Growing Collaboration

Models of Collaboration

Collaboration with Native America allows us to enlarge our world to include a deeper, more expansive understanding of history, science, spirituality, consciousness, our purpose in life, our potential, and the world around us.

Fortunately, there are many models of a growing collaboration, including those listed below. This is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming together of the Eagle and the Condor! It also reflects the new, more positive Pachakuti. This collaboration leads to a transformation of our hearts, minds, and souls both as individuals and as a culture. Our survival now depends on enough of us making this shift in time!

Juan Flores Salazar

Governmental/Legal Models Models

-- NMAI: The Heye Foundation's Museum of the American Indian opened to the public on Audubon Terrace in New York City in 1922. George Gustav Heye (1874–1957) traveled throughout North and South America over 54 years, beginning in 1903, collecting Native objects. He started the Museum of the American Indian and his Heye Foundation in 1916. The Heye collection became part of the Smithsonian in June 1990, and represents approximately 85% of the holdings of the NMAI. The NMAI was initially housed in lower Manhattan at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, which was refurbished for this purpose and remains an exhibition site. Its building on the Mall in Washington, DC opened in 2005.

-- Native American Heritage Month: In 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including "Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been issued each year since 1994.

-- UNPFII: The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was established in 2001 and meets each May at the UN in New York City for 10 days.

-- UN Declaration: In 2007, the UN General Assembly adoped the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The United States signed in 2010.

-- Native American Heritage Day: In June, 2009, President Barrack Obama signed into law the Native American Heritage Day 2009 Bill, making the day after Thanksgiving "Native American Heritage Day", which was Friday, November 27, 2009.

Reconciliation Models

-- Washington State Reconciliation: In 1999, Glen and Carolyn Schmekel established a Reconciliation Group with the Methow peoples in their home. The group later moved to a larger facility as it grew to include the mayor and more people from the town of Twisp and more Indians. In 2003, the first annual "Heart of the Methow Powwow" was held by the Town of Twisp as a formal Reconciliation Process.

After the powwow, 300 acres of land were ceded by farmers and ranchers to allow the Methow to gather their sacred medicines and foods, the school curriculum was changed to include Methow culture. In addition, 2.5 acres were donated to establish the Methow Valley Interpretive Center to provide a permanent place to honor the Methow people. The center opened in 2012. The Reconciliation Group meets 4-5 times a year and hosts the annual powwow which is widely known now.

The success of this Reconciliation Process led by the Native American healer Spencer Martin is documented in the DVD 'Two Rivers' - A Native American Reconciliation.

-- Healing Turtle Island Ceremony: In November 2009, the Collegiate Church of New York, the first corporation in the Western hemisphere, held a formal public Reconciliation with the Lenape, the first Native peoples the Europeans met in North America after 1492. The Church acknowledged that the Dutch never "bought" Manhattan!

-- Maine TRC: In 2011, the Governor of Maine and the Wabanaki nations created a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) -- an historic first in the U.S.

-- Churches Repudiate Doctrine of Discovery: In May 2012, the Episcopal Church joined other religious voices in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII).

-- ITCCS: In February, 2013, the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCCS) concluded its Genocide in Canada case citing abuses against Native Canadians in the Indian Residential Schools. The goal of the ITCCS is to bring to trial people and institutions responsible for the exploitation, torture, and murder of children and to stop these actions by churches, corporations, and governments.

Scientific/Environmental/Medical/Spiritual/Sports/Educational/Media Models

-- Advanced Languages: The Language of Spirituality DVD documents the discovery by physicists and linguists in 1992 that the verb-intensive Native American languages better convey concepts of quantum physics and consciousness than noun-heavy Western languages. The Western scientists and Native American leaders continue to meet annually to further this exploration.

-- The Pachamama Alliance: In 1995, Bill and Lynne Twist co-founded The Pachamama Alliance to support the Achuar of Peru by "Changing the Dream of the North" with the goal of using their seminars to achieve a massive shift in consciousness by the end of 2014 sufficient to save life on Earth.

-- The Amazon Conservation Team (ACT): Ethnobotantist Dr. Mark Plotkin founded ACT to protect the Amazon in partnership with indigenous peoples. ACT helps Brazilian and Colombian tribes use Google Earth to demarcate and defend their lands -- with great success!

-- Ultra Marathoners: In 2001, Caballo Blanco, an American who lived with the Tarahumara, organized the arduous long-distance race now called “Caballo Blanco Ultra-Marathon” in his honor which is run each spring with the Tarahumara who are are arguably the greatest long-distance runners in the world. Blanco's goal was to protect the Tarahumara from the encroachment of modern society.

-- Mayantuyacu: In 2003, Robert Tindall and his wife Dr. Susana Bustos stayed with Ashaninka healer Juan Flores Salazar at Mayantuyacu, his retreat in the Peruvian Amazon to document his use of "Icaros", healing songs and other healing. Their study served as the basis of Dr. Bustos' Ph.D. thesis and resulted in the book The Jaguar that Roams the Mind: An Amazonian Plant Spirit Odyssey. Robert and Susana are working to defend the territory around Mayantuyacu which is under assault.

-- Scientists and Shaman: Robert Tindall says in The Jaguar that Roams the Mind: An Amazonian Plant Spirit Odyssey that Swiss ethnobotanist and anthropologist Jeremy Narby, who wrote Intelligence in Nature and The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge, worked with Juan Flores Salazar, an Ashaninca shaman.

Tindall says: "Narby brought three molecular biologists to Flores's center for traditional medicine...to see whether, in sessions with ayahuasca, they could 'obtain biomolecular information' in their fields of research....The two female biologists also reported 'contact with 'plant teachers,' which they experienced as independent entities,' an experience that 'shifted their way of understanding reality'....All three research scientists expressed great respect for Juan's skill and knowledge; he had been able to orient them so quickly to the realm of visions and failitate their extraction of useful scientific knowledge from the visionary state."

--- Syracuse University offers "Haudenosaunee Promise": In the 1950s when Chief Oren Lyons attended Syracuse University (which is on territory of the Onondaga Nation), he was the only Native American student there. He received an athletic scholarship and was awarded the Orange Key for academic and athletic accomplishments. Lyons, an accomplished painter, graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 1958.

In 1989, Chief Lyons was named Man of the Year in Lacrosse by the NCAA. His legendary performance as goalkeeper for Syracuse University with Jim Brown on the undefeated 1957 national champion team led to the induction of Oren R. Lyons, Jr. into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. A lifelong lacrosse player, Lyons was an All-American at Syracuse, where the Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse went undefeated during his graduating year. In 1993, Syracuse awarded Chief Lyons an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In 2007, Syracuse renamed the International Living Center to Oren Lyons Hall. In 2011, Syracuse presented Chief Lyons with The George Arents Award for "Excellence in Social and Environmenal Activism".

Syracuse University announced in 2005 that it will foot the bill for an undergraduate education to any enrolled Haudenosaunee student who qualifies for admission to the university. Students qualifying for the Haudenosaunee Promise Scholarship Program will receive full-time undergraduate tuition, on-campus room and board, and payment of university fees. Based on current rates, the package is worth
over $38,500 annually. The scholarships will not be limited in number. In return, students must qualify for admission to the university and must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5. Students must be enrolled members of one of the six Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nations.

David C. Smith, the university's vice president for enrollment management and emissary to the Haudenosaunee said: "We sit here, six miles away from the center of the Haudenosaunee at
Onondaga, and we might as well be on different planets. Now we're not any more." No other university has made this kind of commitment to neighboring Aboriginal peoples. Porter said that there are several states and colleges that offer reduced tuition to American Indian students, but he knew of nothing on the scale of the Haudenosaunee Promise. Odie Brant Porter, Seneca, assistant provost said in a news release: "We have turned the corner in the education process, where education can be used to sustain our distinct culture and values, rather than being used to destroy it."

In 2013, there are now 150 Haudenosaunee students enrolled at Syracuse University.

-- Plantagon: In 2008 SWECORP Citizenship Stockholm AB and the Onondaga Nation founded Plantagon International AB which is active in the urban agriculture sector and is a global leader in vertical farming. Chief Oren Lyons is Chairman of the Board and the representative of the primary owner, the Onondaga Nation.

-- Two Wampum Renewal: In August 2013, the Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) is holding a Two Wampum Canoe Event on the Hudson River and a 13-day educational campaign. The purpose is to commemmorate and renew the 400th anniversary of the (Two Wampum) treaty between the Haudenosaunee and the United States.

Pending Collaboration

Sports Teams Stereotypes: The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) issued a resolution opposing use of Native American names for teams, mascots, and logos. A January 2013 NCAI article discusses the need for a name change for the Washington, DC NFL team.

The January 2013 Washington Post article Redskins name change should be discussed, Vincent Gray says shows that the mayor of the nation's capital is supportive of the NCAI's position. What’s in a name? The Redskins’ bad karma, a January 2013 Washington Post article said that on February 7 the National Museum of the American Indian would hold a symposium on use of racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation in American sports.

The Nations' capital has yet to decide if it will retain as the name of its football the epithet most offensive to Native Americans or honor their wish to rename the time to show respect for their history, rights, needs, and feelings. The DC mayor has taken a strong position on renaming the team. The city may find that it brings disgrace to itself and the nation if it fails to honor the wishes of the NCAI and NMAI on this important and sensitive issue. The nation needs a new tradition and collaboration if we are to survive!

In February 2013, the New York Times article Redskins Address the Name Issue (but Not Directly) pointed out that the team is still dodging this issue. Click the graphic on the right below to go to the site of the DC mayor's office. On the site, select "Contact the Mayor" from the drop-down under "Executive Office of the Mayor" if you would like to send an email to express your opinion. Mayor Gray supports renaming the NFL team, but is under a lot of pressure for his position now. This is a pivotal time.