Warning: Note:
This is not a true call to War and I do not ask anyone to harm another. It is a call to your soul to know yourself and to cut out that in your lives you know is not right, that which is not necessary. Rethink who you are, who you have become. Find your true self and true name. When you have done these things speak your name and I will hear you and know that I am not alone in hearing the cries of the children, of the elderly and in my passing I will not be alone for I will know that I passed on in a good and honorable way knowing that I will not be forgot. Because you know my name and I know yours. My friend. I bless my mother "Norma" and my friends and the silence I have known in my life. I bless All My Relatives who have spoken to me in a good way.
I am Lati.
Native Son
10-13-02
Kinsley Kansas
I am a white man because of the color of my skin, because of my family and our lineage and because of our language which I have learned, spoken and continue to create. Our culture now reaches out to create in our image a new world
culture.
Throughout time, my time, my family, forefathers were all raised in the ways of the culture.It is not I would like to think anyone's fault.... It is as we were raised.
It is what we know as a culture, men women, children. It is the knowledge and ways of our ancestors...We are a lost culture and we are afraid and in our fear we seek to destroy ourselves our children and our home. Mother Earth.
Fear.. because we are ignorant, small and single minded... Our shame.... we are without heart... without spirit.
We are becoming a world culture who is creating our language which continues to bury our children and our elders
without dignity... without honor. For our people I mourn... For we are truly a lost people.
I am a Native Son because beneath my skin like all brothers, sisters I am.... we are red, we are one.. all things all my relatives. With all my relatives I sing a mourning song for that which world culture is destroying without regard because of greed and oneness.... of self.
I turn my back to these things now... these ways, this culture... that which the our culture says is good and proper... further they say they are right because their god and religion justify their cause and actions to all others on this planet... this world. There is only one "God" and he/she is within us all. There is no separation from self just as there is no separation from "God"
I am a Native Son and I turn now to face the center with my all my relatives and embrace my true family.... for it is here within the center I must be to truly know our hearts as one... all my relatives.
You might ask how it is I come to this place, this heart, this knowledge of the Great Mystery ? It is quite simple. I have journeyed far and long... a life time... far from the culture you create and your ways. It was a hard journey and long fighting the battles of the soul.
It was a journey I took into the wilderness alone. I was alone with my heart. With this knowledge I have been taught and have learned. Within moments of my arriving I knew something was desperately wrong. I knew I must fight the sacred fight. The battle of self for I could no longer lie to myself, cheat myself or surely I would die and within moments if not within days or weeks.
I knew at once I must forget that which I had been taught by many in my life. Forget the language of the elders I knew for they were not wise and or honest in their teachings of the proper way to be.
Alone. I began the struggle. The fight. I survived the moments, the days, the weeks and as time grew long and turned into years I found myself one day surrounded by all my relatives. They came to me and spoke. I was astonished for I thought they could not speak. They were all there. The four legged, the winged ones, the swimmers and the crawlers. The green, the waters in the forms of rivers, streams, lakes and the ocean. The old ones the rocks and mountains. Mother Earth and Father Sky, The Four Winds and Directions and I found myself within the Great Mystery and I was humbled. I am humble and therefore I listened with patience. I knew I must be quiet so that I could hear and truly understand their language.
They took me to a place deeper within the wilderness far from everything I thought I knew. As we walked in silence the gathering grew and grew and the forest became deep and dark. It was a place where everything was wet and cool and as I walked I became as clean and as pure as the land upon which my bare feet now walked.
All at once the darkness within my soul and the forest opened up and the sun shined in with a brilliance and warmth I will never forget. There we all there with me. All my relatives. We spent the day in preparation for the night to come. The meeting of the council the furthering of my teaching and the knowing of my life.
I was given a name at birth (Lynn) I was given a name by my friends the Owl and Bear (Lati). Now I would come to know my name and my true self as one. Tonight I would for the first time speak my name with courage. I am Lynn/Lati. Hear my name as I speak so that you may also know my name.
I come to you now and in a humble way to tell you my story. To tell you the story of who you are and the story of the world culture we have become. Some of you know your names and speak them clearly and in a good and proper way. Be sure I hear you now as I have always heard you.
Others speak, but they do not know their name and their voice is weak for they are dying. We must answer their calls, answer their cries. For some it will be to late and they will pass on. For the children we must move with great swiftness or they will be lost also as will we all.
I return now to my story... the meeting of the council with All My Realitives They told me of these things I have now told you and they gave me a knife and told me what I must do......
With my knife to the flame I made it pure within the fire. I smudged myself within the sacred smoke of cedar, sage and sweetgrass and sat within the council with my relatives the eagle, bear, elk and raven... I sat quite without a word and listened to the council speak. They told me I am a Native Son and called me to join them in a fight. The sacred fight with all my relatives. The bear spoke to me as he smudged me within the sacred smoke.... As I listened to his wisdom I pulled my blade from the fire and with the blessings of the counsel I go fourth now to do battle with a world culture and their ways.... to fight for the children and the old ones... to protect them from a world culture who have adopted these ways, these teachings, this language and black hearts.
I now sing a warriors song given to me by the bear. Hear me as I growl. Feel my mother earth move as I walk in your direction. Towards you.
The choice is yours as you gave us the choice. Adopt the ways of the earth people or be abandoned and or pushed onto the small reservations you the world culture call our homes.
On the path of war I will wield my blade. Cutting out your tongue so you can no longer speak your language of lies. I will cut off your hands so you can no longer write your words that hold no truth. I will cut out your hearts for as your words and writing they have no honor and no meaning for my people of the earth for all my relatives.
I am not your son, not your brother. I am Lynn/Lati my mothers son. I abandon your world culture to suffer as we have suffered and perhaps to die as you have left countless of my family to suffer or die without honor, without dignity.
As I come to you with my blade drawn. Know that I offer life as well as death. Death without dignity or honor. Life with dignity and honor for all life that is sacred.
The struggle. This fight will be long. Has been long. The battles will be bloody. Have been bloody but we will succeed in our ways, for there is no other way. You will surely kill us all with your ways. So we choose to fight for life. For all life as we the Native Sons are strong within spirit. Strong within all our relations.
This battle may last a thousand years perhaps more, but of this be sure. We shall win and we shall win without your knowing for you are ignorant and savage in your ways and wil
How do I know these things you might ask ?
The reasons are so simple and right under your noses. So close you choose to be blind. Look around you. Your creations even now are crumbling into dust. Returning moment by moment to mother earth from where you came, from which all things were born.
I suggest you run as fast as you can. Leave your cities, your creations, your guns, your violence, your greed, your selfish ways, your teachings, your "Gods which you have made and which justify your struggle"
Take with you your families, friends and neighbors and return to the wilderness to wait by the fire. To wait by the river. To be in the quiet and listen to the council with your souls and hearts open.
I will return with the other Native Sons one day when the battle is done to see what you have learned. To see what your hearts have become and how you have taught and raised our children.
Together we will smoke the pipe, feast and dance the dance of one nation within the circle of life, within the Great Mystery. We shall beat our drums and bang our rattles and blow on the whistle of the Eagle and we shall honor the council, the elders and the children.
We shall then send our children back into the world for they will have the knowledge of the forgotten. The will know the proper way to be. They will know the songs and how to dance. They will know how to live properly within the circle of life.
As for the Native Sons. Here we shall remain. In the wilderness to honor and take care of the elderly who we have shamed and forgotten. In a humble way we will take care of them without a word for we have no right to speak. We shall listen to the elders take the time to understand all that we never had the patience or will to learn all that has been gained in our absence.
We shall learn their language, songs and dance in humble way as we tend to their needs and the needs of the council. The council will also speak and we will listen. Listen to the Four Legged, the Crawlers, Swimmers and Winged Ones. We shall listen to the Thunder Beings and to the Four Winds and to the teaching of the Directions. We shall listen and learn without a word to the Green, to Father Sky and Mother Earth. We will listen to the old ones the Rock and the Mountains for they have had the most patience of all.
Once we have heard their language and know it in our hearts, our souls and when we have become old and wise within the ways of the earth people. Then and only then will our children return.
It will be our time to rest. To be taken care of and respected. By our children. It will be our time to join the council. To take our place as the elders must. It will our time to teach our children. It will be our time to smile for we will know that we have finally come full circle within the circle of life. As we have for the first time in many generations honored ourselves, the red road , our Mother, our Father and All our Relatives. For the first time we have honored our children because we choose fight and won the battle.
Because we have fought and because we have knowledge of the struggle and have overcome ourselves and have become as one within all things. We will teach our children the songs, and the dances of life. Of the sacred life so that they will not forget what we have sacrificed in this battle. Our very souls.
Then at last when we have done our duty in our humble way. We shall return to the fire and return our blades to the council. The war is over and we shall rest for the remainder of our days in comfort till our Mother and our Father takes us home.
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This story was born out of a dream in which my daughter Makai and her drum were sought out by the people of this world culture. The people who believe in this world culture of destruction, of lies, of selfishness and disregard for all sacred life. They came to chase her down. To destroy her drum, he heart, and her life because she stands against these ways of this world culture with the Native Sons.
In her wisdom she ran to the wilderness and sought shelter and safety within the comfort a of the council within the comfort of the deep woods. From this place she called my name and crying out that I might hear her and respond. I heard her terror, her heart pleading that these people this world culture and these ways must be stopped. Her life and so many others must be saved. She cried out to me her death song and I heard her plea to live. I heard all of the children cry.
I am a Native Son, as are you all. We are the only ones who can take up this fight. Please lend me your soul, lend me your heart and together we shall move forward to do what we must. To do what our children are crying out for us to do.
Save ourselves from ourselves before it's to late. Before we can no longer stand within the council of All of Our Relatives. Our heads hung in disgrace and as we tell them we have failed.
Bless us All My Relatives as we as I begin the struggle now. Do not give in my Native Brothers we have much to gain. Our honor, our hearts and the praise of our children and of our Mother, our Father, of all life within the circle. All Our Relatives
If we fail. We shall never know it because of our ignorance and we will die alone hearing our children cry.
Lynn/Lati
I ask you now. Go into the wilderness if only for a few days. And when you return... Let me know who you have become. I will be waiting to hear your name as you speak.
I leave now for the wilderness.... for ten days. To know the direction I will take upon my return. I hope we will walk together and in a hubble way with All Our Relatives and our Relationships as one.
Lynn/Lati
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