The following board positions were up for re-election this year President, Secretary, and Liaison for Tribal affairs. Bud Johnston was elected President, Barb Winter was elected Secretary, the position Liaison for Tribal Affairs was left unfilled.

Michael Jacobs a Cherokee music artist who performed this summer would like to come back next year. He really like what we are trying to do in Pipestone and thinks it can become a big event.

At the annual meeting we discussed what our meetings and gathering will look like next year. Everyone would like to have more time to share stories, like Jim Tree’s story about his trip to Isreal. Rona suggested we start the gathering on Wens. And we have a one day pow wow on Saturday. That would give us 3 days to talk, trade, do cerrimonies ex…Bud thinks we should still have the cerrimonies at the quarries on Sunday.

What do you think about a day of talking circles taking suggestions on things to share or discuse, a day of crafting/carving circles or any idea.

To all those who were involved in the teaching workshop put on by Adam Fortunate Eagle. Tapes will not be made avalible to anyone, but will be kept in our arcives. If you are interested in more information please contact Bud in person or by phone.

Spider Woman and the Twins

 Sotuknang went to the universe wherein was that to be Tokpela, the First World, and out of it he created her who was to remain on that earth and be his helper.  Her name was Kokyangwuti, Spider Woman.

 When she awoke to life and received her name, she asked "Why am I here?"

 "Look about you," answered Sotuknang.  "Here is this earth we have created.  It has shape and substance, direction and time, a beginning and an end.  But there is no life upon it.  We see no joyful movement.  We hear no joyful sound.  What is life without sound and movement?  So you have been given the power to help us create this life.  You have been given the knowledge, wisdom, and love to bless all the things you create. That is why you are here."

 Following his instructions, Spider Woman took some earth, mixed with it some tuchvala (liquid from mouth: saliva), and molded it into two beings. Then she covered them with a cape made of white substance which was the creative wisdom itself, and sang the Creation Song over them.  When she uncovered them the two beings, twins, sat up and asked "Who are we? Why are we here?"

 To the one on the right Spider Woman said, "You are Poqanghoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it.  Go now around all the world and put your hands upon the earth so that it will become fully solidified.  This is your duty."

 Spider Woman then said to the twin on the left, "You are Palongawhoya and you are to help keep this world in order when life is put upon it.  This is your duty now:  go about all the world and send out sound so that it may be heard throughout all the land.  When this is heard you will also be known as 'Echo', for all sound echoes the Creator."

 Poqanghoya, traveling throughout the earth, solidified the higher reaches into great mountains.  The lower reaches he made firm but still pliable enough to be used by those beings to be placed upon it and who would call it their mother.

 Palongawhoya, traveling throughout the earth, sounded out his call as he was bidden.  All the vibratory centers along the earth's axis from pole to pole resounded his call; the whole earth trembled; the universe quivered in tune.  Thus he made the whole world an instrument of sound, and sound an instrument for carrying messages, resounding praise to the Creator of all.

 "This is your voice, Uncle," Sotuknang said to Taiowa.  "Everything is tuned to your sound."

 "It is very good," said Taiowa.

 When they had accomplished their duties, Poqanghoya was sent to the north pole of the world axis and Palongawhoya to the south pole, where they were jointly commanded to keep the world properly rotating.  Poqanghoya was also given the power to keep the earth in a stable form of solidness. Palongawhoya was given the power to keep the air in gentle ordered movement, and instructed to send out his call for good or for warning through the vibratory centers of the earth.

 "These will be your duties in time to come," said Spider Woman.

 She then created from the earth trees, bushes, plants, flowers, all kinds of seed-bearers and nut-bearers to clothe the earth, giving to each a life and name.  In the same manner she created all kinds of birds and animals - molding them out of earth, covering them with her white-substance cape, and singing over them.  Some she placed to her right, some to her left, others before and behind her, indicating how they should spread to all four corners of the earth to live.

 Sotuknang was happy, seeing how beautiful it all was - the land, the plants, the birds and animals, and the power working through them all. Joyfully he said to Taiowa, "Come see what our world looks like now!"

 "It is very good," said Taiowa.  "It is ready now for human life, the final touch to complete my plan."

Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishingly frigid winter after another.

Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one can be certain.

And yet there is a wonderful anarchy, in that the milkman chooses when to arise, the rat picks the tunnel into which he will dive when the subway comes rushing down the track from Borough Hall, and the snowflake will fall as it will. How can this be? If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple.

Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined. No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant, and time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance the enormous and detailed canvas that we have been given - so we track it, in linear fashion, piece by piece. Time, however, can be easily overcome; not by chasing light, but by standing back far enough to see it all at once.

The universe is still and complete. Everything that ever was, is; everything that ever will be, is - and so on, in all possible combinations. Though in perceiving it we imagine that it is in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite astonishingly beautiful.

In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others. All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes apparent not as something that will be, but as something that is.

Membership dues are due Sept 1 each year.