobs; all to help put together a healing ceremony for a ‘relative’ who may or may not be blood-related). This is why so many of our Indian ways are dying today. It is a lot easier to chase money, and more fun to party or self-entertain, than it is to really care--and mean it with the worth of your whole life.
For this reason we are greatly appreciative for any help we receive in helping our native medicine persons and Spiritual Leaders and traditional elders. Medicine persons that live by the old, traditional teachings cannot ask for money or payment of any kind when they do ceremonies and cure people. Any thing that comes must be given freely in a spirit of goodwill. Sadly, many medicine persons have gone astray and are breaking these taboos to not request money; and many Indians are not giving more than they think they absolutely have to when they need help. For old school medicine people, that means nothing at all; always on call, they are being much taken advantage of. This leaves our true traditionalists in dire straights. Many end up down on their luck and struggling to make ends meet. The situation is very painful as you can imagine. The old ways are being lost; the traditional spirit of altruism has been broken all across Indian America.
Like the rest of the old ways, giving is a way of life that greatly defines Indian culture. It is said that, “when Indians forget to give, there will be no Indians left”. About the only way to give money to many traditionalists is to hide it for them. In fact many strong traditionalists, like Corbin Harney, believe that you should never give money to someone personally. It should only be given to someone else so that the giver of the money remains pure in heart. The TLG has many secret helpers to make sure that the gifts given reach these special persons in just the right way.
The Tree of Life Guardianship will not see the heart of our Indian Culture be lost easily. We value it to give everything we have to keep it alive. With your help we can, together, make all the difference in the world for our Native American Spiritual Leaders, medicine persons, and traditional elders. Some blessings can touch the spirit of humanity even a century of evenings and mornings from this day.
