Wisdomkeepers

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Wisdomkeepers Meetings With Native American Spiritual Elders is the title of a book that appeared in The Earthsong collection in1990. The authors Harvey Arden and Steve Wall brought together the knowledge of the elders of several indigenous peoples of the United States in order to preserve it for future generations. The book was published in 1992 with the title Guardian of the Earth: Encounters with North American Indians, also as a German edition.

the authors

Steve Wall has worked in many countries and for example for the National Geographic magazine of the National Geographic Society photographed. Works by him can be seen not only in the United States, but also in international publications, galleries, museums and collections. He created the photos for this book.

Harvey Arden is a writer who also worked for National Geographic. Several of his articles have been reprinted in Reader's Digest .

content

During their research, the two authors visited 20 Native American Nations over the course of ten years to interview their tribal elders. They received insights into their "[...] innermost thoughts and feelings, their dreams and visions, their remedies and apocalyptic prophecies and, above all, their humanity". The book gives an impression of the spiritual world of thought and the natural world philosophy of the Native American Elders. The photographs underline the powerful words of the so-called Wisdomkeepers, which means guardian of wisdom. The elders share their identity, life, and belief. The chiefs visited include the Seminole leader Buffalo Jim, who tells the story of his people and describes the Everglades as the Garden of Eden. He shows that all wild plants were used as a source for their remedies. Frank Davis (Fancy Warrior), an elder of the Pawnee , compares the path to understanding to a path full of scraps of paper that have to be put together like pieces of a puzzle. Mathew King is a Lakota leader who urgently warns of the consequences of the destruction of Mother Earth. The book should help to preserve the knowledge of the elders and give insights into their thoughts.

The idea for this arose after a request from a Cherokee medicine man , who had asked for the tribal knowledge accumulated over centuries to be documented for future generations.

'The Grandfathers are dying out,' he said, 'and the old way is going with them. Someone has to go out to them, record thier words, take their photographs. Otherwise it will all be lost. '

“'The grandfathers are dying out,' he said, 'and the old way goes by with them. Someone should go out to them, record their words, take pictures of them. Otherwise everything will be forgotten. '"

- Harvey Arden

Other interviewees included Charlie Knight from the Ute tribe , Frank Fools Crow, from the Lakota, Audrey Shenandoah, Louis Farmer, Oren Lyons and Irving Powless (Sr.) from the Onondaga , Corbett Sundown from the Seneca , Harriett Starleaf Gumbs from the Shinnecock , Eddie Benton-Banai from the Ojibway , Vernon Cooper from the Lumbee , Leila Fisher from the Hoh , Tom Porter from the Mohawk , Thomas Banyacya from the Hopi and Leon Shenandoah from the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy .

The book begins with an editor's note from "White Deer of Autumn" and the words of the Peacemaker, one of the founding members of the Iroquois Confederacy:

“Think not forever of yourselves, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground. "

“Do not think of yourself forever, O Chiefs, nor of your own generation. Think of the following generations of your families, think of your grandchildren and those who are still unborn, whose faces will come from the bosom of the earth. "

- Deganawidah : The Great Peacemaker, founder of the Iroquois Confederacy

expenditure

  • Harvey Arden, Steve Wall: Wisdomkeepers. Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders . Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., Hillsboro, OR. 1990, ISBN 0-941831-66-3 (English).
  • Steve Wall, Harvey Arden: Guardians of the Earth. Encounters with Indians from North America . Ed .: Monika Thaler. Frederking and Thaler, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-89405-307-0 (English: Wisdomkeepers. Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders . Translated by Ursula Wolf).
  • Harvey Arden, Steve Wall: Wisdomkeepers. meetings with Native American spiritual elders (=  Native America on cassette ). Audio Literature, Berkeley, CA. 1992, ISBN 0-944993-64-8 (English, audio book, 170 min, 2 audio cassettes).
  • Harvey Arden, Steve Wall: Wisdomkeepers. Meetings with Native American spiritual elders . Ed .: White Deer of Autumn. Atria Books / Beyond Words Pub., New York 2006, ISBN 0-941831-55-8 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wisdom Keepers: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders. Barnes & Noble, accessed March 20, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Ute: Medicine Man Charlie Knight. hist-chron.com, accessed March 20, 2017 .
  3. ^ Frank Fools Crow. Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, accessed March 20, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Onondaga clan mother Audrey Shenandoah. manataka.org, accessed March 20, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Eddie Benton Banai, Ojibwe from Wisconsin. In: Native American Stories and Songs. oyate.com, accessed March 20, 2017 .
  6. ↑ David Stout: Leon Shenandoah, 81, Leader Of the Iroquois Confederacy . In: The New York Times . July 23, 1996 ( nytimes.com ).
  7. ^ Anthony Wallace: Death and Rebirth of Seneca . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010, ISBN 978-0-307-76056-2 , p. 42 ( books.google.de ).