January 3, 2006
Very Beloved Friends and Relatives,
It is now a beautiful sunrise on the day, a year ago that my very beloved mother, Oyate Waciyanpi Win (Serves the People Woman) made her journey to the spiritual world. My mother passed on nine months after my beloved father, Mato Gi (Brown Bear), made his spiritual journey. They loved and cherished one another for more than seventy years. For the White Swan Dakotas, today marks the completion of our formal ceremonial grieving process that lasts for one full year, especially after the loss of your parents and other close family members. This healing process of the loss of my mother and father has been a heartfelt process of 21 months. As well, by attending many grieving circles I now understand that the process of anticipatory grief began years before the passing of my beloved parents.
Among other things, this grieving-healing process includes reflecting with rigorous honesty upon your life and the life of your beloved ones who have passed to the Spiritual World. In the case of your parents this, also, means preparing yourself to be your parents spiritual representatives in this physical plane of existence. It has been, I must say, the most difficult process in my life, thus far. The only thing I can think that could be more difficult and painful, in the sense of losing a beloved one, would be losing your children or grandchildren.
As part of the completion of this ceremonial process I would like to express on behalf of my sister, Deloria, our children, grandchildren, our extended family and myself, our heartfelt thanksgiving to all those many friends and relatives who have expressed, in any manner, their love, kindness, support and encouragement to us during this time of intergenerational grieving.
For myself, I would also like to express my profound apologies to anyone that I failed to respond to during these past months, whether it was to your telephone calls, letters, emails or social events. To be honest, much of my time and energy during this process were spent in many different worlds of intergenerational memories, some filled with the pain and suffering of years and lifetimes of unresolved grief, fear, anger and conflict, and some with a lustrous spiritual beauty that goes beyond the murmur of syllables and sounds. For all these experiences, I give my full heartfelt thanksgiving to our Beloved Creator for all these experiences, however painful or sweet. Without question, they have all been a Divine Source of increasing spiritual understanding, love, forgiveness, humility, acceptance and surrender.
In terms of the physical realities of life, this ceremonial process has brought me to a much deeper understanding of the last words of Chief Joseph’s surrender speech given just miles from the safety of the Canadian border after he and his beloved ones (including women, children, babies and elders) had been unmercilessly chased and hounded for almost 1500 miles by a relentless and merciless US Military. Chief Joseph was finally forced to surrender after leaving behind a long, bloody and deadly trail of so many of his beloved relatives, including his brother, his daughter, his uncle Looking Glass and his tribe’s entire horse herd. Speaking with the heartrending eloquence of beauty, strength, love, compassion, forgiveness and spiritual understanding born of the most profound suffering, Chief Joseph said, “From where the sun now stands, I shall fight no more forever”. As I now more fully understand, Chief Joseph did not mean spiritual surrender, for that part of Chief Joseph and his spiritual legacy, along with others like Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Low Dog, White Bear, Brown Bear, Quanah Parker, Sequoyah, Black Lodge, Osceola, Leschi, Seattle, Owl Man, Patkanim, Komasket, Strong Heart, Little Turtle, Captain Jack, Peo Peo Mox Mox, Shunkmanu, Guaicaipuro, Altahuappo, Poundmaker, Black Bear, Black Kettle, Manuelito, Kamiakin, Black Hawk, Tecumseh and countless others not mentioned or lost in the mists of time, continue to grow stronger and stronger. Moreover, it is crystal clear that whatever these great leaders accomplished was simply a reflection of the unlimited spiritual love, strength, faith, power, beauty, and gentleness of the intergenerational circle of wise and sacred women who surrounded them and who continue to inspire, empower, energize, uplift, guide and sustain their every step. It was these sacred women, their children, their grandchildren, and beloved elders that these warriors were sworn to care for and protect whatever the ultimate cost. At the same time, most people can’t remember the names of the pompous and unmerciful generals who chased Chief Joseph and tried to kill or capture him and his beloved relatives for so many months and miles.
With the passing to the spiritual world of my very beloved and respected Uncle Vine Deloria, Jr., on November 13, 2005, my father’s closest relative at the time of his death, I also came to the realization that at my age, if I continue grieving all my beloved relatives and friends who are increasingly passing to the Spiritual World, I would be grieving forever. Therefore, with great renewal, thanksgiving, faith, hope and strength, I greet each of you with a very warm handshake and loving embrace. This handshake and embrace is accompanied by a firm and unshakable belief that the realization and fulfillment of the Sacred Prophecies and Visions of the Ancient Ones are and will continue to be manifested everywhere on Mother Earth. It is also crystal clear that this fulfillment will continue with ever-increasing love, strength, forgiveness and unity, until, as Black Elk so powerfully and profoundly tells us in his Daybreak Star Prophecy, “There shall be no more darkness”.
In closing, I would like to share with you these words of the Blessed Beauty that I will continue to struggle to manifest within my innermost self in profound respect, honor, love, support and memory of my children, grandchildren, parents, ancestors and so many other beloved ones of the Human Family who have never and will never surrender in their dedicated and selfless service to the People. O Very Beloved Ones may we:
"Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of our neighbor, and look upon them with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of our pledge. Be fair in our judgment, and guarded in your speech. Be unjust to no human being, and show meekness to all humanity. Be as a lamp to them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all our acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light to the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of humankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of our generation, and a fruit upon the tree of humility."
Until we meet again, whether in this world or the next, may the Great Spirit continue to bless and guide your every step in an ever-increasing vision and reality of Divine Love, Kindness, Strength, Understanding, Forgiveness and Unity.
With Warm, Respectful and Loving Greetings,
Phil Lane, Jr.
In the words of my Dakota elders always use when completing a full statement of their heart and mind to our beloved relatives,
Shunkmanu He Miye Lo!
Chanupa Sapa He Miye Lo!
My sacred names are, A Leader of Warriors Who Takes the Enemies Best Horses and a Sacred Black Pipe Born of Thunder, Lightening, and Rain and I Stand Fully Responsible Before the Creator For All My Words and Actions. |
