Publisher's Synopsis
He was a cowboy and an Indian. He was the man I called Dad. He taught me the native ways, the ways of the Native Americans. Of the many things he did, his most favorite of all was being adopted into the Teja Nation, and becoming a medicine man. As a medicine man, he acted as a Native American Priest. He spoke to me about the many weddings and funerals he presided over, each showing the cycle of life explored in his book Circle of One. He was once actually flown to Manhattan NYC to perform a wedding on 5th Avenue. I recall how he explained the native wedding process. He would carry a tong carrying some ashes. The tong is called a smudge stick, and was about 24 inches long, white handle; at the end was a ball of smoke and ash. He would swing the ball before the spouses, placing the ash and smoke on their clothes. The wedding smudging. After the first smudge he said: Lets give honor to all of nature, and remember we are part of nature with all other living creatures. Lets give honor to them now. He would swing the ball before them, ash would cover them. He said: "Turn to the east, and honor the living beings waking up as the sun rises." They would turn to the east, and he would smudge them with the ash tong, ash coming on the nice wedding clothes. They would honor the living beings waking up as the sun rose in the east. "Turn again to the south, and honor the animals and beings of the desert." And they would turn to the south, and give honor to the many living beings of the desert. Turn again to the west, and give honor to animals fish birds that make their life around or in the oceans." And the about to be married spouses turn again to the west, and give honor to the sea creatures. "And turn again to north, where we began, and give honor to the many animals and creatures that live during the night." And they would turn again to give honor to the many nocturnal beings. In this marriage circle the spouses would come to understand their own role in this cycle of life, of all beings, east south west and north. Circle of One is similar to the Christian concept of ashes to ashes dust to dust. Native Americans see a circle of life coming from the ground up, into the sky, living, and then dying, and returning to the ground. This is a circle we all make, up and down, from ground to sky, from sky to ground. How we go and where we go is so often different from how we might expect to go. The hard road is called The Red Road, the road Standing Bear traveled. His was a journey in two worlds, a white world of being a U.S.. Marine, a rodeo cowboy, a husband and head of family, a professional educator and school founder/administrator. In his native side he was a natural hunter on land air and sea, high up and deep down, early in the morning even SCUBA at night; he was a desert survival expert with tours leading many bewildered Europeans to the secrets of the Arizona desert; he became a member of the Teja Nation, where he became a priest with the name Standing Bear. He told me the story of his Dad, who was half Native American from Dover, Ohio. The other half was German. Due to discrimination practices during turn of the century USA, Grandpa Hoopie hid his native side. He could easily pass as a white man. Later, on his death bed, he told his son, "I never fought the bear." Native Americans see the fight with the bear as the point of life where you face your deepest fears. After his father passed, Standing Bear made his trip to Alaska for a Grizzly Bear hunt. The State of Alaska grants hunting permits to provide biological thinning they feel is necessary for the specie. The Grizzly's would probably disagree. In a hunt described in this book, John got a Grizzly. He was field dressing her, and oops up came another standing Grizzly. He shot the standing bear with his pistol, a 357 magnum. It dropped the bear. He dedicated the standing bear to his Dad, and later adopted the native name Standing Bear.
