Oct.31st.

Living life under any circumstances is hard. To be successful requires daily practice at being the best you can be.

Big Tree 10/31/2010

Oct.30th.

No going back to what was before, change is part of Great Mystery's creation. However keep the laws, customs and the best for the future. Build on the past instead of blindly following anyone. Create something good for your children and the next seven generations. Live not with the imperfect now, but with your vision of a perfect society. After all what are ideals but a star guiding the way.

Big Tree 10/30/2010

Oct.29th.

Mothers must start demanding better for the next seven generations.

Big Tree 10/29/2010

Oct. 28th.

Creator/Great Mystery serves me well. A calm presence during life's storms. A flash of lightning when I ask for help and above all a all knowing all caring ever changing and ever the same force beyond the ability of any man to understand or know fully.
Big Tree 10/28/2010

Oct.27th.

Do you respect all things and all people if not you live outside of Creators law. If you look down on another life form or another person you stand and accuse self before Creator/Great Mystery.

Big Tree 10/27/2010

Peacemakers

War is the cancer of civilization. It destroys all the good and amplifies the evil. Np wonder the powers that be have to kill the peacemakers such as Jesus or Gandhi or Martin Luther King then cover up the murder in some fashion.


Robert N. Smith USN RET & Peacemaker

Oct. 25th.

I have noticed the loud, long and bombastic prayers are for public consumption instead of addressed to Creator. The Fearful prayers are by those who don't have a personal connection. Good prayer is simple, honest, decisive in it's outlook and released with a simple thank you.
Big Tree 10/25/2010

Thanksgiving Celebration

On the 6th of November friends from Knoxville, Greene County and other's
expect to come here for a work day. That is fine, however such a
gathering has to have more purpose then just a work day. As many know I
dislike the celebration of the Traditional Thanksgiving because of the
racist and murderous activities of the pilgrims who killed off indians,
hung the chiefs head on their flag pole for fifty years and sold his
family into slavery. Only then did they ever issue a proclamation of
Thanksgiving. Our people on the other hand had as few as four
Thanksgivings a year to as many as twenty depending on the tribe. What
better time to hold a Thanksgiving then when friends gather to help
someone, what better time to hold a Thanksgiving then at the end of a
great growing season? What better time to hold a Thanksgiving with song,
stories and teachings (though we called it a pow wow) then when friends
gather? Thus I ask everyone to bring a covered dish to share, something
that has meaning to give away to glue the happiness for everyone and
their joining together into something more then just another day or just
helping someone out. Let it be a day of shared activity, shared joy and
shared more.

So right now, I will proclaim A Thanksgiving on Refuge on Nov. 6th.
Ask your friends and bring the elders, as well as the young.

Big Tree

Oct. 24th.

Evil comes from withdrawal. Withdrawal leads to fear. Fear comes from self other. instead of self and another. Much that you fear in others is your own refusal to see self in them.

Big Tree 10/247/2010

Oct.23rd.

From my experience on the other side (4 times now) Great Mystery resides within your heart. So you can not be alone. Then when your time is over gently removes your spirt from the shell that you can and do become more.

Big Tree 10/23/2010

Oct. 22nd.

Growth and change are always hard. Ask the butterfly waiting for his wings to dry after struggling out of the caccoon.

Big Tree 10/22/2010

Oct.21st.

Remember their is but one Great Mystery. A force greater and more wise then any of us. It's part of you and part of everyone and everything. Where Great Mystery is not is where you choose.

Big Tree 10/21/10

Pct.19th.

I was taught early on that the teachings are for all. I was taught that when someone came to learn I was to share. I was taught early on that my job was to be a hollow reed. Giving of myself more then anything.

Big Tree 10/19/2010

Oct. 18th.

Our ancestors wisdom was hard won, we have to respect, adapt it and make it work in today's world.

Big Tree 10/18/2010

Oct. 17th.

Only when each of us is worshiping not a human God but a power and intelligence beyond any of us, will we as a species advance. Only when we go within will we grow.

Uncle Gus 1954

Oct. 16th.

I was taught respect the best from every religion and adapt it. Leave the rest of it, because no one people, no one nation and no one religion have all the answers. With practice you can see the influence of man on religion instead of the other way around.

Big Tree 10/16/2010

Oct. 15th. 2010

Like many of the elders taught me growing up, we can't go back. Learn and use the best of every culture, every educational opportunity and every chance to serve whatever community you find yourself in. Honor the elders and the one's who came before but build on what they gave us. The world doesn't stop and change is part of being in the world. Help direct that change for the next seven generations.

Big Tree 10/15/2010

Oct. 13th 2010

Prayer has to incorporate seeing the result in every aspect and the releasing it. You have to see the result, feel it, hear it and know it when you give the prayer. Then just go on with life knowing your prayer is answered even if you have to wait for the physical result. Remember in prayer the result is determined by your blueprint. Creator just fills it.

Big Tree 10/13/2010

Oct.12th.

The mind is a chatterbox and always talking. Connect with the heart and know.

Big Tree 10/12/2010

10/10/2010

Unity is everyone in the family, village, county, state, nation or world working however they may for the good of all. Not for one group, one nation but for all mankind and for all life on including Mother Earth herself

Big Tree 10/10/2010

Oct.3rd.

Do you accept the words of others or do you seek Creator/Great Mystery for yourself. Do you use direct evidence or the teaching of others. we all are part of the whole, go within, go beyond and never allow religion to get in the way of knowing for yourself. That is the message you must take with you. Learn from the best each religion has to offer and go on with life.

A circle of many elders from many tribes in 1953

Oct.1st.

Even bad prophecies and bad visions can become good, that is the reason for the visions to serve as a warning. What will you do with your visions?

From a council of about 28 elders visiting Kinzua in 1953