“When I deeply contemplate the transient nature of human life, I realize that, from beginning to end, life is impermanent like an illusion….how fleeting is a lifetime.
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Leilani Hino and June Tanoue
One of my practices is bearing witness – not turning away and it’s not easy. Even bearing witness or deeply listening to my own feelings is hard. But hard doesn’t mean impossible. It’s an important practice and I do the best I can.
Recently I attended a traditional Buddhist memorial service on zoom held at Honokaa Hongwanji near my hometown for Leilani Hino. Rev. Yamagishi, the minister, chanted the sutras while families and friends offered incense.
They all sang a Japanese acapella song that was heartfelt and beautiful. Toward the end of the minister’s reciting of White Ashes, a gentle rain started up here in Oak Park, raindrops rapping at my window pane ever so lightly.
Leilani was no ordinary person. Her son Moki, who serves as an Episcopal priest in Wailuku, Maui, gave a beautiful eulogy about her. I didn’t know that she piloted a Cessna airplane, parachuted out of planes, and loved riding dirt bikes at full speed sailing over obstacles.
What I did know of Leilani was that she was a real person, down to earth, a good sense of humor and full of generous aloha. Seven years ago, four of us went to her home in Ahualoa to pick flowers and ferns from her garden to make leis for my kumu’s 30th anniversary performance of his Halau Hula Ka No’eau. She was happy to see me; meet my hula students; and share her wild, bountiful garden.
Lately, I’ve been being gentle with myself, resting when I need to rest, and going a little slower since returning home from the 2022 Native American Bearing Witness Retreat organized by Zen Peacemakers.
The genocide experienced by Native Americans started long ago. I learned the history of it when I met Steven Newcomb, a Shawnee/Lenape scholar, seven years ago at the first Native American Bearing Witness Retreat. He did thirty years of research and uncovered the Roman Catholic Papal Bull on the Doctrine of Discovery, which he calls the Doctrine of Domination.
Papal bulls were edicts issued by the Catholic Church in the 15th century to empower Portugal and Spain to colonize, plunder and enslave non-Christian West Africa and the Americas. Other colonial powers soon followed suit, and the doctrine became the basis for slavery and European claims over Indigenous land and people. Thus began the genocide of Native Americans.
It was difficult to listen and bear witness to Manny Iron Hawk tell of the massacre of his relatives and people at Wounded Knee. Generational trauma of violence runs deep. We can see the effects of that genocide and loss of culture at Pine Ridge: high addiction rates of alcohol and meth; physical and sexual abuse; and suicides. Violet Catches said they never had such things when their culture was strong and intact.
I cannot imagine what it’s like to lose families and friends in a massacre, something that happened to Native Americans when European Christians came to settle this land. I do know I miss my friend and family members who died natural deaths. What about family members of those who died violently during the massacre or in mass shootings that are becoming commonplace in America?
How do we live with pain and suffering? How do we turn loss around? Can we bear witness to it? Life is short. Ho’olohe - listen deeply. If you can really listen, know that it is love manifesting.
Malama pono (take good care of body, mind and heart),
June Kaililani Ryushin Tanoue
Sensei/Kumu Hula
P.S. Your donations all month will go to the Zen Peacemakers for future Native American Bearing Witness Retreats. Please give through the Donate Button below.
P.P.S. Here's the Sunday Morning Zen talk about the Bearing Witness Retreat that four of us gave on 7/31/22. https://youtu.be/FfX1x86wH5k
P.P.P.S. Enjoy my Bearing Witness Slide Show with music: Meditation by Nawang Khechog with Carlos Nakai and Make Strong by Hawane Rios.https://youtu.be/klfdKPfYfAY
Wendell Yellow Bull and Ben Powers
2022 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Retreat, Spearfish Canyon, South Dakota
At breakfast one morning during the retreat, my husband and I were sitting with Joe and Ben Powers. At twelve, Ben was the youngest at the retreat and happy to be there with his father Joe.
Wendell joined us, sat down, and quietly gave Ben a little present.
“What is it?” Ben asked as he opened the small buckskin pouch and took out a piece of deer antler. Wendell took the antler, put it to his mouth and blew a loud sharp sound that pierced the restaurant! It was a whistle and sounded like an eagle’s cry. Everyone looked up from their breakfasts with wide eyes. Wendell smiled and gave it back to Ben. Ben was touched and amazed that it was for him.
In an earlier meeting with Ben, Wendell shared his dream that President Biden would visit the Lakota Nation and be presented with the canupa during a sacred pipe ceremony. Ben followed up after the retreat sending a letter to President Biden inviting him to the Lakota Nation for the ceremony.
Wendell Yellow Bull told us this about his life:
My name is Wendell W Yellow Bull, member of the Oglala Lakota Tribe and lived for fifty seven winters on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located in the south-west part of the state of South Dakota. I served in the United States Marine Corp for four winters. I have been alive for sixty-one winters.
My family lived on my Grandmother’s land allotment, for generations. My grandmother Nancy Red Cloud/Horn Cloud's allotment is part of The Red Cloud Community. Her father is Chief Charles Red Cloud, son of Chief Jack Red Cloud. Chief Jack Red Cloud is the eldest son of the historical Chief Red Cloud.
My grandfather William Horn Cloud, is the son of Joseph Horn Cloud and Millie Beautiful Bald Eagle. William Horn Cloud was a Lakota singer who recorded his songs with the record label “Canyon Records.” His father Joseph Horn Cloud was a Wounded Knee Massacre survivor. He erected a stone headstone for those who were killed at this killing field. It has stood as a symbol since 1917.
My mother was an LPN nurse who worked for the United States Indian Health Services for 38 years. She was a single parent who raised five children. My father Wendell Albert was a police officer who died from suicide.
After my enlistment was up in the United States Marines, I too have served in Tribal Law Enforcement Program for Ten Winters. I also served in Emergency Medical Service as an EMT for seven years. I’m presently working on development of a structural Fire Department on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
June Tanoue: What does it mean to be a cannupa yuha wicasa - a sacred Pipe Keeper?
Wendell Yellow Bull: The sacred Cannupa known as the 1868 Treaty Pipe is a symbol of the peace agreement between two sovereign nations. The symbol of the 1868 Treaty Pipe has more meaning. It is tied into our belief system that when used as a spiritual bond and when broken by one of the parties there will be serious spiritual retribution.
Red Cloud upheld his agreement and didn’t participate in any battles. To this day, that spiritual bond is in place from generation to generation. As a sacred object, the Cannupa has been passed from one generation to the next; second generation Chief Jack Red Cloud; third generation Chief Charles Red Cloud; fourth generation Nancy Red Cloud/Horn Cloud; fifth generation Millie Horn Cloud; sixth generation Wendell W Yellow Bull. It is a commitment for life.
Live with prayer, to conduct oneself to seek knowledge, to live a good life, be kind, don’t become materialistic, do your best to help. Keep your mind healthy – no usage of any mind-altering substances. Learn to come to terms with your own emotions. But for the most; every human being does follow this daily. So it is nothing new. Because it is an ICON (a person or thing regarded or as worthy of veneration) for the Oglalas, one must be aware of oneself daily.
Abraxas by Robert Joshin Althouse althouseart.com