Mitakuye Oyasin

Those of you who regularly follow this website know that one of my favorite expressions is “Mitakuye Oyasin.”  I learned it many years ago.  As a Buddhist or Hindu might greet you with “Namaste,” “I salute the God within you,” the Sioux Indian would say, “Mitakuye Oyasin,” which means “We are all family.” As I walk …

The Greatness of a Nation

A few weeks ago as my friend Ch**k was driving down the road chatting with me on his cell phone (VERY safely I must emphasize  [and I have disguised his name so he will not get in trouble for driving and talking at the same time]), he was unable to avoid a small Arizona ground …

The Most Beautiful Story I Have Ever Read

In 2014, I have read three books by Minnesotan Kent Nerburn.  I know him for his stories on Native Americans. Last week as I searched for new books for the bookstore I volunteer at, I found a book written in 1999 by Mr. Nerburn titled Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Living in the …

Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day which was first declared a federal holiday in 1863 in the midst of the War Between the States by President Abraham Lincoln.  It pains me to think that 150 years later, it is more often referred to as the day before black Friday. The year has been a challenging …

Uncivilized

Galena, Alaska sits on the north bank of the Yukon River on the 64th N parallel, just two parallels shy of the Arctic Circle.  Flying out of Galena’s now inactive Air Station in the summer of 1973 in my T-33, I once saw the sun set and rise within a 15-minute stretch.  As I climbed …

Mitakuye Oyasin

Mrs. tVM and I have the granddaughters — 2 and 5 — here this week until Saturday. This afternoon, young Xylia, 5-years-old said, “Dziadek — she calls me ‘Dziadek’ which is Grandfather in Polish — I think there is a hummingbird in the pool.”  Sure enough, the gentle soul floated lifelessly on the surface. I …

Chief Joseph

In 1879, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with President Rutherford B. Hayes and other government leaders to plead his case to return his tribe – displaced from the Northwest to Oklahoma’s Indian Territory – to their original home in Oregon.  Chief Joseph was known as a skilled …