Hands of the Spirits

Among Iroquois medicine societies of present-day central and upstate New York, rattles are often described as hands of the spirit beings. The sounds emanating from the shaking of a rattle during a ceremony serve as a primary means of communicating with the spirit world. Rattles are ritually used to invoke the assistance of power animals and helping spirits. The shaman's rattle draws the spirit world and its inhabitants into the material world. The shaman thus embodies the helping spirits to perform shamanic tasks. Healing energy can be mentally transmitted through the rattle and out into the environment or into a patient's body. Prayer and intention can be broadcast to the spirit world. Moreover, sacred space can be created by describing a circle with the rattle while shaking it.

According to the Iroquois or "people of the longhouse," the gourd rattle is the sound of Creation. The Iroquoian creation stories tell of the first sound, a shimmering sound, which went out in all directions; this was the sound of "the Creator's thoughts." The seeds of the gourd rattle embody the voice of the Creator, since they are the source of newly created life. The seeds within the rattle scatter the illusions of the conscious mind, planting seeds of pure and clear mind.

The turtle rattle is central to Iroquois tradition, beliefs and ways of life. The Iroquois derive their own values from the characteristics of the turtle such as perseverance, longevity and steadfastness. It is said that when the turtle rattle is shaken, "the Earth stops to listen."(1) The turtle rattle is a symbol of the world on the turtle's back, Turtle Island. The Creator is said to have loved snapping turtle best. When Mother Earth hears the sound of the turtle rattle, all of creation awakens and moves to its shaking beat. The crack of a turtle rattle, which shakes the Earth, draws the attention of the spirits at the beginning of a ceremony or meeting. "To Shake the Earth" is a metaphor often used in Iroquoian communities to describe the purpose of the turtle rattle. From a shamanic perspective, caretaking the rattle and playing it properly during ritual fulfills the destiny of the human spirit -- to sustain the order of existence.

1. Visions of Sound: Musical Instruments of First Nations Communities in Northeastern America, By Beverley Diamond, 1994.

Greta Thunberg at Standing Rock

On October 9 Greta Thunberg spoke at the Indigenized Climate Forum in Fort Yates, North Dakota. As you likely know, Thunberg comes from Sweden, where, at 15, she began protesting a lack of climate action in Parliament. From there, she quickly rose to worldwide prominence, organizing school climate strikes, giving a TED Talk, and appearing on the cover of Time magazine. In September Thunberg received an invitation to speak at a UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Since then she has made it a point to travel throughout North America to spread her message.

Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, opened the event with a prayer.

"The old ones tell us through our ceremonies and everyday life we walk with the spirits, and everything has a spirit, we do our ceremonies everyday year round and that's our way of life -- so our prayers and our sacred language is all about the environment," Looking Horse said.

"I am so honored and grateful to be here to visit you in your homelands, to visit Standing Rock, this symbolic place of resistance," Thunberg said. "There was one moment that changed everything. It was a slow process. I started to educate myself about the climate and ecological climate. I just started to understand the urgency. When I understood that, I became furious because I realized that countless people are already suffering and have been for a very long time. These people are being ignored. This is going to affect every one of us in the future, myself included. It is already affecting us in many different ways. I just thought the only right thing to do was to stand back against this and to take a stand and I never regretted doing it."

"It's been very educational I must say, because you get so much experience from meeting all of these different cultures. The basic problem is the same everywhere. It is greed, ignorance, and unawareness -- and basically, nothing is being done to protect our common future. Nothing is being done to save the planet. We as teenagers shouldn't be the ones taking the responsibility, it should be those who are in power... and also it is because you here at Standing Rock, you are on the front line. You are the true warriors. You are the ones standing up for everyone else's future and I have so much respect for you and I am so grateful that you have taken this fight. Just so you know, we look up to you a lot."

Five Native American Artists You Should Know

Just as music plays a vital role in Native American culture, art has a very special place as well. Native American art has developed over centuries, tracing back to cave paintings, stonework and earthenware. Art has been used as a form of expression in the Native American way of life for thousands of years. Most art was created as a symbol, such as a bird, animal or people. Many art objects are basically intended to perform a service -- for example, to act as a container or to provide a means of worship. The materials to make this artwork varied from clay, stone, feathers and fabric. Typically linked to a deep connection with spirituality and Mother Earth, Native American art comes in many different styles and forms to reflect the unique cultures of diverse tribes -- including beadwork, jewelry, weaving, basketry, pottery, carvings, drums, flutes, pipes, dolls and more. Here are five contemporary Native American artists you should know:

1. Wendy Red Star: Of Apsáalooke (Crow) affiliation, Portland-based artist Red Star (born 1981) works in a variety of media. Her art often includes clichéd representations of Native Americans, colonialism, the environment, and her own family. Her humorous approach and use of Native American images from traditional media draw the viewer into her work, while also confronting romanticized representations. She juxtaposes popular depictions of Native Americans with authentic cultural and gender identities. Her work has been described as "funny, brash, and surreal." Red Star produced artwork for the 2019 Art+Feminism Call to Action Art Commission (shown above). "Ashkaamne (matrilineal inheritance)" depicts in black and white the artist and her daughter, Beatrice Red Star Fletcher, reclining in matching striped shirts and blankets, with the words, "Apsáalooke feminist," repeated in the background. Apsáalooke inheritance is based on matrilineal descent, tracing affiliation along the mother-to-daughter line. This image represents a lineage, female empowerment, and the next generation.

2. Frank Buffalo Hyde: Born in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1974, Hyde was raised on his mother's Onondaga reservation and studied at the Santa Fe Art Institute and Institute of American Indian Arts. He belongs to the Onondaga Nation, Beaver Clan, and Nez Perce tribe. Before becoming a visual artist, he played in a rock band and dabbled in writing. Hyde juxtaposes 21st century pop culture images with symbols and themes from his Native American heritage. His vibrant, satirical, graphic paintings seek to dismantle stereotypes of Native American culture and replicate what he refers to as "the collective unconsciousness of the 21st century."

3. Makita Wilbur: Wilbur (born 1984), a visual storyteller from the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington, for the past five years has been traveling and photographing Indian Country in pursuit of one goal: To Change the Way We See Native America. Wilbur began her career in fashion and commercial work in Los Angeles after completing the prestigious Brooks Institute of Photography. Though in high demand professionally, Wilbur realized that she wanted a different path as a photographer: to create portrait art that deeply communicated people's lives and experiences.

4. Teri Greeves: Greeves (born 1970), who grew up on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, is known primarily for her use of traditional Kiowa beading, which she learned from her Kiowa grandmother. Greeves merges her cultural history with both traditional and contemporary clothing items as a commentary on being a Native woman in the modern world. She blends traditional geometric traditional Kiowa styles with figurative elements of the Shoshone, while also commenting on the derivation of American modernist abstraction from traditional Native American designs.

5. Harvey Pratt: Considered one of the leading forensic artists in the United States, Pratt (born 1941) has spent over 50 years in law enforcement, completing thousands of witness description drawings and hundreds of soft tissue reconstructions. Pratt is a Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal member and is recognized as an accomplished master Native American Indian artist. He is a self taught, multi-talented artist involved in many media; oil, acrylic, watercolor, metal, clay and wood. He has won numerous awards and was named the Red Earth 2005 Honored One. Just recently, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian announced that Pratt's Warriors' Circle of Honor was the winning design for the National Native American Veterans Memorial.

Indigenous Youth Excluded from UN Climate Summit

On September 21 the United Nations held its first-ever Youth Climate Summit, but Indigenous youth were excluded from the sessions. They were given their own event, which was poorly attended. Makasa Looking Horse was invited to open the youth summit with a blessing. The 25-year-old leader is Lakota and Mohawk from Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. She is the daughter of Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman pipe.

"I did not come here to play, or this isn't for show," she said, holding the pipe ahead of her prayer.

Looking Horse told youth delegates that the White Buffalo Calf Woman "declared we treat all of creation with respect to honor our mother," adding "she warned my people of the time we are in today, and that she would return to help us as a white buffalo calf."

She said that prophesy has begun. "I will honor her today for asking, honor her today for her blessing to guide us, the seventh generation."

Beyond the blessing, the Indigenous youth felt excluded from the summit and left feeling dejected, they said.

"They need to provide space and get Indigenous people there in those spaces to truly make a difference, I think, because we already have the knowledge, we already know what we're doing. We know what we want," Looking Horse told APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) News.

"There was a disconnect," she said, adding the global youth and Indigenous youth were "both talking about the same thing, and we're in two different rooms. And I think that speaks volumes about how this topic is treated regarding Indigenous people."

Looking Horse said she valued the time she was given to open the youth summit with a blessing, but said knowledge like the teachings of the White Buffalo Calf Woman pipe will not be heard if Indigenous peoples aren't meaningfully included in plans for climate action.

"The message that the White Buffalo Calf Woman gave us was to always work in unity and keep praying together with our bundles, our pipes, because that's the only way that we will get through the tough times that are coming," she said.

Shaman Walking to Moscow to Expel Putin Arrested

According to Amnesty International, a Siberian shaman walking across Russia to Moscow and promising to use his shamanic powers to "purge" President Vladimir Putin in 2021, was abducted by a squad of masked law enforcement officials and held in an undisclosed location. When citizens disagree with their government, there are many ways to voice opposition -- whether it's through protests or voting in an election. Alexander Gabyshev, a shaman from Russia's republic of Sakha in Siberia, was taking a different approach. The shaman left Yakutsk, capital of the vast Sakha Republic, on March 6 this year. The 51-year old ethnic Yakut shaman calls his quest divinely ordained, and insists that Putin is a manifestation of dark forces which must be banished to save Russia from ruin. God had one condition: Gabyshev had to reach Moscow on foot, which would allow him to muster the strength needed for the final showdown.

Gabyshev began his odyssey in March, promising to walk more than 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from his native Yakutia region to the Russian capital. To meet his goal of reaching Moscow by August 2021, Gabyshev walked 20 kilometers each day. With him, he towed an aluminum cart holding all his possessions, including a portable yurt, a stove, clothes and provisions. He stopped in towns and cities along the way, giving sermons and meeting with local opposition activists with the goal of inspiring a nationwide democratic movement. Chronicles of his journey, which take the form of short video addresses from roadside campsites and short exchanges with passing drivers and long-distance truckers, have won Gabyshev a huge following in Russia. As the shaman has gained more sympathizers, he has become something of an opposition politician.

But police in Buryatia said on Thursday they had arrested Gabyshev on a highway in Siberia in connection with an unspecified crime in Yakutia and that they would fly him there. Gabyshev had walked nearly 3,000 kilometers by Thursday. When asked about Gabyshev's arrest, the Kremlin said it was impossible to keep track of all the criminal cases in Russia.

Amnesty International condemned the arrest in eastern Siberia. "The shaman's actions may be eccentric, but the Russian authorities' response is grotesque. Alexander Gabyshev should be free to express his political views and exercise his religion just like anyone else," Amnesty's Russia Director Natalia Zviagina said in a statement.

American Indian Perspectivism

Now that the age during which all human civilization developed is ending, it might be time to pay more attention to the experience of those whose world has already ended: indigenous peoples. Depending on how you count them, there may be up to three hundred million indigenous people still on the planet. Most are survivors of colonialism. The genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas was the beginning of the modern world for Europeans, but the former remain as veritable end of the world experts. Models for restoring our relationship with the Earth exist in the cultures of indigenous peoples, whose values and skills have enabled them to survive centuries of invasion and exploitation.

Establishing a relation to indigenous thought and practice is no simple task. Not only do we have different views, understandings, perceptions and cultures that see the world in different ways, we inhabit very different worlds. American Indian conceptions are grounded in perspectivism, a concept originally coined by the Brazilian anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. Perspectivism, according to Viveiros de Castro, is the philosophical view that there are many different world views depending on an individual's particular perspective. Put another way, every entity views every entity and event from an orientation peculiar to itself. Perspectivism holds that only one spirit exists in everything. It implies that everything is alive, sentient and shares a common spiritual essence.

Perspectivism assumes multinaturalism, which is the polar opposite of our multiculturalism. In multiculturalism, there is only one nature, but there can be many cultures, and it sets about studying, documenting and classifying them. By contrast, in multinaturalism, there is only one culture (spirit/soul) and multiple natures. From an American Indian point of view, there is no singular nature as such because perception is dependent on perspectives (humans perceive nature differently than animals, and animals perceive nature differently than spirits, and so on), yet none of these natures is absolute and they are all just as valid.

Another way to view the difference is to put it like this: Westerners see themselves physically as animals and spiritually different; American Indians see themselves spiritually as animals and physically different. American Indians inhabit a radically different conceptual universe than ours where nature and culture, human and nonhuman, subject and object are conceived in terms that reverse our own. Every entity is conceived as having a soul -- intentionality and conscious perception -- like a human being.  Moreover, all beings perceive themselves as humans and other beings as animals. While viewed by humans as animals, animals and other beings regard themselves (their own species) as human and live in conditions similar to humans; that is, they have a social and cultural life similar to those who inhabit an American Indian village.

Jaguars, for example, are thought to see themselves as humans, to see humans as human prey like deer, and their own food as that of humans. Establishing an authentic relationship with other beings therefore requires adopting their perspectives, as shamans do when they shapeshift into animals. Shamans will shapeshift into an animal so as to see the world through their eyes and to feel what they feel. Shamanism is a practice of defying the limits of human perspective, crossing borders into the social worlds of other species, administering relations between natures. Essentially, the shaman is a diplomat who creates a dialogue with other beings. As Viveiros de Castro puts it, "By seeing nonhuman beings as they see themselves (again as humans), shamans become capable of playing the role of active interlocutors in the trans-specific dialogue and, even more importantly, of returning from their travels to recount them; something the 'laity' can only do with difficulty." (1)

Shapeshifting is more than just transforming into an animal as is often depicted in shamanic accounts and tales. It is the art of shifting our old, entrenched thought patterns and perspectives in order to transform ourselves, both as individuals and communities. The purpose of shapeshifting is to develop new thought and behavior patterns in order to change the world. With all that is happening in the world today, it is good for us to get out of our own comfort zones in order to broaden our perspectives, to learn from and about others, to interact with the world differently, to see it with new eyes. By changing the way we perceive ourselves and the world around us, we shapeshift our reality.

1. Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics (Univocal Publishing, 2014) p. 60.