Humane-Rights-Agenda Blog: Xielolixii> Re: [Native California Indians] Is an Indian Really and Indian?

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nativecaliforniaindians/

10-04-2009 @11:24 AM/PST ~
Greetings ~ I rarely post here to this group but will try to get more involved online in the future and branch out more in the flesh in my local community. Plus, I am taking the liberty of sharing with others in the belief that sharing is caring.

My bloodline goes back to the Chiricahua Apache and Sonoran Yaqui tribes but I have been born, bred and raised in the urban area of downtown Sacramento. Thus, I was not raised in traditional cultural ways and am of so-called mixed blood, though my blood pulsates all as one bloodline.

At fifty-seven {57} Mother Earth years I remember when DQU first started back in the day when I was in the Brown Berets. The dream of DQU never did live up to its vision and ego-control-manipulation issues among certain individuals have always been connected up with why we still have so far to go as native people indigenous to these lands.

I do not identify with the term 'Indian' for a self-concept because real Indians are from India. I do not identify with the term 'American' as a label for myself because these lands were not first called America by its original peoples. The term America came from Amerigo Vespucci who was an Italian merchant and cartographer who helped to explore South America's east coat and the Caribbean sea in the early 1500s.

Research Link>
http://www.umc.sunysb.edu/surgery/america.html

I relate to the terms 'Chicano' and 'Latino' but for self-clarity I identity myself first and foremost as a cosmic humane being. Labels to identify ourselves as a people are vague, limited and relative and can restrict our natural consciousness and its continued development with our real infinite potential.

I would think that the Sacramento Native American Health Center could be able to help in this area, especially in relation to local sweats. At least here in Sacramento where our options are few.

Relevant Link>
http://www.snahc.org/

One of my newly found online groups is:
http://spiritwinds.ning.com/

One matter is certain: We need to come together beyond top labels, nations, tribes and regions as one people upon one planet I call Mother Earth in a region I call Aztlan.

True education is essential for all of us to advance in our lives and we need to reach out to the up and coming youth in our own local areas, wherever we happen to be. However, that education must lead us forth in the direction of social liberation, it must be a practical liberating education that raises our cosmic consciousness, that instills in us basic humane democratic values and that relates to our basic survival needs as human beings.

We should learn history and know our past, but we cannot live in the past with pathetic nostalgia. We must come together, move forward and work in solidarity with all peoples of all lands as ultimately one people upon an inhabited planet in one Milky Way Galaxy dominated by a human life-form that is now an endangered species, threatened by our own wrong decisions, foolish fears, character defects and personal shortcomings. There is a slim chance that we can avoid extinction but it is a chance we must take in tune with the Creator of the Cosmos.

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Education for Liberation! Venceremos Unidos!

Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta

Sacramento, California, Aztlan

Yahoo Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com

http://twitter.com/Peta51

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Come Together! Join Up! Seize the Time!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Talking-Circle/

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From: Xielolixii <xielolixii1@sbcglobal.net>
To: nativecaliforniaindians@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, October 3, 2009 10:11:14 PM
Subject: RE: [Native California Indians] Is an Indian Really and Indian?

Gee, I didn't realize that this had come to this point in the road! I knew that there had been confrontations amid all kinds of struggles for dominion over the site. DQU has really never been what it could be and much of it is because of ego and control issues.

There is no reason why it can't be beneficial to all concerned and open to all natives. But from what I remember, no real funding has been accessed by the board nor has there ever been a really firm footing -- across the board with a clear understanding of their charter or even why they were board members.

It is way past time that they join hands with the California healers and let go of their concept of Lakota control. I love the Lakota, but they have never attempted to bridge the gap between all tribes. These sweats there have always been in Lakota as far as I know.

How awesome it would be to have a sweat erected in the fashion of at least one tribe from California so that the other tribes can learn about our ways, our teachings.

I know Mr and Mrs Wright. I have sweated with Mr Wright on a few occasions in the past and I know him to be a good and powerful leader and well grounded. He is a good Elder and well respected and would be an excellent choice to be incorporated into the spiritual component of DQU's counseling and spiritual modality.

I also know Darrel Standing Elk and his family for many years and appreciate his dedication to the ways of his people and his concern for their connection to their Altar.

I'm also aware of how some California Natives feel about others coming here to California and putting up their Altars without going through the protocols of approaching the Elders from here, to express their desire to put up such a place of prayer. In the past, many California Native Elders would refuse, and maybe that is of concern to 'outside' Natives, but times are changing and hopefully we can come together with respect and reconcile our differences and evolve into a higher level of understanding of each other and our connection to our Creator.

These two wonderful people can share in this venue and by doing so can release some of the pressure that these two elders have with the solid commitments that is needed for such a long-term endeavor. I know from personal experience that traveling long distances each week to put on sweats can be a drain on a single individual and while sharing these responsibilities, it can take off some of the stress that encircles such an endless commitment such as a sweat leader has on his/her own.

I hope that they will take another look at this situation and be allowed to reopen the avenue to a higher and mutual understanding, and a alliance of both ways to approaching the Creator of All Life.

Please keep us posted on this situation. I just wish there was something I could do to get this moving in the right direction.

Xielolixii

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