Minding the Indigenous Mind - Winds at Sundance

Mindful Greetings Friends and Relatives,

In this column I share a personal story about my first trip to a Sun Dance ceremony that was held on Fort Berthold in the summer of 1991 (twenty years ago). I provide a sampling of how the mind and brain were involved in this experience.

June 3, 1991

I awoke this morning to the sounds of rain covers rhythmically slapping the front of my tent. North Dakota is nearly always windy; and when you’re camped on top of a large clay Butte for several days of ceremony, the winds continually remind you that you have entered their world of movement, violence, and calm.

Underneath me the earth is hard and uneven. It has not had a drink in a long time. I open my eyes and my brain waves begin climbing towards a low Beta state as I become conscious of my surroundings. I adjust my body position slightly in my sleeping bag and feel several small pointed rocks imprinting my body, despite the generous thick carpet of buffalo grass underneath the tent. All night my brain rested in a calm theta sleep and I dreamed of the wind. I stare at the side of the tent and watch as the light from the sun grows brighter and brighter. In perfect sync with the brightness of the sun, my brain’s visual cortex, my occipital lobe located in the back of my brain, activates with a harmonic electrical response. It’s as if my brain and the rising Sun have become one.

Outside seagulls dive bomb into the camp at first light and begin fighting over the sacred garbage and used pampers on the ground. I lift my arm out of my sleeping bag and look at my Timex Ironman sports wrist watch. It’s 5:30 a.m. Time to run or meditate.

June 1, 1991

I left Madison, Wisconsin at 3:09 p.m. on Saturday. My three youngest sons, Michael Jr., Peter, and Matthew, and I are going to the Sun Dance that is being held on a Butte overlooking the Missouri river on our reservation, just outside of New Town, North Dakota. My oldest son, Jason, my Adventurer, did not come this time and is hanging with his friend Ethan. Maybe next time.

I have never been to this ceremony and do not know what to expect or if I am prepared for what’s coming. As I experience both excitement and fear, regions in my brain’s deep limbic system activate and then calm. As we drive west on Interstate highway 94 from Madison, the loud, constant vibrating, clunking sounds from somewhere underneath our 1985 mini-van unnerves my sons and me. I experience bouts of anxiety knowing we could breakdown long before we reach our destination.

As we rattle along, Peter, asks, “Do you think we’ll make it Dad?” Matt, my Philosopher, looks up quickly from his theories of human nature book to gauge the expression on my face as I respond. Michael, my Warrior, quickly intervenes in the conversation to avoid having it get out control. He responds by saying, “Man, Peter. You worry too much. Dad’s got it under control!” I smile and look at Peter and say, “No Buddy. We’ll make it. We’re doing something holy.”
He smiles and looks away. Still, after having paid a few hundred bucks to the Firestone automotive shop, earlier that day, to get us road worthy for this trip I am hoping that all will go well.

The sounds of vibration are soon overridden by the myriad of questions from the boys about the Sun Dance, the reservation, our relatives, and where a good place will be to take our first break. Our active conversation has boosted our brain waves to a mid-high Beta range as we listen and respond energetically to all that is being said. We have a couple of loaves of sliced white bread, two packages of the good kind of baloney, a couple boxes of ding dongs, a big bag of barbeque chips, two six-packs generic soda, a gallon of water, and a thermos of coffee: road food fit for a Chief!

Our first break comes not long after the boys finish their first can of soda. I pull over and get out and stretch as they hustle out of the van into the restroom to flush their small, soda-pop sugar coated kidneys. As we drive off I notice how the dome of the sky, the green trees and grasses, and the interspersed browns in the toiled earth shimmer beautifully in the setting sun.

At 7:00 p.m. we cross the line between Wisconsin and Minnesota which brings cheers from the boys who excitedly look to see if they can determine any subtle differences in the landscape.
After a stop in Rogers, Minnesota, about 40 miles north of Minneapolis, we cruise nonstop into Fargo, arriving at 11:30 p.m. The boys are sleeping and I glance at them and smile, wondering what they may be dreaming about. I watch several cars speed by us as we pass through Fargo; I wonder if any of these folks are headed to our Sun Dance destination.

Midway between Fargo and Bismarck I am drawn from the darkness of the road to the flashes of lightning in the dark heavy clouds in front of us. I’ve always loved lightning at night. One of my nieces, when she was a little girl, used to tell me that the lightening was caused by God lighting matches in heaven. I would tell her that, “God is too old to mess around with matches. I think it’s probably some naughty Angel kids trying to start a fire. When they play with matches they pee in their beds up in heaven.” With a puzzled but serious look on her face she would ask, “is that where rain comes from?”

June 2, 1991

Nearly three hours later we arrive in Bismarck. It’s early Sunday morning. I exit onto highway 83 north towards home. The shift in speed wakes Peter, my Sensitive one. He climbs upfront and asks where we are. "Buckle your seatbelt,” I tell him. “Did you have good dreams?” “I was dreaming about being chased by bees,” he replies. It’s time for gas and I turn into a station to fill up, noticing that the sounds of our van’s bumble-bee vibrations are much quieter.

We drive off from the station; another eighty or ninety more miles till White Shield. Peter remains awake watching the road before us. We begin a conversation about the night and the creatures that depend on the dark for life. He tells me about bats, nighthawks, skunks, and deer and their preference and suitability for darkness. I listen intently to his gentle, well-informed descriptions.

All of a sudden our headlights reflect two shining eyes in front of us, at about the height of the windows of our van. Peter sees them first and says, “watch out Dad!” I’m already slowing down, “I see them.” We slow into a calm, quiet rolling stop and stare at the deer as she walks onto the road. She moves to the middle of the highway and pauses. Although, our encounter lasts only seconds we take in the shape of her large beautiful ears as they shift back and forth, listening, trying to determine what or whom is behind the bright, blinding light on her right side. She faces us for a moment and then gracefully turns her long beautiful neck and body away from us and walks elegantly back down into the ditch.

At 3:35 a.m. we turn off highway 83 and head west on highway 23, the old Lewis and Clark trail road. We are about 30 miles from home. At 4:07 a.m. we cross the line that separates the State of North Dakota from our reservation and turn right onto the dusty gravel road going north to my mom and dad’s place, which is about a mile away from the paved highway. There are several cars in the yard, no dogs barking, and no lights on in the yard or the house.

I pull over the car, park, and turn off the motor. I get out and walk up to the door and turn the doorknob, which is locked. I turn around and return to the car, deciding not to disturb whoever is home. I tell Peter that we will sleep in the car for a few hours and then head inside when it gets light outside. We settle back and I drift between awareness and sleep as Peter pulls guard duty.

June 3, 1991

I sit up in my sleeping bag and zip it open as I listen to the seagulls crying and the rain covers gently tapping outside. The boys are asleep. I can feel the heat of the summer morning building as I slip on my running shoes, tee shirt, and shorts. I brush the bits of grass out of my hair and put it in a ponytail. I fold my red bandana into a headband and wrap it on. I set the timer on my watch and zip open the front of the tent and step out. I stretch lightly and begin running to the North East, the semi-cardinal direction of the winds and all life in the air. As I pick up speed my body relaxes into my run; the wind greets me. I begin my prayer: “Winds be with me. Carry me. Protect me. Winds bless us all.” My right temporal brain lobe (the God spot in my brain) begins to activate.

Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, Ph.D., is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes and a professor and the director of graduate education in the Department of Social Work at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His teaching, writing, research, and community work focuses on social work with Indigenous Peoples, neurodecolonization, neuroscience and social work, and employing mainstream and traditional Indigenous mindfulness practices in tribal communities to promote health and well being. He can be reached by email at: mjy9@humboldt.edu

Minding the Indigenous Mind - Brain Spirits

Mindful greetings friends and relatives,

In this entry I share a short personal narrative called, “Brain Spirits,” that I wrote some time ago that features some fiction and real life experiences. I’ve added material that shows how the mind and brain are involved in the story. I hope you enjoy it.

Brain Spirits

As a teenager I often felt compelling urges to isolate myself so I could deeply contemplate the world, the cosmos, and the varied challenges that life and death presented before me. My meditation of choice was a journey through the rolling hills, lonely buttes, and lush valleys in our part of the reservation. In seeking my place of solitude and insight, I would mindfully move through these landscapes, sitting down from time to time, immersing myself in the sounds, smells, and sights to find an acceptable pitch of spiritual resonation.

As I soaked in the sensations of each place, I imagined who or what had been there before me or what or who was there now, that I was not aware of. I closed my eyes and allowed the sun and wind to touch my face. My mind and body relaxed, enjoying these sensations, and my reward-seeking dopamine (brain neurotransmitter) levels began a steady unimpeded rise. The right side of my brain, the creative side, opened up and my imagination became a conduit for communicating with those spirits that had passed this way long, long ago. Entelechy (perfect realization), however, remained elusive.

On one particular calm summer morning, feeling the call of the wild, I packed for a journey. My pilgrimage was no doubt driven by the late night conversations that I had had with my mother about the direction of my life, the meaning of God, the force of the Devil, and good and evil; nothing too heavy. My mother is such a serene, philosophical spirit that harbors gentle doctrines of truth that she imparts with the love and generosity of a warm, summer rain. Her placid dogma, however, can be overridden by her intuitive intelligence and cognitive flexibility when she is offered meaningful insights.

Following our long talk that evening I went to bed, my brain circuits noisy with the aftermath of our conversation. Through the open window near my bed a gentle breeze entered, bringing the sweet, earthy scent of an approaching summer rainstorm. As I listened to its low rumbles and watched the accompanying flashes of lighting far off in the distance, I begin to feel warm and drowsy. My brain waves soon began descending from the high beta waves I was using to converse with my mother, to a lower relaxed alpha, then to a very relaxed, calm theta, and finally into a deep, cosmic, no dreaming delta sleep.

I was suddenly awakened by a loud crash of thunder. The rain was falling heavy and I could hear the crack of the water as it fell from the roof onto the hard, black earth. The lightning flashed constantly. In my sleepy, dreamy theta state I saw the saintly spirit that visited our house during those nightly, crashing and flashing summer thunderstorms. She floated through the house sprinkling holy water in each room, stopping to whisper a prayer, before moving on.

I awoke the next morning to the smell of coffee brewing and the gentle murmurs of my mom and dad visiting about the day that lay before them. At daybreak my three youngest brothers and sister were still in bed, leaving me the first servings of a breakfast of fried potatoes, deer meat, toast, and canned USDA orange juice. If I ate too much of this feast my little sibs would be forced to savor the taste of hot USDA cornmeal mush with powdered milk, sweetened with white commodity corn syrup; I paced myself taking only a single serving.

As my mother moved away from the stove and sat down at the table to butter more toast, I saw the first streaks of white in her thick, wavy, coal-black hair that was tightly held together underneath a white doo rag style cotton diaper that she wore on her head. Without looking at me she asked me how I slept and if I remembered to say my prayers before going to bed. Between bites and drinks I answered “good” and “yes.” Remembering my dream I said, “Mom. I dreamed about that spirit lady again last night when it was storming out. I could see her moving around the house each time there was a flash of lightning. Before she could respond, my right temporal brain lobe (the God spot in the brain) mildly seizured and found myself sitting on a high hill, at night, watching as lightening cast jagged spears into the horizon and the thunders rumbled toward me from the southwest. I could smell the fragrances of sage, purple cone flower, little blue stem grass, and earth as I sat in my silent world. As my parietal brain lobe quieted down the separation between the plants and I faded. I became the flowers, the stems, the leaves, and fragrances. As I looked about I felt the warm night winds suddenly replaced by a cool airstream as the storm moved closer. A bright flash of lightening suddenly transported me from this place back to the breakfast table.

My Dad looked at me, quietly sipping his coffee; his brain’s mirror neurons were well aware of what had gone on in my mind and that I had visited this place. My mom didn’t notice and continued talking: “it’s good you prayed last night; maybe your prayers helped bring that spirit lady here to help watch over us.” My dad smiled ever so slightly, knowing she was the secret spirit lady. Something caught his hunter’s eye and he looked away from us out the window. My mirror neurons picked up on his shift in emotion and body tension. I followed his gaze just in time to see a large white dog cautiously trotting across the road in front of our house carrying a box of USDA commodity powered milk. My mother who was also watching said, “Now, there’s a good mom; taking extra milk to her babies.” My dad relaxed his gaze, sipped his coffee, and then replied, “Yeah, and it looks like she shops at all the right places.”

The dog slowed and stopped. Looking to the side it suddenly loped over the road out of sight. Moments later car lights appeared, speeding toward our house. It was my older brother coming home after a long night out. We watched as he braked hard and slid in the graveled driveway, creating his own little pig pen cloud of dust. In silence we wondered if he was drunk and incoherently obnoxious or half-shot and full of drunkard jokes.

My mom stood up and tensed like a mother lion watching a cape buffalo. She looked out the window at him for any sign of stumble or weakness. He smoothly exited his car, closed the door, looked up and saw her. He made a funny face, waved and smiled, and then walked up to the front door. Her body relaxed and she smiled saying, “He’s sober. I think.”

As he sat down at the table my mother poured him a cup of coffee and fixed him a plate of food and then asked him where he had been. Before he could answer, she said, “I suppose you were out drinking last night.” She waited for his answer; again watching for any signs of weakness or stumble.

A trickle of blood ran out of the deer meat as my brother cut into it. “I was with Willie and Sam,” he answered. “We were down by the river last night, just talking; they were drinking. I wasn’t. I told them that I quit. I’m giving it up; at least the hard stuff,” he laughed. “Both of them say they’re going to enlist in the army and go to Vietnam. Neither want go to college so they’re pretty sure they’re going to get drafted.”

Now my dad tenses. My mother stares at my brother watching him salt his food. With a faraway look she answers saying, “I hope they don’t go. They’re both their mother’s oldest children. The first born are always the hardest for a mother to let go. They’re the ones that open the way for the other brothers and sisters to come from the spirit world to this world.”

Upon hearing the word spirit, my brother suddenly looked up and said, “Mom. As I was driving up to the house just now I saw a white figure crossing the road. I saw its glowing eyes but couldn’t make out its shape. I thought it was a deer but as I got closer it disappeared. I think it was a spirit.” By now my little sister and three little brothers had entered the room, eyes open wide saying, “We could hear you talking about spirits.” My mom smiled as they sat down at the table. My dad, listening to all of the commotion, took his last drink of coffee, set down his cup, and stood up. He walked to the front door and grabbed his car keys and leather work gloves that were sitting on the TV. As he walked out the door he said, “I’m going to work before you ghost busters have me seeing spirits.”

Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, Ph.D., is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes and a professor and the director of graduate education in the Department of Social Work at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His teaching, writing, research, and community work focuses on social work with Indigenous Peoples, neurodecolonization, neurosci-ence and social work, and employing mainstream and traditional Indigenous mindfulness practices in tribal communities to promote health and well being. He can be reached by email at: mjy9@humboldt.edu

Minding the Indigenous Mind

The Buddha once said, “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much, not even your father or your mother.” Although I dearly love my mother and father, what Buddha said more than 2,500 years ago is correct. In fact, the role that our minds have in our well being has become common knowledge in some branches of present day neuroscience. In my work to improve the health of Indigenous Peoples, I understand the importance of a healthy, well balanced mind and brain, and the activities that are necessary to achieve such a state. I refer to this as minding the Indigenous mind.

Mindful greetings, my relatives, my name is Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Sr. I am an enrolled member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara nations and a professor in the department of social work at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. I am also the director of graduate studies in our department. On my academic side I have a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of North Dakota; a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I was trained in quantitative research methods and have focused on the health of Native peoples for my entire academic career. I am presently living on the territory of the Wiyot peoples in northern California, so I want to respectfully acknowledge them and the fact that I am visitor on their homelands.

I have been invited by the MHA Times to contribute a column that spotlights my academic interests, teaching, writing, experiences, and research. I will be submitting this column every two weeks and I will occasionally have guest columnists. Since this is my introductory column it is longer than the ones I will write in the future. The topics I plan to focus on include health, Mind Body Medicine (MBM), mindfulness, neuroscience, social work, and nutrition. Occasionally, using the lens of neuroscience, I will discuss my views on subjects such as religion, war, politics, oppression, trauma, God, education, music, and contact sports (like boxing, mixed martial arts, and football). I am especially excited to share the research that describes what happens to our brains during and following different experiences (some of it good and some of it not so good). I will also share what I know is being done to help improve the function of the brain. I am hoping the information that I share in my column will be helpful on a practical level. Moreover, I hope it will inspire two things: (1) the implementation of a Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara mind/brain policy to protect and enhance the minds and brains of our people for the purposes of greater well being, creativity and intelligence; and (2) the formal implementation of mindfulness practices in our education, health, and social service systems.

In this piece I want to introduce myself and talk a bit about my interest in Mind Body Medicine, especially how “mindfulness” fits into what is known as “Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). I define these two topics later in this column. I would love to hear from readers about what you are getting out of my column and other topics that you want me cover. You can either contact me through letters to the MHA Times, friend me on Facebook, or email me at mjy9@humboldt.edu.

To begin with, I was raised in White Shield and lived there for most of my early to middle teen years, although I have always made time to come home for regular visits with family and friends. I return once or twice a year, generally during the summer months, although I do come home in January for my mother’s birthday. Like many others who no longer reside at home, I keep up with what is going on through Facebook, online newspapers, various tribal webpages, email, and telephone calls with family and friends.

My parents are Magdalene (Young Bird) Yellow Bird and Willard Yellow Bird, Sr., (deceased). My grandparents on my mother’s side are Benjamin Young Bird and Jessie (Everett) Young Bird (both deceased); on my father’s side are Charles Yellow Bird and Nellie (Red Fox) Yellow Bird (both deceased). I have 15 siblings (four sisters and ten brothers) and I am right smack in the middle of the birth order. I have loads of nephews and nieces and a growing number of grandkids, and many, many Arikara and Hidatsa relatives. I have four grown sons from my first marriage: Jason, Michael Jr., Peter, and Matthew; and two daughters from my second: Arundhati (4 ½ years) and Solana (2 ½ years). My partner is Erin C. Stanley. She is a member of the Quinault nation in Washington State and has a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Washington, but is mostly, by choice, a stay-at-home mom.

My scholarly and community work centers on helping folks understand the connections between the mind and brain and mindfulness (meditation) practices, and how mindfulness can be used to heal mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual traumas, addictions, and disease. I write on this topic, do presentations, and have an active research agenda. I have taught undergraduate and graduate social work and mindfulness classes at my present university. As far my personal health life is concerned, I am a born-again Indigenous person, which means I eat healthy meals, with mostly whole, organic foods, lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, whole raw nuts, and I take probiotics and other key supplements. I refrain from sugar, as well as gluten and dairy, and have a low or no intake of meat; for weeks (sometimes months) at a time I practice a vegan lifestyle. My family also eats this way and we maintain an active lifestyle, swimming, hiking, walking, and playing outside.

Like our ancestors, I strongly endorse the detoxification of the mind, body, and spirit by doing ten day or two week water-only fasts at least twice a year. I practice yoga, tai chi, and walk and run and do weight-bearing exercises every day. I don’t smoke or abuse alcohol. I am certified as an advanced level practitioner of meridian tapping (or what is called emotional freedom technique) and have been practicing mindfulness meditation since the mid 1970s when I was in college. Although our family uses mainstream medicine, we use it sparely and wisely, and it often takes a backseat to our use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. I have many stories about how some main- stream doctors have mindlessly prescribed drugs to my family members when not needed, and how we successfully addressed the condition using complementary medicines and therapies.

At home we engage in formal daily family mindfulness sitting meditation practice. Erin and I sit nearly every morning with our daughters. Our oldest girl, Arundhati (4 ½ years), is becoming very accomplished at meditation and can sit, quietly with her eyes closed, in a semi-lotus position, on her cushion, without distraction, for up to 30 minutes at a time. She has been practicing since she was about a year and a half old. Her little sister Solana, on the other hand, tries but at 2 ½ years she is still a work in progress. We embrace mindfulness meditation for our children and have normalized it as something we regularly do in our home since the research shows it will help them build important neural connections and functions in their developing brains. There is an excellent neuroscience literature that discusses how (helpful) brain circuits are engaged and (unhelpful) ones are quieted down when one practices mindfulness. This literature is referred to as the neurobiology of mindfulness, which roughly means, “This is your brain on mindfulness.” I’ve posted pictures of my daughters meditating on my Facebook and use their experience to discuss why mindfulness practices are important for children.

So what is mindfulness? In short, mindfulness refers to being deeply aware of what is happening from moment to moment outside and inside us without judging or attaching to the content, feelings, and emotions that arise. It refers to living deeply and richly in the present moment and not responding to life in a distracted and mechanical manner. For instance, when we mindfully eat we slow down the pace of our eating and become deeply aware of the taste, texture, smell, and hot or cold sensation of the food, and when we are full. When we mindlessly eat we miss most of these rich experiences with our food; many times we do not taste it and often end up overeating or maybe eating something that is bad for us. After mindless eating we often end up not feeling well. Mindless eating is one of the major reasons why there has been such meteoric rise in food-related obesity, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

Developing mindfulness involves systematic training and practice and is a process that takes place over time. However, it is a journey that is well worth it because when we enter into states of deep mindfulness and awareness our world, experiences, and lives become much richer, less fearful and angry, more vivid, creative, peaceful, and healed. As I’ve said, much of what I do involves teaching about the scientific evidence-base of how and why mindfulness works and its connection to the mind and brain. What is most exciting about this work is that research shows that particular mindfulness practices can significantly help improve a person’s health and well being by reshaping important neural circuits in the brain.

Mindfulness is incorporated under Mind Body Medicine which focuses on the connections between the mind, brain, and body, and behavior, and how this knowledge is used to engage the mind to improve physical functioning and well being. It is important to remember that Mind Body Medicine is a “complementary medicine" that is used together with conventional medicine. For instance, mindfulness meditation (a mind body medicine approach) is being successfully used to help individuals recover from (radiation and chemotherapy) cancer treatments. A number of studies show that mindfulness meditation can greatly reduce the side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and fatigue.

The rise in the use of complementary medicine is almost all patient-driven; and for good reason. Many people choose complementary medicine because it has fewer or no side effects, is safe, and it works. While conventional medicine can be very effective in some circumstances, in others it can be debilitating, dangerous, and even cause death. Conventional medicine is largely about treating symptoms and diseases with drugs, radiation, and surgery. It has little to do with preventing disease, addressing the emotional and spiritual needs of the person, or using mind body approaches for healing. Don’t expect your conventional physician to know much about complementary medicine or take it too seriously. Most, but not all, have been narrowly trained and have very cozy relationships with the pharmaceutical industry, which would prefer we buy and use their drugs instead of our own healing powers to attain better health.

The number of recalls, safety alerts, warnings, and side effects of many of today’s drugs is disturbing to say the least. In fact, in the book, Our Daily Meds, written by Melody Peterson, one study found that 100,000 people die each year from the side effects of the prescription drugs they take. Peterson says that this doesn’t take into account the number of folks who get deathly ill or suffer a disability, or die because the doctor made a mistake and prescribed the wrong drug, or the pharmacist made a mistake in filling the prescription, or the patient accidentally took too much.

Mind Body Medicine (MBM) is one of five systems in what is known as Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM). CAM is recognized and supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is a rapidly expanding field that includes the use of “non-conventional” approaches to aid in the promotion of health and healing of individuals, families, groups, and communities. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine lists five major CAM systems: Whole Medical Systems (Indigenous/ Native American, naturopathic, homeopathic, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Ayurvedic medicine); Mind-Body Medicine (mindfulness, transcendental medita- tion, guided imagery, hypnotherapy, deep breathing, and the relaxation response); Biologically Based Practices (the use of herbs, foods, and supplements); Manipulative and Body-Based practices (osteopathic medicine, physical therapy, and yoga); and Energy Medicine (qi gong, emotional freedom technique, therapeutic touch, and the use of electromagnetic fields).

A national study from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine shows that nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults use some form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine; and that number continues to rise. Although, complementary medicine is marginalized by conventional medicine in the U.S., outside this nation as much as eighty-percent of the world’s population engages in the use of various alternative forms of medicine and healing. It is clearly up us consumers to continue to increase the role that complementary medicine plays in our health care system.

Over the past year I’ve been following the building and completion of the new Three Affiliated Tribes Elbowoods Memorial Health Center. It is impressive and I am grateful to all of those individuals and groups, past and present, who dedicated their energies to making this Center a reality. I believe it would be a wonderful tribute to our ancestors that resided in, and before the time of Elbowoods, to include a Complementary and Alternative Medicine department in the new health center. The Center could develop collaborations with the Fort Berthold Community College and create an academic curriculum for individuals that want to learn how to use or practice one of the many forms of complementary medicine.

When I reflect back on what our ancestors knew about health and healing, I am reminded that they knew much more about alternative therapies then we do today – because they lived them and they were not “alternative,” they were mainstream. Some of the strongest medicines they had included (natural) biologically, mind body, and energy-based approaches.

The Buddha, who was Indigenous, once said that, “What you think you become.” That said, when we deliberately train ourselves to mindfully engage our brains in positive words, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, incredible possibilities perennially bloom in our lives.

I Can't Sleep and Neither Should You

I have a number of unpublished poems, essays, and thoughts regarding the war in Iraq that continues... and continues under American occupation. Following the United States invasion of Iraq, I've been putting together my works in a publication I call "I Can't Sleep and Neither Should You." Here's a poem in this book that I wrote when I was on research leave from my faculty position in the School of Social Work at Arizona State living in Sante Fe, New Mexico in 2003.

JUST WAR?
Whether
there can ever
be such a thing as
a “just war” remains
open to speculation,
debate, and the highest
levels of political and
moral interrogation/
Ever since the human
species could put together
the thoughts or words or
actions to prosecute war
on whatever or whoever
was an obstacle to their
desires or needs, we have
been embroiled in long,
bloody conflicts with one
another/ Despite the spiritual and philosophical rhetoric of religious and intellectual leaders arguing whether such a thing can exist the first-hand accounts of survivors of brutal dictators and democratic regimes teach us lessons about how not to do on to others as was
done onto them/Seamless
doomsday predictions
by ancient and new-age
prophets about spiritual
implosion that war brings,
our species continue to
find divinely-inspired
reasons to continue
murdering, maiming,
torturing, cheating,
pillage, and
manipulating
one another/
So, goes the upcoming U.S.-led war against the
Iraqi Peoples/ “A bunch of tribal peoples,” says NBC news anchor
Tom Brokaw on the David Letterman show/
I pray
for Iraq




michael yellow bird, 15 march 2003, 3:15 a.m. from I can’t sleep and neither should you

Social Work 634 Community Practice: The Mind Is Everything, What You Think You Become

What a delightful and engaging start to our Tuesday and Saturday SW 643 classes. Thanks for your ideas, participation, and SLANT

Neuroplasticity and Community Social Work Practice

At the front end of our class will continue each session with our positive thinking/awareness neuroplasticity exercise. Breathe deeply. Focus. Become aware. Concentrate. Recall.

As you'll recall one of the things I stressed was that becoming an "effective" community social work practitioner requires that we delete old ineffective neural connections associated with distraction, fear, doubt, and complacency and replace them with new empowered neuropathways that embody creativity, hope, clarity, courage, focus, compassion, and success. To do this, of course, requires that we undertake specific repeated, empowered, focused thinking, feeling, speaking, and doing to change our brain structure and function. As you all know by now, our brains have an immense capacity for positive change, (referred to neuroplasticity) according the quality of information we supply to it.

Eating disorder expert Dr. Irina Webster, M.D. (http://bulima-cure.com/) says that our brain changes in four ways:

1. By responding to the world in a certain way
2. By perceiving the world in a certain way
3. By acting in the world in a certain way
4. By thinking and imagining in a certain way

When we take charge of how we do each of the above, our actions can be referred to as "self-directed neuroplasticity." If we respond to the world in a courageous, peaceful manner our brain will change to accommodate our response. If we perceive the world as a place full of opportunities rather limitations our brain will view the world in this manner. If we act with confidence and curiosity, neural networks will develop and strengthen according to the amount of confident and curious acts we undertake. Finally, if we thinking and imagine in a positive manner, overriding negative thoughts with a cascade of positive thoughts and images, our brains we will change our brains to accommodate this type of thinking.

Of course we can change our brains in a negative manner as well. In his book, The Brain That Changes Itself (2007), Dr. Norman Doidge notes that there exists a plasticity paradox: the longer that we perform "defective" thoughts, perceptions, responses, and actions in our encounters with the world, the stronger these neural networks/connections become. Doidge believes that is the reason we have such a hard time stopping bad habits.

SLANT

Sit up, Listen, Ask questions, Nod your head, and Track the speaker with your eyes. Slant is a system for classroom behavior invented by David Levin and Michael Feinburg (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/magazine/26tough.html?_1&pagewanted+6&ei=5087). Interesting.

Not sure that Levin and Feinburg can comfortably lay claim to this system since my first grade teacher used this same process when I attended the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) elementary school in White Shield, ND back in 1960. Only thing is that she'd whack and smack and abuse the hell out of us whenever we deviated from her classroom behavior system.

Despite the controversy with its origins, I find that SLANT is a very powerful neuroplasticity exercise which engages an shapes the function of the brain in a number of critical ways:

Sitting up

that is mindful and focused triggers a cacophony of communication in our neural networks that talk to major muscle and nerve groups throughout the body reminding it to maintain our pose, position, to keep muscles engaged. If we keep our backs pressed up to the back of our chairs for support on our lumbar region and elevate both feet in front of us on a short stool or other raised support we will, additionally, take a lot of stress off our spines and lower back muscles. As we sit in healthy poses our brain will develop the necessary neuropathways to support our sitting up skill. Sitting up is a pose of alertness, readiness.

Listening

is a very complex task and key to our learning.

Neuropsychologist David Rose says that "Listening is qualitatively different from hearing. Hearing seems effortless, automatic and nonselective. Our brains recognize and categorize sounds even when we are sleeping, which is why we wake to a faint but unexpected noise in the next room but sleep peacefully through the blast of the regular midnight train. On the other hand, listening feels intentional; it is effortful, focused and selective. We need to be awake to listen. Hearing is reactiver, while listening is strategic. The strategic, effortful, selective aspect of listening recruits a different part of the brain than the posterior regions with which we recognize sounds (http://www.learningthoughlistening.org/)


Asking questions

is an important natural neuroenhancer (a strategy that increases our ability to think: retrieve the issue you want to get clarification about from your memory, open your mouth, and ask your question).

Asking questions in response to our classroom discussion, lecture, or reading, enables us to tap into our memory which is located in our hippocampus. The hippocampus has an key role in the formation of new memories about experienced events (what you heard in class, what you read, and what your classmates say about what they heard or read). The hippocampus is the also thought to be part of the medial temporal lobe memory system responsible for our declarative memory (which are our memories that can be explicitly verbalized, for instance, our memory for facts.

Nodding your head

Psychology professor Richard Petty says that Nodding your head may influence our thoughts and shaking our heads serves as "self-validation" of how we feel about our thoughts."If we are nodding our heads up and down, we gain confidence in what we are thinking. But when we shake our heads from side to side, we lose confidence in our own thoughts.” Petty's research found that nodding ones head up and down is, in effect, telling yourself that you have confidence in your own thoughts – whether those thoughts are positive or negative. He also says that, “Nodding your head doesn’t mean you’ll agree with whatever you hear. One of the most surprising things we found is that if you’re thinking negative thoughts while you’re nodding, this actually strengthens your disapproval.” http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/headmvmt.htm

In an experiment observing school children counting a large number of asterisks using their fingers for an accurate count, Richard Calson, et. al., (2007) found that when students were not allowed to use their fingers count they switched to using a nod as they counted. When viewers weren't allowed to point, they nearly always nodded as they counted. Carlso, et. al., state that "non-pointers who nodded were significantly more accurate than non-nodders. It's beginning to look like the body movements themselves are somehow assisting in the counting process." In conclusion, the authors suggest that "using your body, like using your voice, can help you work through arithmetic problems -- but some parts of your body help more than others.

Tracking

the speaker or performer with your eyes is directly connected to our learning. Esra KELEŞ1, Salih ÇEPNİ2 (2006, p. 33) state that "Attention is a basic element in learning and remembering." It is the task of "focusing to think of an object or an event during a definite time." These authors say that "If a person does not exert upon a definite attention biologically, learning materializes difficulty. Learning can be increased with augmentation of attention. A learning environment must be designed in order to keep attention. Environment has very important role in the development of brain. An environment which provides students with sufficient health conditions, safety, regular nourishing, feedback, acceptance of the students as different individuals, giving permission for research and adapting neuroscientific data to learning environment is defined as a brain rich environment or an enriched environment. Many researches also indicate that sensations have influence."

Not In Kansas Anymore

On 8 August, 2009, after five years, I left the University of Kansas so that I could begin my new faculty appointment in the department of social work at Humboldt State University. I am very happy with this decision since it will allow me to more fully engage in direct community work with Indigenous communities on the west coast and to focus on topics that I wish to write about and research as part of my activist and academic work. Obviously, it's been a while since I've updated my thoughts and work on this blog. In any event, I plan to begin making regular posts on some of the things that I've have been working on and will be focusing on in my new position.

In December of 08' a co-edited book (that I did with Dr. Mel Gray, University of Newcastle and Dr. John Coates, St. Thomas University) came out. The title of this work is Indigenous Social Work Around the World: Towards Culturally Relevant Education and Practice (Ashgate Press, 2008).

An edited book that I did with Dr. Waziyatawin Angela Wilson, For Indigenous Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook (School of American Research, 2005) continues to do well.

What is the Highest Form of Patriotism? I Say Acknowledging our Addiction to War

I was one of three invited speakers at the Kansas City (Missouri) Peace Vigil and Rally held on June 24, 2007, at Mill Creek (near J.C. Nichols Fountain at 47th and Main Streets). The theme of the event, "What is the Highest Form of Patriotism?," was sponsored by the KC Iraq Task Force & the American Friends Service Committee and drew about two dozen people.

When I am asked to speak at such events concerning the U.S. war on terror I find myself focusing on the "tough love" approach that interrogates and deconstructs some of the most beloved U.S. ideas (freedom and justice), documents (Constitution, Declaration of Independence), leaders (Founding Fathers), and slogans (God Bless America, Peace is Patriotic). My approach parallels that of Buddhist writer, practitioner, and teacher Noah Levine who says that in order to obtain happiness and true freedom from the confusion and suffering of this world one must defy the lies. "Everyday we are lied to by the world. Our families, our societies, our relations tend to be filled with delusional ideas. Human Beings have created a deeply dysfunctional culture. The insecurity of the human condition has led to the creation of many violent religions and scientific rationalizations. We have been destroying each other and this planet for too long. Human ignorance is the status quo; even in the most highly educated or religious people we see the unnecessary suffering of ego identity, lack of acceptance, and greed for power.

In America we like to talk about equality and human rights, but this country was founded on violence and oppression. Our forefathers stole this land for the native peoples, waging war on the rightful inhabitants of the continent...this is just not an American phenomenon of course;"

(Against the Stream, pp. 118-119, 2007).

Of course my challenge is to use this approach while at the same time extending loving kindness, compassion, and wisdom (right understanding and intention), and conduct (right speech and action). My aim is to bring about freedom from our dysfunctional thinking, actions, and beliefs so that true, compassionate change may take place to alleviate the suffering for all sentient beings.

What is the Highest Form of Patriotism? I Say Acknowledging Our Addiction to War

Identity as Patriots

A patriot is someone who loves his or her nation and is willing to sacrifice for that nation. There are of course different forms of patriotism that many of us subscribe to and there are those of us who eschew the label and the behavior that goes with it since it creates a certain divisiveness of identity and loyalty that can and often does degrade into an us versus them thinking and behavior. War correspondent Chris Hedges speaks of the danger of nationalism stating, “Most national myths are racist at their core. They are fed by ignorance. Those individuals who understand other cultures, speak other languages, and find richness in diversity are shunted aside. Science, history, and psychology are often twisted to serve myth. And many intellectuals are willing to champion and defend absurd theories for nationalist ends” (War is A Force That Gives Us Meaning, 2003, p.24).

All of us have one or more identities that shape our views, behaviors, and contributions in this world. Our identities are fundamental to our existence as humans, teaching us how we should feel because of who we are, and how we should engage the world around us and within us. It is clear from the history of many Indigenous nations, histories which long predate those of later nations who came to these lands, that rigid personal and national identities can bring us into peace or conflict with one another. And, generally it is the latter. If one truly desires to study all aspects of war and peacemaking and peacekeeping in this hemisphere, one needs to begin with a formal, exhaustive, and appreciative examination of how our nations treated successfully and unsuccessfully with one another. There is much to be learned about humility, arrogance, diplomacy, and the making of relations and enemies between our tribes.

When we see ourselves (and foster in our children) peace, compassion, honesty, enlightenment, and equality (toward all nations, including the animal nations that fly, swim, crawl, or the plant nations that pose upright before the sun, or all the nations we cannot see) we naturally gravitate toward views and behaviors that are just, supportive, accepting, respectful, and whole. When our identities and our societal discourses center on inculcating in ourselves and our children with the belief that we are “the greatest nation on earth,” “the moral compass and beacon of hope for the rest of the world,” and that the “founding fathers” serve as the moral standard of not only this nation, but for all nations who must aspire to our idea of democratic rule, we certainly will find ourselves in conflict with other nations, other tribes, other people, and other beings. When we so arrogantly or ignorantly see others as separate and less than us because they were born in another nation, grew up in a different culture, learned a different language, and possess a different consciousness we willfully destroy what the great Lakota elder Black Elk called the great "hoop of life."

We must see that we are only a part of the whole; we are not the whole. Instead we are what Chief Seattle called referred to as a link in the web of life. "Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves." And, because of our self-declared importance and our continued, deliberate, unyielding efforts to place ourselves at the top of the food chain, we are now facing extreme global crises living in what ecologists call an "overshoot and collapse" society of unsustainability where our cravings, addictions, consumption, waste, and anger and disrespect for ourselves and all other beings can no longer be supported on or by this planet.

For many of us Indigenous Peoples who are surrounded by the American occupying forces which are composed of more than 500 years of broken treaties, stolen lands, stolen children, stolen resources, stolen religions, and unfulfilled promises, we continually find ourselves coming into conflict with the American identity and patriotism that looms large upon these lands. Many of us come into conflict with your Constitution which claims equality and liberty for all, yet clearly has and continues to control our commerce and participation in the international community by declaring that only this nation had the right to regulate the business and political affairs of our Indigenous nations. Many of us come into conflict with your Declaration of Independence which refers to our nations when it states, “The present King of Great Britain...has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers; the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” Soon, on July 4th to be exact, many American patriots will be celebrating the words, spirit, and ideas this most sacred American document. In fact, as a reminder that they reside in the greatest nation in the world and that their government was founded on the most egalitarian ideas, some of the most "progressive, liberal" individuals and organizations will proudly give public readings of this document in their Churches, public auditoriums, and city parks. Will this nation again affirm my status as a savage on July 4th, 2007?

Many Indigenous Peoples come into conflict with this nation’s symbols. For instance the American Flag, which so many American patriots were (and continue to be) willing to give their lives for, was carried by U.S. soldiers when they rode into many of our villages to commit savage, bloody massacres of unarmed women, babies, children, and elders. For many, but not all Indigenous Peoples, this Flag has come to symbolize oppression for our nations and has left deep spiritual and psychological consternation whenever it is paraded around in our ceremonies or sacred lands. Still, there are many of our Indigenous nations that pay homage to this Flag for their own national or personal reasons, which serves as a consternation to me. This Flag will also be present at many Fourth of July celebrations in just a few days. Finally, your slogan “God Bless America,” which is often found on a bumper stick alongside a picture of the American Flag has brought conflict to many. I ask is the arrogance of this nation’s patriotism such that it can order God to bless it? How about saying please, or we’d be honored, or we humbly beseech your blessings?

Peace is Patriotic

It is difficult to believe the slogan, peace is patriotic, or that this nation desires peace when it possesses the largest military budget in the world, spending 554 billion dollars in 2005. How big is this expenditure on a global military expenditure scale? The US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender in the world, and almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six so-called “rogue” states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria who spent $14.65 billion. And it is two times larger than the Indigenous (Individual Indian Monies, IIM) that this nation has stolen, lost, or misspent when it assumed control of our economic lives back in 1887 through its Department of War and later Department of Interior. In fact, many of you probably know very little about how much money this nation has stolen from our people while it was legally responsible to hold this money in trust. If you think that the money wasted and fraudulently obtained by U.S. contractors in Iraq is large I invite to please examine all the resources, lives, monies, and territories what this nation has stolen from us.

When this nation proclaims itself to hold the highest moral position in the world and wants others to accept this belief, it is obvious that it will need the weaponry to enforce and create this reality. When you become a warrior nation bent on imposing your will upon those you deem less than you, and you do not acknowledge the terrorism of your actions and genocides that you undertook to achieve your political, economic, and moral standing, and when you do not make apologies, restitution, or peace and disarm, and when you take that ignorance of your history and the fantasy of the founding father’s to the rest of the world, I can assure you that you will meet conflict and resistance from others you mean to rule or deceive. You will meet resistance; as much as you experienced when you invaded Vietnam; as much as you are seeing today from many of the tribes in Iraq; and you will see resistance if we attack Iran. And when we believe our own dysconscious racist myths and false patriotism – it is we who become the terrorists.

The conflict that we see raging today in Iraq, and possibly soon to be raging in Iran or some other nation that resists and confronts the imperialist, racism of this nation, must be mediated by those individuals in our tribes and nations that have attained and possess states of enlightenment that teach us we are truly all one nation of humans who must depend, assist, and love one another for the sake of our common humanity and destiny, which is impermanent but nonetheless as important as each breath we are taking at this moment.

Presently, the presidential democratic and republican front-runners will not be capable of stemming this nation’s addiction to war or patriotism. Nor do they seem capable of breaking their addiction to this nation's false history. Few visit with our tribes, except in very superficial instances, and none will seek counsel from our peacemakers. None will advocate to change the Constitution or Declaration of Independence on our behalf, and none will apologize and make restitution for stolen lands, resources, monies, and genocide. So, even if the new U.S. president and Congress end the war in Iraq in 2008, the lies of the past and contemporary U.S. history, the aversion to the truth of what happens and continues to happen to Indigenous Peoples in the U.S., and false teachers of American patriotism will continue into the next generation; and this soft war of truth versus deception will continue to smolder in these lands.

If we do not look after the welfare of one another as a loving, concerned family member would for his or her brothers and sisters, especially for those we consider to be different, or from another nation, race, or tribe, we will continue to find ourselves on that slippery slope of the downward descent to that place where there are no friends or allies; It is the place where there is no peace or quiet or sanity; here there are only enemies, addictions, anger, greed, and dangers which envelop all of our being - creating within each of us abundant dissatisfaction, hatred, and suffering. Are we there yet? We must now at this time in our history, more than ever, make it a priority to shape our identities to include truth, love, compassion, understanding, and empathy for our common struggles as we continue in our efforts to become fully human in this life. There are few alternatives at this point.

I am Sahnish and Hidatsa. I am Indigenous and I am tribal and, thus, one of my fundamental realities, which have been shaped by the views of my people, is that “We’re In This World A Short Time.” It is a reality that is deeply reinforced whenever this phrase is sung during our ceremonies, especially during the burial of our people and at their memorial which is held a year later. The acknowledgement through these words concerning their life and death and what they did while here serves as an important reminder to all the people in our tribe that we have only a brief window of opportunity to do what is good, just, right, and loving toward ourselves and all others. We believe that our spirituality leads us toward a larger ontological accountability that we pay here and in the hereafter. Through this phrase it has become exceedingly clear to generations and generations of our people that, while we’re here, we must become fully present and mindful to the fact that the difficulty and ease with which we pass through this world must be done with the highest degrees of sincerity, honesty, humility, wisdom, intelligence, compassion, and love. We seek peace with all nations of the world. We seek truth with all nations.

I have given my thoughts on the theme of this gathering and I hope that you take my words as they are intended, as a "tough love" approach on this nation’s addiction to war, sidestepping truth, and the patriotism that fuels those wars and lies. Freedom from this suffering is possible in this lifetime. And, if we are end or reduce this suffering we must calmly and assertively encourage this nation to complete a "searching and fearless moral inventory" of itself. In this spirit, in closing, I want to suggest that the highest form of patriotism during times of war and peace is comes from several of the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I will only briefly focus on the first step, but remind you that when an individual or a nation is addicted it must be confronted by those of us who are "clean and sober," and continue working hard to maintain our sobriety for the sake of ourselves and all sentient beings. The use of the twelve steps perhaps makes more sense than any approach at this time because when this nation elected George W. Bush as president it chose an addict to lead this country. Of course, this is not the first time it has done so and with the way things are going and overall addiction of folks in this country to material resources, it won't be the last.

The first of the twelve steps is, "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable." Now more than ever it is important for this nation to make an admission that is powerless in its ability to avoid colonization, war, distorting or ignoring truth, and imposing its beliefs, values, and ideas upon other nations without regard and respect for their individuality, diversity, culture, and history. It is a nation whose passion and addiction for war and patriotism has created the most destructive nuclear weapons in the world, which presses all nations towards the brink of extinction. The powerlessness of this nation has all life on this planet hanging in the balance. And this is what addicts crave: complete control over others because they have no control over themselves.

Let's help this nation with its addictions. Let's help one another with our addictions and let's see beyond the lies. Let us serve the truth and see beyond the false teachers and let's come together to intelligently, assertively, and compassionately confront this runaway nation for the sake of all being on the planet. Thank you.