Ed McGaa, Eagle Man, is an American citizen, a Teton Oglala Lakota (Sioux) born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and a successful writer.

Calling to the White Tribe

Rebirthing Indigenous, Earth-Saving Wisdom

By Ed Mc Gaa, Eagle Man

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Copyright © 2012 Ed McGaa, Eagle Man
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78279-134-8

Contents

Foreword: Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, The Highland Seer…………………..1Introduction………………………………………………………31 Religion & Spirituality…………………………………………..172 Encounters with the Spiritual……………………………………..353 Origins…………………………………………………………744 Exodus………………………………………………………….885 Crossing the Wide Missouri………………………………………..1086 Democracy – The Great Gift………………………………………..1177 Leadership………………………………………………………1258 Black Elk’s Vision……………………………………………….1569 Vision Quest & Sweat Lodge………………………………………..18010 What Spirituality Is Not…………………………………………19911 Evolvement & Needed Change……………………………………….212Afterword…………………………………………………………236About the Author…………………………………………………..237Sources…………………………………………………………..238

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Religion & Spirituality

When Man speaks of Religion or Spirituality, He should speak onlyin a suppositional sense or attitude, with the exception, of course;that which he directly observes. For, it is indeed an incomprehensibleMystery.

In our Universe, at least, most believe we have an ethical andmoral Designer, Force, Ruler, Originator, Maker, Creator, (God).The speed and exactness of a computer, a mobile phone arebrilliant, seemingly magical examples of what this Great Forceallows from and through what it has designed. Mere, egotisticalhuman thinks that he has created the invention; never realisticallyreasoning that all invention has to begin with thisMysterious Force which my people call Wakan Tanka (Wah khantan kah) – Great Spirit.

There is little visibly left of the Celtic Way from what I havedirectly observed in recent travels to Europe. It has beenthoroughly obliterated by Organized Religion. You are foolish togo to the churches to try and find it. If you truly seek what theancient Celts practiced, utilize plain common sense and go to anIndigenous tribe that has managed to keep their Spiritualconnection to the Natural Way … and little different than whatthe Celts basically practiced. This writing will bring theindigenous to you although many non-natives, especiallyEuropeans, are now journeying to some of our Western NativeAmerican tribes and observing … and learning.

What is Spirituality? What is Religion?

Organized Religion has a history of deprecating Nature as aspiritual base. Religion often disagrees with the findings ofmodern science whereas Spirituality is more often supportive ofscientific discovery and findings. After all, the scientist is simplyprobing, investigating, and studying a specific area or field ofCreator’s nature. First let us begin with Indigenous Man, whowas immune to the detours, the detractions of modern living.Furthermore, he had direct access to the teachings of ever-present,all-surrounding Nature. Wild game could be in viewwith every step. There was no not covering pavement, viewblocking sky scrapers, no brick and mortar, let alone planetary,life threatening, and life ending pollution which Man creates.Indigenous Man’s lifestyle was dependent upon Nature’sprovision, whether it was soil tilling or hunting or both. If onewas to learn Spirituality – his was the perfect classroom.

My tribe managed to preserve their Natural connection, theNatural Way or ‘Nature’s Way’. Yes, and even yet to this day. Ourforebears lived this belief system prior to the coming of the WhiteMan – the Wah shi chu. Despite the Academics and the Wah shichu missionaries who did the immediate damage to spiritualpreservation, my tribe preserved and are now returning (Ahtaahehnucehnu – hastily) to the old Natural Way (our NativeSpirituality). Our ceremonies of thanksgiving are returning andbeing presented once more to Creator and its Spirit World by theLakota people, who for the most part are now part Wah shi chudue to the increasing inter-marriage, or should we say ‘outer-marriage’.It obviously makes no difference to the participatingSpirits that enter our ceremonies and refresh us spiritually.

The Celtic tribes who once roamed freely throughout most ofEurope for several thousand years were quite parallel – spirituallyto the Sioux, the Iroquois, the Chippewa and most of theNortheastern North American Indigenous tribes: this holding ismy strong suspicion. Nature is Nature and on both sides of theAtlantic she reveals the same. Man’s basic interpretations, if theyremain devoid of superstition, (man’s creation), the parallelbeliefs should remain similar – is another of my beliefs, suppositions.Eventually, the blocking out of Nature due to ‘civilizedadvancement’ along with modern Man’s input of religious superstitions(all concoctions of this strand of Mankind) brought on amyriad of religious beliefs and onward to an outright avoidanceof Nature’s teachings and further onward to even a vilification ofthat which could be spiritually fruitful within what ironically iscreated by the very Creator itself … and there we haveOrganized Religion to this day.

Obliteration

Man could not control Nature nor alter or dilute what it can andwill display, therefore it had to be religiously obliterated andthose who chose to remain steadfast to the Natural Way werecondemned, persecuted, and eventually exterminated to theextent that their Spirituality eventually vanished. And such iswhat basically happened to the ancient teachings and recordingsof the collective Celtic Wisdoms. Europe had a much longerexposure to Organized Religion and therefore suffered completeobliteration of its indigenous wisdoms and belief systems. Mytribe has been only exposed to Organized Religion but a century- not long enough to extinguish the Natural Way from theongoing generations.

The same course of obliteration happened to the belief systemof tribal peoples of the western hemisphere but it has nothappened to all of the tribes in North America. My tribe wasbesieged by Wah shi chu Christian missionaries who were quitesuccessful with their federal government lobbying despitesupposed democratic constitutional secular protections to banindigenous tribal religion (Spirituality to the tribes). Some of thewestern United States’ tribes went ‘underground’ however, tokeep their belief system alive. Following the aftermath of Dr.Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, theAmerican Congress finally woke up and passed the Freedom ofReligion law a decade later after MLK; hence removing theunconstitutional, unlawful religious ban.

A strong resurgence; a return to Native Spirituality has nowoccurred and the old spiritual ways, still preserved, are nowflourishing vigorously on the Lakota reservations – mostly in thestate of South Dakota. Surrounding tribes are also returning totheir ways including those tribes in Canada especially the Cree.They come down to America and attend our summer Sun Dances.Some Sioux go up to Canadian Native American Reservations(Reserves) and attend their ceremonies which beseech to theGreat Spirit (Creator). ,The Lakota can give you a window to yourancestor’s valuable beliefs if you garner the Wisdom (commonsense) to look through it.

Native American ceremonies, songs and prayers will beexplained in this writing so you can enter the ‘mind-think’ of apeople, the North Native American, who was very much akin tothe spiritual outlook of the ancient Celts of Europe. Like I said,’Nature is alike on both sides of the oceans.’ Their teachingswhich are based on unchanging Nature were strongly alike. Bothattempted to find the intricacy of the Higher Power (God; tosome) mainly through ‘What’ and ‘How’ this vast Creator Entityreveals its Nature for moral and ethical guidance rather thanseeking universal knowledge from the foolish blathering of Man.

Modern Man has traversed widely in his attempts to ‘know’what is actually impossible to truly perceive. Yet he’s been quitesuccessful in branding his formulated concepts onto society. Manhas established a religious hierarchy which controls through fearalong with false, unsupportable promises. And the ‘bleatingsheep’ followers choose eagerly to adhere to this rather than toseek realistic learning and true knowledge, free from superstitionand false claims, which now are becoming quite dangerous forplanetary survival. They (the sheep) are programmed,medicated, embalmed to deny that which only a much HigherPower than mere Man can adequately provide.

Evangelicals shun hierarchy and build their own vastmansions from their Sunday Service monetary collections andtelevised to draw the sheep; preaching how God will rewardthem financially. Their faces are notably tight, voices forceful andfearful while quoting biblical verse. Most religions are quitehomophobic, denying vehemently that Creator makes all things,entities, breathing and non-breathing, moving and non-moving – theway they are. My tribe simply states that a Winkteay (oneborn as a non-heterosexual) is made that way by Creator and nochastisement or negative treatment of such individuals should beallowed or is condoned because one does not injure or hurt whatCreator creates. The Spirit World awaits all and justice will beserved on violators.

Jehovah’s Witnesses held to a certain number who will onlyget to enter ‘Heaven’ but altered that Biblically decipheredamount once this particular sect grew in membership. Mormonswear special ‘God pleasing’ underwear. Muslim women mustalways keep their heads partially covered when in public, somesects demanding a burka. Catholic nuns only recently came outof a special hooded covering that was quite restrictive. Priestsand nuns all take a vow of celibacy and yet pedophilia scandalshave run rampant throughout the church hierarchy leadingtoward numerous lawsuits thanks to this new age of exposingcommunication.

Environmentally, many Christians ignore planetary heating,dismissed by their ‘Rapture/Resurrection’ belief that their Godconcept will appear and solve any and all environmentalproblems besides rewarding the adherents and of coursepunishing the non-believers. I hope that they are right! Such isjust a few of the startling beliefs Man has come up with from hismany organized religious sects. But a few centuries back, onecould or would be put to death, and most often after torture, ifone would disagree with such religious precepts. The penultimatechapter will indeed expose such atrocities that OrganizedReligion has inflicted on innocent people.

All mainstream Christian and Muslim establishments believeemphatically that a ‘Devil’ or ‘Satan’ exists, and prey uponhumankind to detour their journey away from a rewardingheaven and on into a fiery, quite unpleasant ‘Hell’ where one canexpect eternal torture. Traditionalists of my tribe believe a SpiritWorld exists where all humans will eventually enter and thereone is judged by those whom one has offended untruthfully andby those whom one has honored truthfully according to positivemorals, ethics and what the animal world certainly exhibits for us– Truthful Duty to offspring, pack or Tribe during one’s EarthJourney. It is difficult for most culture respecting Sioux to thinkUltimate Creator has any need for a White Man’s Satan; let aloneallow such a thing in a Creation which provides for us all.Therefore, our culture is much less superstitious, or afraid of thedark. Certainly such an attitude is a needed armor against thereligious charlatans of the world.

We also have ‘Honest Observation’ in our armory, which isdefined as looking clearly at what Nature reveals to us along withan awareness of the Past. Honest observation also holds acautious respect for Nature’s power. To regain the Natural Way,one can expect false, denigrating accusations to be hurled backupon those, including the probing, investigators of Science, whosimply are seeking real Truth.

Great protectors of Mother Earth were the old generations ofIndigenous people; quite unlike the fruitless negativity we haveexperienced from observing and hearing Dominant Society’sOrganized Religious practice down through centuries and nowinwardly supporting life threatening pollution mainly fromunchecked commerce while ignoring Earth’s dire warnings. Yes!Organized Religion is completely devoid of Environmental careand concern. Where is such supporting evidence in their highlytouted bible? Heating of the Planet, Water Shortage, GoneResources and Over Population are the four major causes of thefuture calamities besetting our planet’s survivability. I shouldcorrect that statement: rather it should be – human’s survivabilityupon the planet. Mother Nature will survive; humansmay not!

Such oncoming disaster is so visible in this modern day thatOrganized Religion is now forced into desperate retreat but yetthey still hold fast to their downplaying and minimization ofsuch serious threats to our planet. Their ‘black books’ of humanprophecies speak nothing of the above subjects, rather one majorproverb or command dictates: ‘Multiply and subdue the Earth.’In my opinion, over population is the most serious threat to ourexistence and the wildlife upon the planet also. One countryalone is taking serious steps toward minimizing over population– China. This country also places a check on Organized Religionas well for they are well aware of Organized Religion’s ability tocontrol. If Organized Religion would have controlled China inthe past century, their population would no doubt have doubledby now! India, adherents of Organized Religion, will eventuallysurpass China in sheer number.

Western Europe does not yet set political based restrictions onpopulation limitation (in England they are looking into limitingpopulous through changes in their social welfare system) but thecitizens themselves are practicing commendable curtailment ofthe sizes of their families. Eastern Europe is also awakeningtoward a similar sustainable practice. The planet’s westernhemisphere in comparison, does not practice population controlespecially Mexico and those South American countries still heldin the grip of Organized Religion, predominantly the CatholicChurch.

Mexico would become desolate, but their check valve is illegalimmigration into the United States which it will eventuallycontrol due to the lack of awareness of the materialistic numbedAmericans. Math is math but America remains too distractedwith their existing comforts to realize the approaching end ofsuccessful secularization due to the eventual loss of control oftheir own country. They are akin to alcoholics whom remainsteadfast to their addiction oblivious to all that is falling awayaround them.

Leadership

What dedicated, self-less leadership has Organized Religionspawned? We can simply look at the corruption, greed and self-promotingnon-leadership that the American Congress (allOrganized Religion proponents) has spawned for itself to answerthat question. Not only have the politicians enriched themselvesbut the tax free Churches have also, especially the hierarchal onesand the televangelists.

Indigenous peoples were equally Matriarchal and Patriarchal.They saw that Nature (God’s Creation) was balanced andtherefore their Spirituality would be as it should be and remainaccordingly as all things made, (created) displayed were far moreexemplary, more dependable than what mere man would utter.Many of the Celtic women rose to Bardship; the keeper of therecords, the Keepers of the proven, workable wisdom. Like theCelts of old regarding Woman, she has a high place also in LakotaSioux society. The Animal World, the female often leads the hunt.The herding Wamaskaskan (animals), the old matriarch elephantleads to water and grasslands. The Bulls follow. Often the Alphawolf pack leader is female; the female lion leads and engineersmost of the hunt. That is the way God made it. Among the Siouxand the Iroquois, the woman is powerful as it was among theancient Celts.

The Pilgrims who arrived in America in the 1600s knewnothing about ‘Democracy’; they would later adopt it throughtwo observant envoys to the Iroquois Confederation of five tribes- Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin. Paine remained with theIroquois, learned their language and took the wonderful politicaland social valued gift to Europe where it blossomed so well thatit brought down the decadent, selfish and corrupted monarchies.By directly observing what Creator has put before us – Nature,we can easily learn how our own countries should be organizedand operated fairly. To practice the Natural Way, however,requires keen, thoughtful observation of Creator’s workings;more than just a few songs and some ceremonies, however.

The Natural Way is a matter of living your beliefs and toknow, understand, feel and be all that surrounds you which isNature made and not man-made. It is a lifetime of moral andethical application. The more astute you develop your mind toperceive and look for clues and meaning set before you by thisUltimate Creator, the more you prepare that miraculous mind foryour own lifestyle while here. One’s goal should be a deep,serious ongoing consideration for a preparing of the mind forthat much longer duration in that other world beyond – the SpiritWorld. The more advanced you develop yourself from directobservation, the more advanced your mind, your spirit, yoursoul will become to be more advanced for the Spirit World,which most Native North Americans sincerely believe awaitsbeyond. This supposition also means one must de-clutter andremove clogging superstition, harmful appetites, greed, ego andignorance from the mind. Watching soap operas, shoppingsprees, celebrity watch and such related empty fascination is notrewarding preparation for the Beyond.

Nature respecting two-legged (human) believes that Creatoris All Truth, All-Knowledge. The more truthful you are, the moreknowledge you seek, especially Nature reflecting knowledge, themore God-like you become. Quite simple is it not? Conversely,the more you stray away from truthful morals and a harmoniouslifestyle, the farther away you become from the fruitful goal thatawaits in the Beyond. I further believe that this Beyond is a placeof All Truth and All Knowledge as well. Would not an AllTruthful Creator make it so? But its offered advancement will notbe attained by an unprepared, selfish, unfocussed and disinterestedmind. I also believe, unlike some of those in OrganizedReligion, that only the mind (Soul, Spirit) goes on! Yes, somebelieve the entire body and its worldly desires elevate also,usually for the satisfaction of the male members in the formalways of extra wives or mates for his pleasure. These beliefs arepurely marketing devices, highly successful for recruitingChurch or Mosque membership. The more Truthful, the morereal Knowledge you seek, the closer you become like Creator. Yes,fairly simple isn’t it?
(Continues…)Excerpted from Calling to the White Tribe by Ed Mc Gaa. Copyright © 2012 by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man. Excerpted by permission of John Hunt Publishing Ltd..
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