Gifts from the Thunder Beings examines North American Aboriginal peoples’ use of Indigenous and European distance weapons in big-game hunting and combat. Beyond the capabilities of European weapons, Aboriginal peoples’ ways of adapting and using this technology in combination with Indigenous weaponry contributed greatly to the impact these weapons had on Aboriginal cultures. This gradual transition took place from the beginning of the fur trade in the Hudson’s Bay Company trading territory to the treaty and reserve period that began in Canada in the 1870s. Technological change and the effects of European contact were not uniform throughout North America, as Roland Bohr illustrates by comparing the northern Great Plains and the Central Subarctic—two adjacent but environmentally different regions of North America—and their respective Indigenous cultures. Beginning with a brief survey of the subarctic and Northern Plains environments and the most common subsistence strategies in these regions around the time of contact, Bohr provides the context for a detailed examination of social, spiritual, and cultural aspects of bows, arrows, quivers, and firearms. His detailed analysis of the shifting usage of bows and arrows and firearms in the northern Great Plains and the Central Subarctic makes Gifts from the Thunder Beings an important addition to the canon of North American ethnology.

The adoption of firearms by American Indians between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries marked a turning point in the history of North America’s indigenous peoples—a cultural earthquake so profound, says David Silverman, that its impact has yet to be adequately measured. Thundersticks reframes our understanding of Indians’ historical relationship with guns, arguing against the notion that they prized these weapons more for the pyrotechnic terror guns inspired than for their efficiency as tools of war. Native peoples fully recognized the potential of firearms to assist them in their struggles against colonial forces, and mostly against one another. The smoothbore, flintlock musket was Indians’ stock firearm, and its destructive potential transformed their lives. For the deer hunters east of the Mississippi, the gun evolved into an essential hunting tool. Most importantly, well-armed tribes were able to capture and enslave their neighbors, plunder wealth, and conquer territory. Arms races erupted across North America, intensifying intertribal rivalries and solidifying the importance of firearms in Indian politics and culture. Though American tribes grew dependent on guns manufactured in Europe and the United States, their dependence never prevented them from rising up against Euro-American power. The Seminoles, Blackfeet, Lakotas, and others remained formidably armed right up to the time of their subjugation. Far from being a Trojan horse for colonialism, firearms empowered American Indians to pursue their interests and defend their political and economic autonomy over two centuries.

Joseph Eagle Elk (1931?91) was an effective and highly respected traditional Lakota healer. He practiced for nearly thirty years, treating serious physical and mental illnesses among the people of the Rosebud Reservation and elsewhere. In 1990 he began collaborating on his memoir with Gerald Mohatt, a close friend and cross-cultural psychologist. Eagle Elk?s story of his life, practice, and beliefs provides a uniquely introspective, demystified, and informative look at the career of a traditional Native American healer. We learn how a persistent vision and recurring visits by thunder spirits led Eagle Elk long ago to become a healer. On a more general level, we gain valuable insights into how Lakota healers practice today. Eagle Elk?s story and teachings also demonstrate the importance of community support and consensus in the development of traditional healers. Gerald Mohatt?s perspective as a cross-cultural psychologist enables him to highlight the psychological dimensions and efficacy of Eagle Elk?s healings and place them within a cross-cultural context. Eagle Elk?s life and career are presented in a way that brings together formative episodes from his life, selected teachings that emerged from those experiences, and case studies in healing. This arrangement allows readers to grasp the close relationship between the personal and cultural dimensions of traditional healing and to understand how and why this practice continues to affect and help others.

As fur traders were driven across northern North America by economic motivations, the landscape over which they plied their trade was punctuated by sound: shouting, singing, dancing, gunpowder, rattles, jingles, drums, fiddles, and – very occasionally – bagpipes. Fur trade interactions were, in a word, noisy. Daniel Laxer unearths traces of music, performance, and other intangible cultural phenomena long since silenced, allowing us to hear the fur trade for the first time. Listening to the Fur Trade uses the written record, oral history, and material culture to reveal histories of sound and music in an era before sound recording. The trading post was a noisy nexus, populated by a polyglot crowd of highly mobile people from different national, linguistic, religious, cultural, and class backgrounds. They found ways to interact every time they met, and facilitating material interests and survival went beyond the simple exchange of goods. Trust and good relations often entailed gift-giving: reciprocity was performed with dances, songs, and firearm salutes. Indigenous protocols of ceremony and treaty-making were widely adopted by fur traders, who supplied materials and technologies that sometimes changed how these ceremonies sounded. Within trading companies, masters and servants were on opposite ends of the social ladder but shared songs in the canoes and lively dances during the long winters at the trading posts. While the fur trade was propelled by economic and political interests, Listening to the Fur Trade uncovers the songs and ceremonies of First Nations people, the paddling songs of the voyageurs, and the fiddle music and step-dancing at the trading posts that provided its pulse.

In this captivating novel, the Earth grants humanity an extraordinary second chance. Imagine hurtling a South Dakota Indian casino and its surroundings thirty miles back in time to 1791, before the Louisiana Purchase. This gripping novel explores a collision of eras—a modern world mingling with the past—unraveling a narrative ripe with survival, cultural clashes, and deep human connections. The displaced Lakota and local populace must band together to forge a sustainable future. They create a new government, replicate technology, and adapt to life in the eighteenth century. How do they respond when threats emerge from both internal divisions and external forces? Can they learn from the wisdom of the earth and avoid repeating past mistakes? At the center of this gripping tale is Rose Chasing Hawk, a single mother thrust into leadership and facing the challenges of raising teenagers in a new reality. Oliver Jackson, a Black ex-police officer and Iraq War veteran, advocates for nonviolence but must confront the harsh reality of needing military strength in a tumultuous time. Two Elks, a Lakota leader native to this era, must defend his homeland against outsiders armed with advanced technology and dangerous ideas. As these characters navigate their altered world, their choices will have far-reaching consequences for future generations. As the stakes continue to rise and the fate of the earth hangs in the balance, the question remains: what if we could change the world for the better? Author Daphne Singingtree, drawing from her vast knowledge of plant medicine, midwifery, emergency preparedness, and Indigenous ways of knowing, weaves a narrative filled with hope, resilience, and the power of collective action. As the stakes continue to rise and the fate of the earth hangs in the balance, the question remains: what if we could change the world for the better? For fans of thought-provoking stories, like Eric Flint’s 1632 series or Sarah Woodbury’s After Cilmeri series, this novel is a must-read. Don’t miss out on this captivating time travel saga that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

This sweeping study of mysticism by Jess Hollenback considers the writings and experiences of a broad range of traditional religious mystics, including Teresa of Avila, Black Elk, and Gopi Krishna. It also makes use of a new category of sources that more traditional scholars have almost entirely ignored, namely, the autobiographies and writings of contemporary clairvoyants, mediums, and out-of-body travelers. This study contributes to the current debate about the contextuality of mysticism by presenting evidence that not only are the mystic's interpretations of and responses to experiences culturally and historically conditioned, but historical context and cultural environment decisively shape both the perceptual and affective content of the mystic's experience as well. Hollenback also explores the linkage between the mystic's practice of recollection and the onset of other unusual or supernormal manifestations such as photisms, the ability to see auras, telepathic sensitivity, clairvoyance, and out-of-body experiences. He demonstrates that these extraordinary phenomena can actually deepen our understanding of mysticism in unexpected ways. A unique feature of this book is its in-depth analysis of "empowerment," an important phenomenon ignored by most scholars of mysticism. Empowerment is a peculiar enhancement of the imagination, thoughts, and desires that frequently accompanies mystical states of consciousness. Hollenback shows its cross-cultural persistence, its role in constructing the perceptual and existential environments within which the mystic dwells, and its linkage to the fundamental contextuality of mystical experience.

Based on Black Elk's account of the seven rites of the Oglala Sioux as originally recorded and edited by Joseph Epes Brown.

The first Books of "IS", is full of contemplative designs and graftics, along with rhythmic writings. All are created to move gently, your sences, and your brain, to "stiring" you "awake", and into thinking, sensing and obseving the life within you and around you. The writings and graphics are meant to be contemplated upon, and carried into your daily life, so to awaken you to the truth of you and the universe of life here, now, and beyond "here" and the "now". I have also included pages at the end of each chapter for the reader's own inspired writings brought on by the repeated readings, and contemplations of the writings and graphics in this book, so to assist in the activation of your creative and intellectual mind: right and left brain functions. The Books of "IS" came about after my being mysteriously, intuitively guided, for over twenty-eight years, to write down messages of a higher conscious level, on truths of life, myself, and all life in general. The writings in BOOK ONE: The Dance of Becoming, are compiled writings from a higher presence of love that I was receiving, during a strong inter-sensing, to write down what was "calling" to me. This first began occuring during my pre-teens; then again as an adult, during times of great sorrow or/and lonliness. As an adult, and after writing for almost a year, the writings began taking on a deeper nature. They began to change into messages and memories of truth, guidance, and gentle love; coming forth, giving me more of the peace and joy they had been creating within me. The desire to write more "called" often and strongly, yet pleasantly to me; and the experience of it all was: ecstasy! I began to realize that I must have been touching down into deeper parts of myself, and then rising up to the higher parts of me: my Higher Soul! I was then feeling such peace, joy and knowing, that I no longer felt sadness nor lonliness; Instead I felt the great desire and joy to experience and to know more! It felt as if at these times I was my TRUE SELF! I felt complete and all knowing! I felt like I was with the Holies of Holies and the Angels! Then, in the year 1984, I was tellepathicly told by these Sacred Messengers of a higher power/Creator, to put all these writngs into books, and when the time came, publish them to aid all mankind, all existence. From these writings, I receive messages and teachings that went beyond mundane and into the higher planes of existence, connecting me with the Creator of all principles, of all life: There I connected with Holy Messengers of various kinds. I had asked for valadation on all this and soon found myself miraciously being lead to the meeting of those who were Guardians of these ancient, long protected Sacred Truths; along with findings in old books; and other similar occurences and people. These valadations ranged from old mystery schools, of various kinds, to ancient indigenous beliefs on creation, and a higher powerful being; to more modern religions and scientific findings. I also was lead in syn with others, who too, were receiving similar writings with same truths; some written a bit differently. In 1884, I was given the spiritual, tellepathic message, that in the future, I would be compiling these and other writings into books to be published for the world. This was so that many people could be reached more quickly, for the "quickening" had begun.They told me that the writings in this book and in others, were "seed-truths", selectively and rhythmicly placed; camouflaged, seeming at first, to those "not ready", as stories of meer fantasy, so called: "make-believe" and sci-fy. I was told the writings are done this way so to gently but powerfully, unlock the encoded truths within those who hear or read them and view the graphics.These writings therefore, are like camouflaged words/codes, "hidden" to many, but obvious to those who were ready :"remembering", "awakening"; therefore, protected from those who would abuse them and interput them with mis-understanding, in a negative way; thereby, creating too much chaos.

This volume examines the ways in literacy has been used as a weapon and a means for settler colonialism, challenging colonized definitions of literacy and centring relationships as key to broadening understandings. It begins by confronting the multiple ways that settler colonialism has used literacy and definitions of literacy as a gatekeeper to participation in society. In response to settler colonialism’s violent acts of extraction, displacement, and replacement enacted upon the land, the resources, the people, and understandings of literacy, the editors propose a unique approach to decolonizing understandings of literacy through a triangulation of disruption, reclamation, and remembering relationships. This is enacted and explored through a range of diverse chapter contributions, written in the form of stories, poems, artworks, theatres, and essays, allowing the authentic voices of the authors to shine through, and opening up the English Language Arts as a space for engagement and interpretation with diverse, racialized understandings of literacy. Disrupting Eurocentric, colonized understandings that narrowly define literacy as reading and writing the colonial word, and advancing the movement to decolonize education, it will be of key interest to scholars, researchers, and educators with interest in literacy education, decolonizing education, anti-racist education, inclusive education, land-based literacy, and arts-based literacy.

Toltec culture flourished in Mexico around 800 AD. Its wisdom has been brought to millions by the wildly popular teacher don Miguel Ruiz. Also based on the ancient teachings of the Toltec people, Mastering the Toltec Way helps readers follow in the footsteps of the Toltec into living fully, truthfully, and passionately, day by day. Secret knowledge embraced by the Toltec transcends normal, everyday awareness. Using Mastering the Toltec Way, readers gain access to this ancient knowledge and learn daily how to be happy no matter what their circumstances and how to gain complete freedom to be themselves. Mastering the Toltec Way is structured on the lunar calendar. Each of the 13 chapters concludes with 28 daily entries that illustrate how to apply the Toltec way to today's world. From the book: Beginning on a full or new moon, readers: Start by reading a story that weaves the Toltec philosophy into modern life and lights the way for the exercises to follow.Do visualizations that help them use their imaginations to disengage their minds and re-engage their spirits.Meditate in various ways plus learn to pay attention to their five senses, among other active exercises to put the Toltec way into daily practice. For those who want to experience everyday life more deeply and gain lasting personal freedom, Mastering the Toltec Way guides seekers on a well-traveled, ancient path.