THE WAY, OUR WAY

THE WAY, OUR WAY

Our Pukamukas (honored wise) in the north and our Caciques in the south had a grand responsibility to ensure that we stayed on the path given to each of us and our generations. Our tribal leaders obeyed their dreams, and after revealing the dreams to the tribal consciousness, we followed the instructions and life came to us in abundance.

Is/Aw'te (people), our dreams, our thought powers, our original purposes were not destroyed by colonizing powers. It is true that often we have had to alter them in order to evade the many thrusts of the colonizers, but we neither forgot nor discarded them as we have often been told.

Each child born is wrapped in that dream which is the original way, the intended purpose. They are precious seeds among us. They are the blossoms of our generations that Flower Maiden and Spring Maiden will cause to be pollenated. They will provide roots for the approaching tribal way.

Our laws, our way, our rules will come to them in their dreams. We must be vigilant and prepare to greet that dream, for it is the continuation of our generations.

Within each of our dreams today are huge chunks of our "way," our "law," our rules for respectful conduct, our instructions of how and why to maintain our balance with the great universal powers. Yes, those rules are within us today, but some of us fail to encourage that dream because we hasten to survive. Survival is our foremost duty to the approaching generations.

Our original languages are within us each. It was born with us. Some of us have not encouraged its development as we parry the thrusts of assault from cruel strangers representing the European continent, a strange force borne to our homelands upon the vast oceans. For a reason that may remain a mystery, they destroyed our places of gathering, places of pleasant thoughts and flowered dreams, continuing in their destruction until they thought the earth and indigenous were conquered and their Angry God was securely instituted.

Yes, they destroyed many great cities and centers of wisdom and knowledge. Yes, they assaulted our purpose of migration as we dwelled in balance with the seasons. Many majestic centers built with and from dreams were put asunder. It hurt our spirits then and it aches yet today, but they could not locate the dream or they would have destroyed it, too. The dream is still here, still healthy, still the most precious honors assigned to us each long ago.

The wise told us to go out at dawn and study the churning universe and prepare for greater instructions from our leaders, from our Pukamukas, from our Caciques. Obeying our Elders we must do this. It is our law. It is our way.. They said a great goodness dances to us at dawn and to prepare to receive it with gracious dignity for it is beyond precious.

Let us look upon what the strangers encountered in our homeland just five-hundred winters ago. A people obeying the instructions given in dreams to the wise ones.

No army prepared to assault. No jail. No chains. No asylum. No prison over-flowing. No tax collectors. No Supreme System doing the thinking.

Instead they met people enjoying the life all around us, spring, summer, autumn, winter. Strange eyes looked upon our proud, healthy people, went to their Bible and could not find where God made us, because He may not have, so they assumed it was the Devil that gave us life. There was no concept of heaven, hell, God or Devil in our lifescapes or landscapes. Those garbled thoughts came with garbled people from Europe. They were not invited. They, because of their conduct, could not be recognized as a tribal people so were not welcome. They were free to depart this land and never return. They, instead, stayed with a strange God commanding them. God commanded them to destroy our life-force, our purpose, our dream, and they continue that path yet today.

Their God said to destroy us, to lay waste our life and the life around us. They tried. They have destroyed much. Yet we have been instructed to be respectful and responsible towards each other and to the life-forces in the land. That is our duty, our responsibility equally, until the dream changes and other instructions are given to our leaders.

So we continue to live within the tribal melody, within the orchestra of ancient consciousness, within the composition of life flourishing around us, and as closely in harmony with the churning universe as we are permitted.

The cruel strangers who forgot their tribal origin and laws, decided among themselves that the indigenous had no law, no rule, nothing worthy of defending with armies and catapults, so they attacked our beauty like a herd of buffalo stampeding through the orchid garden.

We spoke a thousand languages but not English or Spanish, so they decided our languages were designed by the Devil, too, because if God had created us he would have given us English or Spanish as our language of conversation. As their days passed here their warped reasoning and gnarled thoughts sprouted and grew fangs. They looked upon the indigenous and, taking commandments from their Angry God, began a systematic destruction to the indigenous that has not yet found relief.

Although we are surrounded and imprisoned with strange thoughts wrapped around our life like spider webs multiplied around a moth, let us not forget the great powers giving us both birth and emergence, because those powers issued laws in dreams and haydutsi for governing our conduct while we walk upon little Mother Earth. Those great powers speak indigenous so let us prepare to receive the tribal dream, for within us each is the power to become Pukamuka or Cacuque. Do not forget.

We need not gather to prove our communications with the great powers of our lives. Alone at dawn on a hill top is a precious place to be. The Elders instructed us to cast our dreams and thoughts to the universe and to cast those things troubling our hearts, also. To maintain our connection we must do this.

It is true that we have only moments, after we struggle to survive to re-invent our languages and our cultures, so let us not attempt that. Instead, let us remember our precious possessions at the origin of our birth-spirit long ago. The memory and the dream are within us each at this moment. In our remembering let us remember that Mother Earth is the most precious world of our lives. Therefore we must respect and love her while exercising our responsibility to be her guardian and protector.

Aponiha, Tecate, mimoo'ischi'ee. (Great Mystery,Mother Earth, we are your little children).


Beautiful people, let us cease measuring ourselves with foreign equations, but by the universal seasons. That law was established very long ago and has not found amendment.

Let us walk upon Mother Earth carefully and dream about manicuring that orchid garden again.

I am finished.

Sul'ma'ejote.