Removing Barriers to Reduce the Suffering for Indigenous People Worldwide

PART II of III
By Chris (Comeswithclouds) White
ONAC of VA and HOSLJ Commandry of Virginia
A Sanctuary on the Trail™

9. An ordinance of God is the mystery of Mother and Father and not limited to biological. All things have a mother and father, for example, governments, religions, doctrines and philosophies have a father and a mother. One can’t come into being without both. They are different. They are each to be honored and respected, acknowledged. In the Native Way, we say Mother Earth and Father Sky. We believe that we are made from earth and she sustains us in the physical realm and that the physical body will return to earth. There is no difference of saying from dust you were made and dust you shall return.” In this we are alike. We say, Father Sky. Although Father Sky is spiritual not directional. Sky can be in the palm of your hand. At an atomic level there is more sky in a stone than there is solid. In modern times, a better way to communicate Father Sky may be Father Space. How better to describe God the Father who is in all things and is everywhere all at the same time.

10. It is God who set the ordinances. Man’s attempt at understanding those ordinances in operation is called “science.” Science says that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. So would the water that Abraham drank be the same water that we drink today? Is the air that Moses breathed be the air that we breathe today? These elements of the physical are constantly recycled through Mother Earth. Is it irresponsible not to honor and respect the ordinance of recycling and rebirth that Mother Earth brings forth?

11. The Medicine Wheel or Sacred Hoop is the Native Way of understanding God’s ordinance in operation. The Medicine Wheel represents the four directions, seasons, elements and cycles of life. Both physical and spiritual. Those from the old world came to the new world thinking they were bringing God to the Native Americans, ignoring the truth that God is in all things, all beings, was always already here – as The Creator, The Great Peacemaker and The Great Spirit (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Native Americans are often referred to as “Keepers of the Earth” because they live in harmony with nature and acknowledge Creator. All of the Old Testament law could be summed up here. If we are all related, and are all of one and if we harm earth or things created of earth, do we not harm ourselves?

12. The Word is key to helping transform Indigenous Peoples’ circumstances. We are not referring to idle talk. We are talking about a language at a global level. Indigenous Peoples. Aboriginal. Native. Original. First. Christian. Jew. Love. Hate. Peace. War. Rich. Poor. Savage. Civilized. Primitive. Sophisticated. Each word we use is important and has different value for everyone. He who names it has power over it. All the words we use are part of language. Indigenous People can rise above any circumstance through language. Yet, people in power speak a language that keeps Indigenous People slave to their circumstances. If we say, “You are poor,” “You are ignorant, illiterate, unskilled, that is why you are in your circumstance of worthlessness.” “You need our education,” “You need to live like us.” When we teach assimilation as a solution, we teach: if one is educated they can get a job and support their family, pays taxes and support their country, start a business, make a profit, increase their status and acquire property & processions that need to be protected and defended. “Be successful.” In doing so, we teach Indigenous People to seek a new circumstance for them self, without getting at the inner person to transform their way of being to themselves, to their family & friends and the world in which they live. This is a lie. When in fact, the assimilated group is immediately labeled as a lower class (newbie) subservient to the teacher and the despair is not gone; only different. There suffering is compounded. The language of the Native Way says, for many this is a distraction from an abundant life, a perception that requires essentially all energy to be focused on the temporal. 

13. Living a life abundantly is not the answer.  For Indigenous People living a life of intellectual and material abundance isn’t the solution for the whole. The rest of the world is proof. People living in abundance are also oppressed. Hungry for the next thing. Hurting because of something. Experience loss of self and self-expression due to adherence to the status quo. They are culturally, emotionally and economically disconnected from the rest of society in which they so desperately strive to conform to. They experience a sense of worthlessness. Live with uncontrolled servitude to a power beyond their capacity to rise above. Are living in an abomination of desolation. We have more in common than our circumstances. Striving for status / acceptance, measuring success and happiness with a yardstick of material possession, a form of slavery with tiers or levels. For the Indigenous this is not living life abundantly! The status quo insists it is. The Indigenous insists this view is mental illness. Here lies a barrier in language. It is no surprise that the United States is opposed to various rights and provisions for Indigenous People here. The implications to territory & natural resources, and admission of major injustices is great. It is unfortunate that giving Indigenous People the ability to access that which is completely natural would be politically explosive.

In response to request by Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem Grand Chancellor Chevalier Massimo J Ellul GCLJ GCMLJ Grand Priory of Malta through the Oklevueha Native American Church Elder James (WFE) Mooney Grand Priory of Indigenous People Worldwide.

14. We are declaring the “Native Way.” An example of one who has declared and walks in the Native Way is the co-founder of the Oklevueha Native American Church. During day to day church operations, Elder Medicine Man James (Flaming Eagle) Mooney, ensures that each of his 100 plus branches represent people of all races, of many faiths and political viewpoints and that they take on the vision to, “Unearth the Creators Spirit, in Our Hearts and Heritage, for all of our Relations.” Mooney accomplishes this by focusing on the traits of love, forgiveness, humility, honor, respect, charity, gratitude, and faith. Our church branches are now a force of goodness that is playing a significant role in assisting today’s world populations in rediscovering ways of living out ones existence on Mother Earth and awakening to the spiritual seed within us all; in a more respectful and loving manner. We share that the scope of being related or returning to the sacred hoop is not limited to humanity or two-leggeds. Our relation with the winged, four-legged, the finned, the plant kingdom and the elements of earth (earth, fire, water and air), all knit together and are one creation/organism. Here in is revealed the two greatest laws: the Native Way says: love Creator; honor and respect Mother Earth, love human-hood. Said in the Holy Scripture: love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul; love your neighbor as yourself. Therefore, one cannot keep the first law without keeping the second. Making it the one great law of the “Golden Rule,” do until others as you would have them do unto you / love your neighbor as if they were yourself. The belief that, if one element of the whole creation is destroyed or lost, the organism itself cannot survive and will eventually die; to allow that to happen would be dishonoring creation, more so dishonoring God the Creator.

15. Where are we living? The Native Way is a witness / testimony to live life now. Be with life, where it is, with whom it is (the people of this moment). That place is now. That is where God already always is. In the “Eternal Now.” Now is all we have. Now is all that is real, consummate for action is now. The past is gone. Whatever happened, happened. It cannot be changed. The future is but a hope or a thought. It is not yet come. It cannot be proven. Neither the past nor future is real. Only now is real. This is not a philosophy nor a day dream. On the contrary, viewing the past or future as real is a day dream or insanity. It is human nature to run past or project ahead in every aspect of life and to have regrets or dwell on the past. The Native Way teaches us to create our future in the present (now) which produces our past. (This is why life is referred to as a path or road to be taken one step, one moment at a time.)

“Give us this day our daily bread,” “Worry not for tomorrow, for tomorrow’s worries are sufficient for themselves.” 

We can only hope for tomorrow. Tomorrow is not yet here. It can’t be proved. Why hope for good things? The only place where we can expect those things that are hoped for is where we take action … now. We can either do something or not do something, but how ever we react or respond in that moment, whatever choice or decision we make, we are creating a future that will become our past. We walk into our future; a future of possibilities.

16. How are we living? The Native Way is a way of being and is an unalienable right. The Native Way is a view of life that, by virtue of being created by the One Creator, we are all related. We are all creatures of creation. We communicate and have relationship with Creator God the way we are led to. Those who violate this God given truth or “way of being” violate a basic unalienable right of humanity. It is a God given appointment for each man (humankind) to seek Creator God. God is calling man unto himself and not man calling man unto God. And this divine appointment is a “God-given natural, unalienable right.” We are all created in this world. We are “born within” “Mother Earth.” Are we not all indigenous to earth, therefore being related or of one another? The words I speak are not just for those labeled as Indigenous, but for all mankind, the Indigenous of Earth.