JL: Can you please explain why woman are no longer allowed to do the sun dance or partake in sacred ceremony?  Why does this matriarchal society no longer exist? LBW: It started with the Europeans coming with the patriarchal concept...that is why that paragraph about Anna Mae is important...Richard Two Elk says it all...short and concise, he was there....AIM was the reason women were faded out of ceremony, and as they (AIM) taught others, they said women never had a place in ceremony...that is why these photos were allowed by Fools Crow...to show the truth....and the passing of the "Staff" back to the women....back to women making the decisions for the Nations...they'd never send their children to slaughter, if they had the power to stop war. My point in this is WBCPW, if she was to return...would they recognize her? Or would they try to kill her like Anna Mae? WBCPW would put them out of business....as their business is promoting her coming...but what if she was Anna Mae? Me? Or another woman? And, no women are allowed? What then? WBCPW said she'd come in every generation, to view her teachings....look where we are today....so far from what she taught us. If women are not honored and welcomed in Ceremony...how will we be able to welcome her back? Her return maybe based upon our conduct, she'd be very disappointed to see where we are today. LBW: This is a photo of my Father attached to the Tree of Life, and the woman representing WBCPW during the ceremonies, holds the Staff of Power that was transferred back to the women by Fools Crow. JL: Just read this in Lame Deer's book. Very interesting.  Page 275.  Lame Deer:  From the last person named Elk Head the keeping of our two most scared pipes passed to Stanley Looking Horse and his son Ovrol, who are of the Elk Head clan. Orval is nineteenth in the line of pipe keepers in that family. Very few people, even among our own tribe have ever seen those two pipes unwrapped. Only once in a lifetime, if that often can these heirlooms be seen.   Page 276.  (Lame Deer) I asked, Who is doing a ceremony here?  (Martha) She said you are, I had a vision that a young man from the south would come and cure me. I don't know you, have never set eyes on you before, but you are the one. All my grandchildren have turned Christian and no longer practice the old ways    279  She told me some White government people had taken one of sacred bundles away from her, but had become frightened and brought it back. She said. Maybe I will have to bury them to keep them out of the wrong hands. The time will come when the Indians will rise again, when it will be smoked by all. LBW: I read this too, had a signed copy from Lame Deer, his book..... We must remember about John Fire Lame Deer, in reading his book.....he did a lot of things while he was young, he took peyote...he was a member of the Native American church, etc.....and he did an album & wrote a book 10-12 yrs before Mails did anything on Fools Crow. If he saw Martha's Cannunpa in 1936 or before...where did he get the description he gives in the book? Something doesn't jive....he says the same thing ALH said at the conference Mail's attended where ALH says the Cannunpa was stolen from him, when it was returned the buffalo fell to his knees.....and in its place the was the symbol of the Seven Sacred Ceremonies....ALH started this telling, the following year after the burning of Wounded Knee...and then John does the same in his book, 1976... but what ALH says today is not the same as then.... John Fire did not live long after the book or album....for whatever reason (s), ones who follow the Creator's will, use the Cannunpa in prayer, live the teachings, live to around a hundred+.....that is how I gage the information. Also, if Lame Deer felt threatened after seeing the destruction of Wounded Knee 2, it could have been the reason for those words....fear. He and Fools Crow were not young during this time. They saw there were no rules....Elders were getting roughed up regularly..... The cross referencing of information from Turtle Mountain and Pipestone, both confirm my info. This is why I am sharing this with people seeking the truth....it is all within themselves...like the moral of the story of the Wizard of OZ, Dorothy kept looking outside herself for the answers...while all the time they were within herself...many people are looking for someone to tell them what to believe, instead of looking to Creator and themselves....it is the self- examination that is the tough part....we must be honest with ourselves about our shortcomings, and do something about it, for this medicine/gift to work for us.....clean hollow bones, as Fools Crow said...and live good lives. JL: Didn't Nick Black Elk convert to Christianity when he was older?   LBW: I know this....and it is ok, there are many questions I've asked myself about this....but I know what Martha passed to Wilbur in her interview with him, answers many more questions than it makes....there every Keeper is named....in nothing I've found does anything support the 2000 yr. statement from ALH, about when the Cannunpa came. See these things were never talked about...right or wrong...and if we do not, we may never find Martha's Cannunpa....if we do, and we are very, very lucky, and the Creator wills, we may be fortunate to have it aid us in our time of despair. JL: I find it difficult to believe that Fools Crow would have been so careless with something so sacred, as to not be able to retrieve it in Canada. LBW: I do not believe it was carelessness....it was, I am sure...trust. He was a young man then, coming into his power through Creator. He did not know of treachery, or dishonesty...that is why the Creator passed power through him. He misjudged someone he trusted.....and that happens. My Uncle Phil Lane Sr. said the worst things to happen to our people, was government and Church....besides our own jealously of one another....he lived to be ninety, and I have fulfilled his wish for me to expose the hypocrisy within our Spiritual history...and try to get it back on track. For what It was intended for.....for the good of all mankind. Instead of all the finger pointing everyone is doing, they need to join together to preserve what we have today, for tomorrow. Continue

LOOKING BACK WOMAN  PART 3

  

JL: On page 72 of  Wilbur Riegert book he writes   "At that meeting my mother was with me, standing behind Martha Bad Warrior an the people. she was inexpressive throughout everything. but later she spoke to me of words related by Martha to the Elk Head brothers, interpreters for me, a message that none of her people she knew were worthy to become the keeper of the sacred calf pipe" Do you interpret this last line of what was translated to Wilbur's mother (Chippewa), as meaning none of her people she knew were worthy..  LBW: I want to point out here, I did not say the "entire" Lakota race was unworthy, those are accusations and words of angry people--and are not my words--and will not be repeated again. Our Nation has suffered enough, lest we start to destroy ourselves, and play into the hands of those who would rather have the entire Lakota Nation not exist. We are speaking of historical data, and the concept worthiness and honesty amongst our Lakota Nation had deteriorated through continued systemic cultural abuse. This abuse as you know, as in all abuse cases--those abused begin to perpetrate the abuse they felt amongst their own relatives. The conditions on the reserves and the level of mistrust was epidemic, while at the same time people were trying desperately to survive in extreme conditions.

Martha Bad Warrior

 

JL: You said earlier on in the interview that you believe Andrew Dupree passed Martha's Canunpa to Fools Crow. This is out of  Wilbur Riegert book, Page 92  So several days after my experience in the home of Martha Bad warrior, Andrew (Dupree)and his wife came to me asking if they could use my car for the evening. This request I granted them immediately. I asked no questions, they offered no reason for the request. I trusted Andrew completely as he had proven himself trustworthy as a kinsman aught, Just as did the Larrabies, Elk heads, Iron Lightening, Fielder and others.  I often thought of how often these friendships started. There was one explanation, it seemed:  The part I played in running down information in family trees on the reservation and in supervising the distribution of food and clothing during the drought.   It was late at night when Andrew and his wife brought back and awoke me on the arrival of it. They said they had gone to Martha Bad Warrior  at her home in Green Grass. It was a meeting by appointment, they told me.  Now, the surprise of  a life time.  They brought forth an object wrapped in a piece of calico striping. As they unraveled it, they were exposing tome the original sacred calf pipe. for it ha the exact makings described to me by Martha and the beautiful lady from the sun. I asked Andrew to fill me in with the details.    Andre said to me than Martha placed the pipe in his hands, he and his wife went out together to a high hill near Marthas home and paid homage to God in prayer, saluting him in the four corners of the earth and universe and directing the pipe to the north, the east, the south and the west. Afterwards bowing in great reverence to the greatness of God, they turned and went to the car. From there they drove to where I was at the Cheyenne river agency.   "Wilbur" said Andrew rest assured I will leave the pipe in the hands of a trusted one. He is an Indian and known by many as a true friend of the Indians.   JL: Is this "trusted one" who you have interpreted as being Frank Fools Crow. If so, how did you come to this conclusion? LBW :I believe Andrew was speaking of Fools Crow. Fools Crow was recognized very young for his ceremonial abilities, he would've been 46 years old or so, when Andrew would've passed it to him, not a kid. He was at Turtle Mountain in the 1930-1940's.... Fools Crow was 100 in 1989 when he died, he'd have been born about the time of the first Wounded Knee. It makes sense it would go to the nephew of Nicolas Black Elk....when, at the same time Black Elk came out with the first book on Black Elk and the Sacred Pipe, and Seven Sacred Ceremonies/teachings. JL: When you said Fools Crow gave your father his ceremonial sun dance pipe because he had the proper vision. Do you see Fools Crow ceremonial sun dance pipe as a substitute for Martha's pipe, since no one knows where that is?  JL: Do you see a problem with the fact you live in Canada and not in South Dakota where the Lakota people live and practice most of their ceremonies etc? LBW: The Border that exists today did not when our Nation roamed the grasslands and what is very important is the understanding of what Turtle Island and Turtle Mountain mean to this question. The place called Turtle Mountain is the geometric and geographical center of North America - Turtle Island.  So no I do not see a problem with where I live. What is very important is that I am NOT living within my Nation. I am a Woman standing in a place that the men of my Nation, who call themselves wakan and created "the protection of ceremonies proclamation" -- would not permit me to be who I am. They would say I am not allowed to do what I am doing and they would try to disgrace and destroy what is Sacred to our people by attacking me. I am a Woman whose father's burial site was desecrated in the search for these Bundles - I am a Woman who sent a magnificent horse home to our Nation as a gift to carry the Spirit of my father - to run free - and it was MURDERED, while in the care of my relatives who reside outside Eagle Butte.  I am a woman who does not live in our lands, and while I was trying to help my people with lodging, in my 17 year old innocence- was violated by the very men who claim to be Sacred and carry us toward this blueprint of Christian fundamentalism by: setting out twelve wakan men, dismissing women from all levels of Ceremony and Sacred Council, and calling for the very government that attacks us to regulate our Sacred Ceremonies. I am a Woman given these Sacred Bundles to carry for our Nation and I am a Woman alive today because I do not live on our Nations Lands. JL: When you said earlier about wanting to use your Canupa to unite the 7 council stones and the seven fires. Have you been preparing for this? LBW:  Yes I have been planning and preparing for this over the past four years with my contacts in Manitoba and other relatives. I want it known here that : I am the person who raised this Vision to life of the SEVEN Council Fires and the Sacred Stones that go with this Sacred Council and I am making arrangements for a ceremony this year. It is during this ceremony that the Sacred Standing Buffalo Canupa will be opened to those worthy to represent their respective nation within our Lakota people. I will also state very clearly no person with blood on their hands will enter this Sacred Council, nor ever touch the Sacred Canupa Wakan - AND THAT IS WHY THE BUNDLE AND I ARE NOT AT HOME at Cheyenne River, and are under the Blanket of protection of warrior Societies here on the northwest coast of Turtle Island. There are "Broken Arrows" in our Nation at this time - that have entered the very heart of our Lakota People - this is the time to heal and help our Lakota Nation and all HER people.  It is the time to  REMEMBER ALL THESE TEACHINGS CAME FROM A WOMAN - or has everyone forgotten this? JL: What do you see is the logic and reasoning for the Lakota spiritual ceremonies needing regulation by the US government and not by your own people?   LBW: I see no logic in it at all. We have had the rights to practice our Ceremonies reinstated over 35 years ago. That was just about the very time that these Hollywood Indians starting looking for their own Disney land and using their Canupas like brooms sticks flying off all over the place - but especially at the mouth. Now look where they are - inviting someone to regulate our ceremonies again. Does this appear to be very disturbing to you? I know it makes my skin crawl that these men think they can tell a woman how to be spiritually. This insults the very origin of our nation and of all nations of the entire world - women are the source of life. It reminds me of the stories of our people being told to not speak our language or have their tongue cut. If you want to see my point - see how it feels in your heart if you even try to insult your own mother! Can you feel that?  Well imagine if you were that mother, or any woman. The Creator's endless dance of creation and destruction are paired like two spirals of energies flowing in opposite directions. The weave they make through the fabric of our reality, reveals hidden and deep understandings of our universe in the unity of opposites. When this unity fails as in the imbalance of men and women in this world - destruction can dominate until all is in ruins - and the cycle of Creation begins again. We have done this before - and now is the time to restore Balance. I truly appreciate your efforts to open these issues honestly and respectfully to the world. If it was easy to walk the Good Red Road - it would be paved by now or called - the yellow brick road. Well this is not the land of OZ and I am not the "wicked witch of the west." I am one woman saying she has had enough of this violence and I am making this "call" to restore balance to our Nation as the process of cleansing begins. I am one Woman walking with these Sacred Bundles and the "holy smoke " they release in prayer carries my words on my breath and from my heart. Please remember the joyful sounds of our children's future begins in the drum beat of our mothers' hearts. For more visit www.lookingbackwoman.com

For more info visit www.lookingbackwoman