December 30, 2009

DEAR FRIENDS,

Greetings to everyone from our high desert home here in northern New Mexico, where the darkness of the Winter Solstice has given way to the return of the light and the coming New Year. A few days ago we were camping in the wind and snow with some Native teenagers and their teachers at Bosque del Apache, a bird and wildlife sanctuary south of Socorro. Though their numbers were small, we saw sandhill cranes, snow geese, ducks of many kinds, redtails, marsh hawks, bald eagles, mule deer and fox. It was a great way to finish up a year that saw us camping out steadily from March until late December.

Approaching rainstorm in Chaco Canyon, Tracking in the Southwest,
September 2009. Photo by Cary Odes.

Each year it gets harder to write this newsletter, to somehow try to encapsulate and share the hundreds of transformational moments we experience when our students become aware of a deep connection with the Natural World. The last year was no different, the tracks of the turtle leading us to distant lands and new adventures as we shared our Arts of Life programs of natural and cultural awareness with interested people around the world—from the central Amazon rainforest near Rio Preto da Eva to the arid beauty of La‘au Point on Molokai, from the piñon/juniper belt of the Upper Rio Grande watershed to the coral reefs of Huahine, French Polynesia.

This is our Annual newsletter reporting on our activities in 2009, with special reports on: a Tribute to Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki; our staff retreats and collaborations here in the Southwest with the National Indian Youth Leadership Project and Santa Fe Mountain Center; our Arts of Life / Hawai‘i programs and Nurturing the Roots / TTPHI; and our recent work in Manaus, Brazil, through Nurturing the Roots: Mentor Outreach 08/09. Inside you’ll also find our Annual Project Summary for 2009, our Products pages and a Calendar of upcoming events through late Fall 2010.

Shalako

As in years past, we have ended our travels and joined our friends of many traditions to celebrate and give thanks through dances and ceremonies for the bounty of the year. In November we were able to observe the Days of the Dead, the Feast Day of San Diego (November 12) with our friends at Tesuque Pueblo, and Thanksgiving Day. And on December 3 we once again joined young friends at Zuni Pueblo to observe their grand winter ceremony known as Shalako.

In Southwestern Indian Ceremonials, Tom Bahti writes: “The Zuni have probably the most complex of all native religions in the Southwest, and every aspect of Zuni life is completely integrated with their religion.” He describes Shalako as “the major ritual performed at the pueblo of Zuni. Usually referred to as a house blessing ceremonial, it is a forty-nine day reenactment of the Zuni emergence and migration myths. In addition it is a prayer for rain, for the health and well being of the people, and for the propagation of plants and animals. During the Shalako the spirits of the dead return to be honored and fed....” (p. 28)

We are grateful to the pueblos and Native communities of New Mexico—and all the Native communities around the world—for their observance of the traditional ceremonies such as Shalako to help keep our world in balance at a time when balance is so badly needed. And we are doubly thankful to these communities for allowing us to step in and be part of something so life-affirming and grand.

Keith Strever and Randy Charles up early tending the fire for the Emerging
Leaders program, Circle A Ranch, April 2009. ho.

Thanksgiving Address: Greetings to the Natural World

The Thanksgiving Address series continues to move with a life of its own, spreading a message of respect and gratitude for all living things. We have lost count of the websites—both Native and non-Native—which have posted the text from the book, and we receive numerous requests through the year for the permission to reprint or to utilize the words for some performance, show or presentation. In November we reprinted the English/Mohawk edition for the 13th time since 1993, bringing the total number of books in print to 66,500 copies.

After many years of careful preparation, our long-term associate and Hawaiian language teacher on O‘ahu, Miki Maeshiro, has completed Ha‘i O- lelo Maika‘i, the Hawaiian language version of the Thanksgiving words. Miki’s association with The Tracking Project has been long and fruitful, including visits to her classroom at the Kamehameha Schools from 1989 to 2001, her involvement in the first Nurturing the Roots mentor program (1996– 1998 & 2000), her sabbatical in our office in 2000 and 2001, her coordination of the Alaka‘i Program, a Hawaiian mentor program for teachers at the Kamehameha Schools (2002– 2004), and her participation as a mentor in our current TTPHI/NTR training. Ha‘i O- lelo Maika‘i will be the ninth language version in the series, and we hope to have the books available in the early months of 2010.

In 2008, respected Mohawk spiritual leader Mr. Tom Porter (Sakokweniónkwas) published his important book And Grandma Said... Iroquois Teachings as passed down through the oral tradition. In Chapter 2, “The Opening Address,” he writes: “We always begin with the Thanksgiving Address, which is this first one here on the list. The Iroquiois nations, when they have meetings or they have ceremonies or they have social dances or any big thing, always do what they call Ohénton Karihwatékwen. That’s what we call it. In English, some people call it the Opening Prayer, probably for lack of a better way to say it. Some people call it the Thanksgiving Address. Others call it the Greetings. But in my language, Mohawk, this is what we call it—Ohénton Karihwatékwen. A more literal translation would be what we say before we do anything important.” (p. 8)

In a footnote to the chapter (p. 26), Tom added: “While we’re at this, we do have in the craft store, a book that’s got the Opening Prayer, the Opening Address, in it. It’s a little one too, pocket size. And it’s in Spanish, it’s in Japanese, it’s in Chinese, it’s in Portuguese, it’s in French, it’s in Italian, it’s in I don’t know. They keep on translating it into different languages. It’s a wonderful thing. And I think the more that that book goes all over the world, it becomes a skeleton key for all humans to see if they can find their path again, and stuff like that.” (Tom’s book can be purchased in several ways: You can call toll free 1-888-275-3772, Voicemail Box #3, or order on-line through www.HerNativeRoots.com. You can purchase the book as well as a CD of Tom reciting the Opening Address in both Mohawk and English from the craft store at Kanatsiohareke, 4934 State Highway 5, Fonda, N.Y. 12068.)

Currently, the Thanksgiving Address book is available in English, German, Swedish, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Bisayan and French (and soon Hawaiian)—each paired with the original Mohawk text to remind readers of the source of these Thanksgiving words, and to show that the Mohawk language is alive and thriving, with almost 4,000 speakers at this time in Canada and the United States. As funds allow, we will continue to develop this series dedicated to bringing the minds of the people of the world together in appreciation of our diversity, the natural world and the gift of life itself. We extend our thanks to our many translators and to the Haudenosaunee—the people of the Iroquois Confederacy— for preserving these words “from the beginning of time” and offering them to us at this important moment.

Everyone loves firemaking day at Hawkeye Training, Circle A Ranch, July 2009. Photo by Cary Odes.

Our website— www.thetrackingproject.org

I remember someone saying to me in 2000 while we were developing our website, that a website is your “business card for the international community.” From the positive comments that we have been receiving from all over the world, there seem to be lots of people who resonate with our programs and our vision. In 2009 the flow of visitors to the site was steady, with an average of about 4,500 per month. And on New Years Day, the total visitors since we posted the site in 2001 was 369,353.

Recognizing that the website has only reported on our projects since 2000, we have begun to selectively post articles and special reports from the years 1985–2000—our Greatest Hits. On the Peacemaking page you will find articles on Dave Martine, Navajo Peacemaker, from the Navajo Times (1995), as well as updated pictures and reportage of the Hawaiian Tree of Peace plantings we joined Jake Swamp for in the early 1990’s. In the next month, watch for a reprint of Nanao Sakaki: Poems of Land & Life 1981 from Nanao or Never: Nanao Sakaki Walks Earth A (Blackberry Books, 2000).

New DVD Series

After years of threats, I bought a video camera and began to tape some of Cary Odes’s comedy routines at our Tracking in the Southwest course. I had always felt that people in our courses would enjoy having a DVD of Cary doing his “eccentrically Tracking Project” routines. One day, I asked Joel Glanzberg to back up the claim that “many of our problems today could be solved by planting trees”... and the result was a remarkable presentation by Joel. Brother Noland agreed that he would like to share some of his teachings, Master Greg Vaccaro asked if he might be part of the project and PAZ felt that he could contribute some teachings about Azteca energy work. In 2010 we are making plans to begin taping a DVD series based on the teachings we have been sharing over the past years. More on this as it develops.

Bear tracks in the mud, Tracking in the Southwest, Circle A Ranch,
September 2009. Photo by Cary Odes.

Your Contributions

Since 1986, we have maintained a rigorous schedule of community visits, speaking engagements, camps and trainings, inspiring and teaching thousands of people, young and old. In the past we could respond to a request from a community who had no funding and somehow, we would make it work. But now, the size of our “extended family” and the number of requests we receive each year is simply too great.

Your gift of any size can help us spread the word of natural awareness, cultural respect and the need to preserve wildlife among the many individuals, organizations, tribes and communities that request our programs. Send a tax-deductible contribution... and watch the turtle work!

Wanting to donate shares of stock? Thanks to a good friend who contributed some shares to us in 2007 and again in the past two weeks, we opened and have maintained an account with a brokerage firm. If this is an option you would like to explore, please contact us for further information. And look inside this newsletter at our Products pages to see more of our T-shirts, hats, posters and books. Purchasing our products is another great way to support our work.

Thanks

We send our special thanks to everyone who has pledged themselves to our work, to our many contributors, to the foundations who believe in what we do and to all our supporters—We thank you for enabling us to continue our work. For a full list of foundations and groups who provided us with grants in the last year, please see our Annual Project Report.

To all our friends and guest artists who give so generously of themselves— Betty, Anna, Geri, Erin, Nancy, Jade, Kainoa, India, Luara, Keith, Cary, Vicenta, Trish & Walt, Greg, Vicki & Dakota, Able, Solar & Renata & Karinna, Leandra, Jessica, Anne, Ibrahim, Shanetta, Joel & Erin, Steven, Paul, PAZ & Rita & the Zamora family, Karen, Noland & Heidi & One Tribe Aloha, Jamie, Gale, Marty, Jeffrey, George, Ruth & Dave, Dan & Diana, John Densmore, Satara & Tai, Peter, Jenny & Don, Sarah C., Geejay, Devin & J, Mac, Kate, Garrett, Alejandro, Chieko, Herb, Mac & Joyce, Evan, Justin, Devin B., Forrest, Paige, Jeff, Jon & Lisa, Noel, Randy, Ian, Nicole, Sensei Debbie, Sensei Tara, Jake, Tommy, Andy & Helene, Joe & Carol, Teague & Kosma & the people at Gemini Farm, Mililani, Yuklin, Miki & Brian, Dr. Chun, Anna Lee, Mele, Kaimi, Jenny & Palakiko, Emily, Pi‘i & Lei‘a, Jon, Chandy, Pomai, Jackie, KES Grade 1 teachers, KES Grade 2 teachers, Pua, Brad & Mi‘i, the ‘Ohe team, the Lehua team, the Koa team, Ed at the Pagoda, Donnie, Renée, Mike M., Jean-Claude, Vetea, Elvis, Marion, Jan, Nancy, Paule, Claudia, Caroline & Saul & family, Florencio, Moacir, Mariana, Andreía, Isabel, Edison Luis, Rodrigo, Frank at Down the Road, Terri at Westwind, Ken, Manuel, Frank G., Andrew… many thanks.

John and Kainoa Stokes demonstrate open hand techniques, NIYLP Sacred Mountain Camp, July 2009. Photo by Alejandro Lopez.

Awareness—the “sense” that unites the other senses

It is said that soon after his enlightenment the Buddha passed a man on the road who was struck by the Buddha’s extraordinary radiance and peaceful presence. The man stopped and asked, “My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god?” “No,” said the Buddha. “Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?” Again the Buddha answered, “No.” “Are you a man?” “No.” “Well, my friend, then what are you?” The Buddha replied, “I am awake.”

The word buddha means ”one who is awake.” It is the experience of awakening to the truth of life that is offered in the Buddhist tradition. –Jack Kornfield, from the editor’s preface to Teachings of the Buddha (Shambhala, 1993)

Awareness. Paying attention. The quality of attention that we bring to our life determines the quality of our life. Tracking as practiced over many thousands of years is a system of nature awareness which can help us awaken to the truths of life.

It would be a shame if we allowed our fears to blind us to the beauty of this world. This is not the time to go to sleep nor to be asleep. A new world is taking form before our eyes and we must be conscious of what is happening and protect what is important so that we don’t let go of things we will need for our survival in the future.

Now more than ever is the time when we need the Earth, the animals and the sanity that nature holds for us. In every aspect of Nature we can find a reflection of the holy world through which we can remember who we are as people and why we are here on this Earth.

With these thoughts in mind, we will continue to evolve as an organization— working for the youth, the Natural World, the preservation of wildlife and the growth of understanding among all people.

JOHN STOKES, Director

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