fubar user: ~ Huggiefux ~ Greeter @ Indian Outlaw Saloon (112596)

Take whatever you so desire and just leave my humanity shredded on the floor when you go.......

WE STAND BEFORE THE BANNER OF OUR PEOPLE
SO THAT OUR PEOPLE MAY LIVE

Ideals are like stars � you will not succeed in touching them with your hands � But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters � you choose them as your guides � and following them you will reach your destiny�

Morning and Evening Prayer
Each morning upon rising and each evening before sleeping give thanks for the life within us; for all life; for the good things the Creator has given to us; and for the Opportunity to grow a little more each Day. Consider our thoughts and actions of the past day and seek for the Courage and Strength to be a better person; seek for the things that will benefit others. If you see no reason for giving thanks the fault lives in yourself. This is my prayer hear me....

Great Spirit, the winds may blow strong in my face, yet I will go forward until I have finished what I have begun. Hear me when I speak to you, and take it to heart, for you may always depend that what I say shall be true. Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. Help us to find the way to restore humanity. It is not necessary for crows to be eagles....

Be very careful what you ask. The answer you receive may not be what you like but my answer will be accurate because I can read you like a 10 cent comic book........

Come and sit I am sure you are curious ---

I shall do my best to tell you what I can, some things I know not, and others I am unable to tell you.

Much has changed. Long silent Voices murmur secrets from the depths of veiled pools. There are strange whispers on the Winds. Many who have lingered in Shadows now come forward. Most will return to a sleep of forgetfulness. In this my Sanctuary are many threads drawn through one tapestry. It is for each to discover the thread that is held.

As you step into my Ancient Realm of Mysteries I ask why are you come unto me?

You are come seeking and now you have found. Some are come seeking Wisdom but even the Wisest cannot say if you will find it for Wisdom is a gift from and to the Self. Others enter only as a quest of curiosity and will find no answers.

I belong to an ancient, idle, wild and useless tribe. We are the Ancient Ones --- the representation of the growth of wisdom. We are the Hidden Children --- the wanderers
of Earth.

Perhaps I am even one of the last members of this tribe who for thousands of years has, now and again visited for a time among the honest people in real life. The power of lineage is not in age, but ancestry. We are all the ancestors and inheritors, carrying forth wisdom.

I require no sustenance of companionship � I create my own. My world is based on a vivid imagination that runs freely through the fields of your mind. I collect cobwebs and spend them into strands of gold and silver. Each strand represents a word, a sentence, a phrase, or a mere passage.

You invite me into your life and I come round to savor a few moments in your world but I dare not linger for fear that you will see thru my heavy veils. My finely spun collection of cobwebs will transform you into an imaginary traveler.

I will provide you with the illusion of traveling to faraway places and of adventures beyond your wildest imagination. I will show you sights that you thought only possible in dreams --- feel the sandy heat of ancient deserts --- walk thru fields of goldenrods --- linger at pristine waterfalls. All the while remember if you do not find what you seek from within yourself you will never find it from without the Self.

I am the Historian and Keeper of many legends, myths, and mystical impossibilities. My library is most extensive. It is filled with thousands of musty, dusty stories waiting to be taken off a shelf and unfolded before an imaginative audience.

I am a weaver of deception ....A tailor capable of only the finest veils �.I am a Shaman of my people ....A storyteller ....I am a writer

You may continue to wander about my realm and discover new things. If you look closely you may find tomes of written lore here. I am unable to remember where I put them but I am sure you will find them. They shall define terms and tell you things that I have not. If you look too closely you will see nothing at all.

I know not how the truth may be so I give you the tale as �twas told to me.�

The beliefs and traditions of our people have been passed down to each generation in an art form of historians called legend tellers.

Those who hold to the traditional Cherokee ways practice a spiritual way of life which follows the teachings of the Ancient Ones. These teachings are meant to stimulate the intellect and to promote a simple, practical way of life. One�s ultimate goal is to achieve inner balance with nature and all the elements. The ability to be attuned to nature offers a serene way of life where all persons live in harmony.

We hold true to the concept of spirituality, but we do not place our faith in man. We place our faith in the true power of the Great Spirit, not some religion created out of human stupidity. We hold our strong spirituality with an open-minded Socratic approach as to never let our human fallibility corrupt the spirit.

The Way of the Circle has been passed down from each generation and has always been represented in the Cherokee legends and other forms of teaching.

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there.

And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth,--you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

With tears running down his cheeks, the old man raised his voice to a thin high wail, and chanted: "In sorrow I am sending a feeble voice, O Six Powers of the World. Hear me in my sorrow, for I may never call again. O make my people live!"

It was a beautiful dream. ~Black Elk~

"Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is"

We are now about to take our leave and kind farewell to
our native land, the country the Great Spirit gave our
Fathers. We are on the eve of leaving that country that
gave us birth, it is with sorrow we are forced by the
white man to quit the scenes of our childhood...we bid
farewell to it and all we hold dear...
~Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief
speaking of The Trail of Tears, Nov. 4, 1838~