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Topic: SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGES: By permission, I offer Silversong's Story of Honor Day and the Honor Way to inspire and demonstrate how someone just like us, could identify a challenge, develop and act on a dream of how to solve it. She believes that WE are the generation as mentioned in the prophesy, who will see all these converging challenges, and will see our children suffering and will be the ones to bring back the Native HONOR WAY to all people and the earth.
Starting when she was a child, Silversong noticed the challenges you outlined and asked her elders the underlying questions, Why aren't people nice to each other? and What’s missing to build a life
we love in a world we love to live in?: In almost every conversation that I remember, HONOR was mentioned as what was missing."
WE all ARE THE GENERATION! So we warmly invite you to being part of the solution by bringing back the Native HONOR WAY in your lives, support HONOR DAY and please join our gathering at the Aug 22 HONOR CIRCLE GATHERING www.honorday.org
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The Story of Honor Day and the Honor Way by Silversong
In my birthplace of Alberta, Canada in 1944, there was only one minority group ‐
Native Indians. We were expected to assimilate into the white culture and abandon
our origins and our people in order to succeed. When quite young I became aware of
two distinctive aspects of life ‐ the physical world we see, and the creative power of
unseen forces: love, thought, intent, and vision. I saw that Native awareness of the
unseen forces could be lost through assimilation, so I committed to learning and
applying the Native's way to keep the two worlds in balance. I did not want to lose
the Native tradition, but to find out how to do all I could to preserve the Natural
Way.
Some of the primary traditions of North American Native Indians are honoring,
humility, giving, gratitude, and having a vision for future generations. This is a way
of life that is in harmony with all forms of life: other people, future generations,
animals, birds, insects, trees and plants, rocks and the earth, sky, sun and moon. We
are connected to all these other aspects of Creation. All of Creation are worthy of
Honor because we all share a common kinship within the Hoop of Life.
Honoring, is acting with deep caring, respect and compassion toward our selves and
for all other beings on the planet, for future generations, and for the earth. We are a
part of it all. For Native peoples honoring is central to our way of life and our
ceremonies. We have traditions, prophecies, stories and songs about the Honor Way
and honoring.
My research has been through oral tradition with Elders, Medicine People, teachers,
leaders and artists for over 45 years. Since I was a child, I was always asking them
questions like, "Why aren't people nice to each other?" and "What’s missing to build a life
we love in a world we love to live in?". In almost every conversation that I remember,
HONOR was mentioned as what was missing.
The Elders said that in the modern world they noticed that the Honor Way was not
used. They noticed a lack of Honor for our selves, for women, for Mother Earth, for
animals, for plants, for each other, for Elders, for relationships and for treaties and
promises. There is a lack of Honor when personal, political, and business decisions
are made that do not consider the well being of present and future generations.
There is a lack of Honor for individual and religious rights of others. It has been said
that this country was formed to allow people to worship in their own ways without
persecution, yet the right to openly practice Native spirituality and ways only came
in 1976, with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act.
For Native people one of the deepest wounds is lack of Honor. Having experienced
the devastation of Native peoples first hand, I saw how often we implode rather
than explode. Rather than attack another, in our humiliation and shame we tend to
destroy ourselves. I have been told that since Honor has been missing for our
people, that drugs and alcohol are being used to fill the void.
I was taught that one way to live the Honor Way is through living your passion, and
that the door to your spirit is through your deepest pain or your greatest joy.
One way to know your life's purpose is to find your deepest pain, or your greatest
joy, and there you will find what is missing for the world… this can become your
purpose and passion.
This Lack of Honor in the world is the source of my deepest
pain, so following the Honor Way became my focus, my mission and passion, and is
my joy.
I practice bringing Honor back to All My Relations, to myself, to my dreams and my
visions. Yet, Honor and honoring is such an intangible formless concept, that I
wondered for a long time, How could this Honoring Way be returned to all people?
Then I remembered, and many will still remember the prophecy, One day there will
be a generation that will see mother earth suffering but especially when they see their
children suffering. It is that generation that will return honor; not just for the Native
peoples but also for all twolegged.
It was evident to all of us that the Mother Earth
needed our help, and we could see the suffering of our children. This made me think
that maybe WE are the generation that the ones of long ago spoke about, who will
return to the Honor Way.
Eventually the idea of having Honor Day as a recognized holiday came into focus.
Honor Day preserves the Native American Indian value of Honor, inviting all people,
faiths, cultures and traditions to share the Honor Way. A holiday that includes the
Native American Indian Way of Honoring would inspire all people in the same way
as holidays of Martin Luther King Day, Kwanza and Christmas do. Many efforts over
the years have been made to have a recognized National Native Indian day with no
lasting results from the federal government. When I asked the elders about how best
to make this happen they advised me, The government is not the nation, the people
are. Go to the people. That is why we are asking people to sign petitions to make
Honor Day a recognized annual holiday.
I thought it would take a powerful Indian leader to lead the way to restoring honor. I
spoke with many highly prominent Indian leaders about creating Honor Day. They
encouraged me to lead the way. This is where I pondered my plight. I did not see
myself as a powerful person. I am an artist and it is the job of the artist to articulate
what is in the soul. I pressed on. I took comparative religions classes and noticed
how often God speaks to the people who are not in positions of power‐ like the
shepherd in the field. I could see that regular people with powerful ideas can make
big changes in the world. I began to see my lack of a powerful position was an
obstacle only if I allowed it to be. So I followed my dream.
Native tradition taught me that a dream is transformed into physical reality by
speaking it to the hearts of others in a large gathering, meeting or event. If the
dream is meant to have wings it will fly. On January 22, 2000 there was a Treaty Day
play held at the Lummi Indian Nation near Bellingham, Washington, USA. There
were hundreds of people present. Gathering all the courage I could, I stood before
the people and delivered my message suggesting, Maybe WE are the generation that
the ones of long ago talked about, who would return the Honor Way to Humanity!
I proposed that we hold an annual Honor Day Circle Ceremony, which would be A
gift from Native America, transforming the world, by invitation, through the Honor
Way. This was the first step toward a federally recognized Holiday.
The first Honor Day was held at the Lummi Nation in 2000 on August 20; the date
chosen because it is the birthday of the "Miracle", the sacred White Buffalo Calf.
Honoring circles can be created any day of the year. Everyone’s support of Honor
Day and the Honor Way is awe‐inspiring. It is so strong that today many, many
people now observe it, and are honoring everyday. Individuals, families, groups, and
communities are joining us in making history by making their circles and reporting
back to us. We have reports of Honor Day circles being observed in Poland, England,
France, Greece, Sweden, Russia, and Canada. We vision 10,000 circles around the
world. People tell us that have been deeply moved and strengthened by Honor Day
and the act of honoring.
By sharing the Honor Way through ceremonies, we are bringing best traditions and
values from the ancient ones of Native America for present and future generations.
Together we are changing the dynamics of the world ‐ bringing positive actions,
values, and inspiration.
When we Honor the Spirit of Place of Mother Earth, and each other, then we can use
the skills, gifts, and talents of humanity in a good way to solve the many tasks
needed to give our children a safe, healthy future that they will love.
Written by Kathryn Donald as told by Silversong Belcourt, Honor Day Founder
7/3/2009 Copyrighted www.Honorday.org
HONOR DAY AUG 20 (celebrated this year on August 22) A GIFT FROM NATIVE AMERICA
"Transforming the world, by invitation, to the Honor Way"
Invititation for you on our website: www.honorday.org
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Dedicated to my mother, Anne Larson, nee Desjarlais, (1921‐ 2005) who was of Cree, Blackfoot, and
Scottish heritage. She is the inspiration for, and source of my work. Her deeply held feeling was that
the highest calling and the best education a human being could get is through caring. Even though
she had lived in boarding schools and foster homes she found and maintained a keen sense of herself.
She told me, "The only opinion you need to fear is the one YOU have of yourself." She was Native, and
that made her different, she saw uniqueness as holy, something that she could share with
humankind. Together, as mother and daughter, the love we carried is the source of my inspiration.
We shared the most intimate conversations two people can have. She had a perspective on the past,
was spontaneous in the moment, while visioning that which she chose to make manifest. She was a
remarkable and wise woman who gave shelter, food and clothing to many people, and gave them a
reason to smile and to hope. She is always just a thought away, where expansion and creativity begin.
She is reminding me that nothing is written in stone, that we all are learning about life together.
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