Faith
The Greatest Supper
by Shadow Bear
I would want to have supper with some of the greatest chiefs known to the Red Nation. Chief Manuelito, Geronimo,Quanah Parker, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Osccola. Not to mention some of the orators of that time like Narbona who got a peace treaty for the Dine Nation after the Long Walk.
As tradition would have it, everyone in attendance would smoke tobacco. We all bless ourselves as of old with sage, sweet grass and corn pollen. Hearing prayers spoken in languages that are beautiful and sadly some forgotten/
Before the meal is served we’d all have a friendly conversation. Asking each and every one of the famed chiefs what they thought when the first wave of white people started showing up on our lands. How time and again they were befriended and betrayed and how they dealt with such audacious acts. I’d ask them what life was like before the Europeans and their “civilized ways” ruined our people with greed, alcohol and the raping of our once beloved mother earth.
When my curiosity had been satisfied the food would be brought in and set before us. We’d all sit in a biggest tipi with the finest buffalo hide for us to sit on. The food would consist of cured, dried, roasted and pemmican meat of deer, elk, buffalo, and small game. All would be served with wild veggies and spiced with herbs of the earth.
After the feast we’d all go out and sit by the central ceremonial fire and hear drums
that beat with the heart, songs that praise victories and friendships. Dancing, laughter, voices deep in conversation, babies crying and dogs barking. Listening to the whole village buzzing with activity.
And as I look around… I’d see the chiefs, warriors, and my fellow brothers and sisters dressed to the nines in their finest.
I imagine they would be wearing clothes of tanned deer hide, quilled and decorated. Seeing staffs, shields, tomahawks, pipes and other crafts from different nations, Loin cloths, moccasins, hair braided or worn down flowing freely, some decorated with feathers of eagles, hawks and even turkeys. A beautiful sight it would be for me to see and experience.
That would be the greatest supper if the last I would want to have.
Real and Whole
by Craig Ellis
Bono, Blessed is our Soul
That used to be so bold.
Nothing so much matters
Such as silver and gold.
Today all that really matters
is that we stay focused on
striving towards our goals
and that foretells
whether our lives
will ever become
more real, more whole
Glory be to you Lord.
His Power is Great
by Felipe Padilla
It would be great to have the most amazing Power in the World.
That very thought ponders most everyone’s mind from childhood to adolescence until adulthood.
Imagine having remarkable powers to be like spider man or any of our fabled super heroes!
The thought of having these amazing gifts!
To blink you eyes and cause lightning to strike or
To exhale and cause a hurricane
To cry and make a rainstorm.
But to possess these great powers would cause a mere human to become insane.
To hear millions of prayers or to go crazy over the thought of children who go to sleep hungry because they have no food.
Yes it must be great to have ears that listen to every heartbeat,
To all the thank you's
To everyone complaining how things didn’t go well.
He listens…yes
He loves us so much that he puts himself through this everyday.
Since the beginning of time he is our father, creator, healer, father nature and countless other manifestations we take for granted.
Everyday is for him merely a day of being our God and all he really asks of us is to believe,
Live in harmony,
And live by his commandments.
Good god, no,
Great God
