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Native American Philosophy
A publication of The Red Pathway Learning Center & Foundation, Inc.
November 2002 - Volume 11.0
MAHINTO, AUTHOR OF WIND WOLF WOMAN
IS AVAILABLE FOR LECTURES AND BOOK SIGNINGS:
PLEASE CALL THE RED PATHWAY FOUNDATION AT 702-877-0617
HOW FATHER SUN CREATED MOTHER EARTHíS CLOCK
 In the beginning, long before the human race, there was no light or dark, only gray dismal mist floating over Mother Earth. In time, the sun would appear and its rays were warm and good. All life became fruitful, but soon the intense heat scorched the land, killing masses of people as it drew all the water from Mother Earth.
An eerie stillness had once again captured the land. Terrified, every life force huddled in the shade of the stone people to wait for the cold, pitch-darkness to return, praying to Wakan Tanka to drive the sun from the land. For the few who did survive, they hid in the dark corners of Mother Earth venturing out only in dire need to find food and water to stay alive. This would go on for many generations and over a period of time it would bring the people together as they learned to support life, not death. Slowly, the gray floating darkened mist returned to Mother Earth as a blanket to cover the scorched bones of the dead. This imbalance of daytime and nighttime lasted for many a millennium.
Since history always repeats itself, the people soon forgot about love and sharing the fruits of the land. This again produced a dilemma between the day and night time animals on Mother Earth. The daytime animals desperately wanted continuous sunshine, while the nighttime people battled to keep Mother Earth in total darkness. With these one-sided opinions, chaos erupted again throughout the land creating a separation between all the day and nighttime tribes. Time passed, and once again the violent wars continued bringing no solution to this problem.
 This day, Old Man Coyote lay resting under a shade tree. With dire curiosity, he wondered what he could do to stop the people from another destruction. He knew this battle over day and nighttime would come again and decided to do something to stop the peopleís selfish behavior. For days he thought of his plan. He trotted off into the woods and called upon all the flying ones to help him get his message out to all the people.
The birds heard and agreed to help this sacred dog. They flew throughout the land giving Coyoteís message to all that lived on Mother Earth. Why even the creepy crawlies came out of their holes to listen, then returned to tell the rest of the underworld tribes about this important meeting. Coyote called out for all the four legs, the bears, the buffaloís, the wolves, the deer, the elk, the mountain goat and all the feline families asking for their help. They too, agreed to take his message across the land.
 The sea creatures heard the tone of the message and knew the problem was in the sacred sun time. They called out to all the finned ones to have their own meeting about the two- times-two, the sunrise, the daytime, the sunset and the nighttime. All agreed the fault was in the Sunís traveling time and they would share this information with the rest of the world. As Coyoteís message traveled throughout the land, everyone was convinced they must attend this special meeting to talk things over in a logical manner and resolve their situation.
It was late fall when Coyote awakened with a start. He heard all the animals coming to join him in this important meeting. He quickly chose a place near the ocean so the sea people could join them, and built a low fire then directed the others to go and gather foods for the approaching guest. Thinking he had done a good thing, he stoked the fire in sadness as he listened to the disgruntled tribes arrive.
It was early evening when Coyote majestically rose to his feet and drew a long red line on the ground, then proudly stated, ìThe night animals will sit on the left as one group and the daytime tribes will sit on the right. The flying ones will fill the green trees.î
Each group calmly found their designated places, all glaring at each other in an irritated silence, except the bearís. They trusted no one and stood their ground. Coyote knew not to cross the boundaries of a bear, and commanded they could do as they wished. Two large grizzly bears stood up and threatened with a loud growl, staring directly at Coyote, then let their eyes rove over the rest of the crowd daring them to start a fight.
Nervously, Coyote howled a piercing threat, but a little off key. He took a long moment for the crowd to stop the angry murmurs, then said, ìI donít care for any of your opinions! We are here to vote on a lifeñdeath situation for all the people. The winning side can keep the sun or throw it away. I just want all the suffering to stop.î
ìHow in the world can we do that?î demanded Magpie, hoping to start a fight among the people.
Not trusting Coyoteís trickery and cleverness, both sides agreed he had a good idea, but they wanted to elect the Owl, who can see all things, as their second political leader. After many hours of debate, the Coyote became the referee for the daytime tribes, and the Owl became the arbitrator for the nighttime tribes. Everyone agreed and Coyote immediately ask the bears to roll a huge log to the top of the flat surfaced rock in the West.
 The owl wasnít sure of his purpose and flew high above giving exact instructions on how to place the log on the gigantic stone. Not trusting either of the political leaders, two grizzly bears voted themselves onto the committee as keepers of the peace. Everyone agreed and the rules were established. The bears slowly walked in opposite directions and took their observation places, one at each end of the log.
When everyone saw the bear warriors stance, they silently walked, crawled and slithered to their pre-selected places on the big flat stone. Each sat with their own group and quickly placed their counting tools in front of them to keep score of every vote.
The day tribes from the North unwrapped their sacred power bones, then quickly hid them in their hands. Everyone knew these people were very skillful in wizardry and watched them closely, amazed at how fast they passed the bones from hand to hand. This continued for hours then suddenly they stopped, waving their hands in the air to prove that sorcerers would always win. The animals from the West feared nothing. They took out their talking sticks with great fervor, then quickly lit a piece of sage passing the sticks through the smoke. All together they stood their talking sticks side by side in an upright position with somber yet confident faces.
Many other tribes believed in the flying ones. The eagle raven, crow, hawk raised their mystical feathered wands in the air to prove their magic would win the vote over all the people.
 From the East they gently placed a heavily beaded Elk antler on a soft deerskin hide, painted with many mystery trails that connected them to the sun.
One tribal leader from the South stood up dressed in cougar hides. He calmly picked up his twenty painted dogwood sticks and stood in silence. The West let out a war whoop each holding twenty painted cottonwood sticks in the air, believing they held the power to control all the votes.
The Mole came up from nowhere, quietly leading all the underground people into middle world. All stood as one group, one vote with the night tribe. For some strange reason the Magpie and the Hawk announced: ìWe voted ourselves to become the listeners for the flying ones.î All the tribes sat in silence. The new delegate flew to the nearby trees as all the birds chattered, whistled and sang their vote to sanction this wise decision.
ìLet the voting begin,î howled the Coyote.
ìVote for your rights and come from your heart,î hooted the Owl. The vote went back and forth for two days and two nights. Neither side had won or resolved anything. The Grizzly Bears grew restless and bored with all this debate and sat down on the log to rest their feet, eventually taking off their moccasins and falling fast asleep.
 Now, on the other side of the world, the Sun was getting restless with all this waiting and decided to go and see what the animals were doing. He yawned with boredom then started his climb up into the sky. The higher he climbed, the brighter his light became. The night people saw this and became afraid. But the sun was on his journey and everyone knew he would never turn back. As his brightness touched the top of the sky, all the nighttime animals felt the presence of his rays. Terror raced through their bodies as they ran to find a dark spot on Mother Earth to hide. The mole knew he was right above them, and quickly led all the creepy crawlies back into the safety of Mother Earthís cool body.
The sea people knew what this meant and swam away to hide under the debris floating on the ocean waves. The night flyers flew deep into the forest while the day flyers flew up to greet his visit. The lizards and the snakes crawled out from under the stones and lay basking in his warmth to soak up his rays. Suddenly all was quiet on the land except inside of the caves. It was so crowded that many a person was mauled and trampled into the earth from the stones rolling down the hills.
The bears awakened from their sleep and were very angry over the ruckus. They roared at the people but no one heard them. They grabbed their moccasins and mistakenly placed their right feet in their left moccasin and their left feet in his right moccasin. The bears ran as fast they could, all the while rocking and waddling from side to side trying to keep up, yelling at the top of their voice.
ìWait for us!î they shouted over and over again. Alas, not a soul stopped or listened to their demands.
The sun declared: ìYou clumsy, furry fools! Where is the integrity in your word? You have forgotten your commitments! Now for this, your walk will remain upright but you must waddle and sway from side to side as long as there is bear living on Mother Earth.î
Embarrassed and humiliated, the two bears changed their moccasins to the proper foot, but knew the law was decreed and would remain as a curse on them forever.
From high above, Father Sun saw and felt sad when he saw all the nighttime animals frantically dashing and scurrying to reach a dark place to hide from him. He also smiled at the daytime people celebrating his return. The sun held compassion for his fearful and selfish children knowing he had to cast the final vote in this worldwide election. He decided to teach the day and night tribes a well needed lesson in equality. He gently touched the solar clock and turned it a little to the left, saying, ìThere will be four seasons in each year.î Then he touched it again saying: ìThere will be the two-times-two: Sunrise for prayer. Daytime for work. Sunset for prayer. Nighttime for rest. Now, I have divided equal time in space, for the daytime and the nighttime children on Mother Earth. If they follow this lesson, I will allow all of the good earth children to live their life in a good way but, to those who do not obey the laws of the land, they will suffer my touch in days to come.î
Everyone heard the words of the Sun and went back to their respective homes, wondering what these new laws would bring to their life.
Red, White, and Blame. No spilled blood for oil.
And, as so the old people say: ìThatís how it is! Thatís all I got to say.î
 My oldest flying friend, Toby, the Macaw, passed to the other side this month. We all miss him. Toby was forty-seven years old and the oldest pet member of the family. As far as the pecking order goes, Toby was the boss.
The baby macaw joined the family as an egg, hoping to teach the human son the responsibilities and value of all life.
It was four oíclock early morning when the Mommie received a call informing her that baby macaw was pecking his way out of the egg. Dressing quickly, she and her son arrived at the bird ladyís home, excited to watch the featherless one arrive. When the last piece of the shell opened, there sat the wide eyed baby without a feather on his little wet body.
They waited three days before returning to bring the new family member home. When they walked into the nursery, Toby looked at her son, Rickie and said, ìHi Rickie.î A life long friendship was born on that day.
 Tobyís first home was a shoe box covered with a blanket and a soft light to keep him warm. Within a few weeks his quills began to poke through his skin. Not having a mother bird to explain these changes, he screamed constantly until he was fully feathered, and thatís how he developed a loud voice.
During those days, the Mommie was in show business and the family traveled all the time. Toby, still living in his shoe box, joined the traveling family. Necessity demanded he be fed every four hours from a bent spoon that fit his tiny soft beak. He was pampered and loved by the road crew, cast and musicians, all the while learning to say many good words along with some bad ones. Everyone loved the blue and gold Macaw. He was a natural entertainer and his favorite trick was mimicking human laughter.
Toby never lived in a cage, he liked perches. He had one in the house, one on the patio and a smaller one in the sports coach, the home on the road. Over the years, he grew tired of traveling and had developed motion sickness. The doctor felt it best for Toby to go home. A perfect traveling cage was built for him and all of his toys and goodies. Alone, the brave Toby went on his first airplane ride from South Carolina to Las Vegas, Nevada. When he saw Rickie, he yelled and laughed. Needless to say, as they left the airport. Toby entertained everyone along the way to the car.
Arriving home, Toby immediately begin to roam throughout the big house. He loved taking showers with Rickie, sitting in his big picture window preening himself in the sun. Each warm morning he loved going outside to talk to the wild birds and soon learned many of their languages. He could bark like a dog, meow like a cat, speak English and some Spanish.
One of his favorite activities was to hide among the pillows in the bed. Many times as the sun went down, he would cuddle next to Rickie and sleep the night away. Being potty trained, no one was annoyed with him, since this very considerate bird would always hang his little rear- end off the edge of the bed to poop.
He loved to hide in the closets, and his favorite was the linen closet. When the door was accidentally left open, he would sneak down the hall and climb onto the shelves, emptying them all to the floor. Another place he enjoyed bringing chaos to was the kitchen. He learned to open the drawers and cabinets. He loved the sound of falling silverware, pots and pans or whatever was sitting on the counters.
Tearing paper was another great joy of Toby's, and many a book has been destroyed in his shredding beak. He was also fascinated by computer keyboards. Many have been destroyed during his search to write a letter or just get into mischief. The speaker phone fascinated him and he insisted on talking along with you to everyone who called.
Sometimes Toby had a slight weight problem. His favorite exercise was riding on the handlebars of he bicycle, flapping his wings as though he was flying high in the sky. To go shopping with the humans was another exciting outing. He spoke to everyone as he picked up things from the shelves, then dropped them to the floor with a great belly laugh.
Toby loved television. He favorite shows were the Shopping Channel and Animal Planet. He would talk to the sales people and sometimes sing to them. When he watched Animal Planet many a fight took place with something he disliked on the screen.
Toby did have some major peeves. He exploded when a cat or dog became a family member. It seems they liked teasing him by rubbing their tails near the rim of his perch pan. He demanded respect for his space and taught all the infringing animals that his biting beak ruled everyone in the house. Many a pet learned quickly that he loved biting tails with his harsh, snapping beak. Toby would also bite a human stranger if they were silly enough to cross into his territory. He always kept everyone in line.
I canít remember when this kind of behavior begin. Each morning when the blinds were opened, Toby would always sweetly say, ìGood Morning. How are you?î He would then join the family at the dining room table, voicing his opinion during breakfast conversations.
Toby was always the boss and played a significant role in the familyís life. We love him and miss him. We pray for a safe journey back to the spirit world. Some people have seen and heard Toby from that other world. We thank him for that greeting and know he has returned to Wakan Tanka.
All my relations,
Mahinto
 Toby was very beautiful, smart and protective of his food and toys. He always maintained his personal space and never bit me because I knew to stay out of his way. He taught me the powerful secrets of the Macaw. He told me he was a bird of the sun and his magic was in his feathers. This was a gift from the sun and when the sunís rays touched his feathers they filled up with healing power of spiritual energy. Many people use his feathers as prayer sticks for a healings.
Toby told me his people were the link between the human and the bird tribe. His tribe helps human people communicate and understand each other. That is why he mimics the human voice, so they can learn to interpret the bird tribes. His unique entertainment talents always created laughter and joy. Everyone loved our sweet Toby.
Here are a few thoughts from Tobyís good friends.
by Marcia Pando
Squawking from the other room
Dancing your head from side to side.
You spread your wings to show your plumes,
That beak of yours had me terrified!
Your wild beauty still has me in awe,
I miss you Toby, the blue and gold macaw.
Love, Marcia
Ten Life Lessons from Toby
by Ska Kememedah WíInyan
- Stand tough and defend your space.
- If you are smaller than your invader, fluff out your feathers and flap your wings wildly.
- Squawk as loudly as you can at the first sign of danger.
- When the invader keeps coming, bite the butt, toes, fingers, whatever is closest to you. Take no prisoners.
- Make it known what you prefer to eat and how you want it prepared. Never compromise.
- If you are speaking and someone interrupts, walk swiftly up and down and speak louder than they are.
- When you need attention, squawk until you are brought out to be center attraction.
- Keep attentive vigil. Bringing the sun up and down is your job.
- When being admired, arrogantly flaunt what you have. Show the beauty of full wing and be sure they see that magnificent under wing.
- Clean and preen your feathers daily. You never know when you will be asked to show the world your beauty.
What I Remember
by Alan Hubbard
What I remember most about Toby was his laugh. He loved to laugh with us when we were just sitting around gossiping or chilling out. Sometimes he would get carried away with his laugh which would make us laugh even harder. I remember a couple of times someone would say something off the wall and he would start laughing at them. I also remember I would walk up to his perch and say hi to him. Sometimes he would say hi back or say good morning. Other times he would puff up his feathers and I would tell him how pretty he was then he would take one of his legs and lift up his wing to show me all his pretty feathers.
Sometimes we would play a game. He would cock his head sideways and look at me and I would do the same thing then he moved head sideways the other direction and I would follow. Then he would start quacking like a duck and I would quack back at him. I guess he thought this was funny because he would start laughing.
Toby: Wild Teacher of Caution
by Luta WamNuHanah WíInyan
In getting to know Toby, I learned of fear of a bite that will leave bruises like I have never seen. He taught me to respect his boundaries, well of course mine didnít matter to him. The love of life he shared was an every miracle. He would greet us all and laugh at our wondermentís as we watched him communicate with all worlds. He would let us know when someone or something was around. I couldnít have broccoli and cheese without sharing. He wanted some of whatever you were having, and the sounds and screaming would drive you to give it to him. His wings would spread in total defiance if you were in his area.
Tobyís worst enemy was the ironing board, and at every opportunity he would attack. Thoughts and memories of Toby bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart.
Toby
by Marion Booth May
Dear Toby,
You were a class act, and I admired that about you. You expected the best, and I am sure you were always like that. You taught me about color schemes since your combination was unsurpassed. For those who love beautiful clothes and colors, none could match yours. Every day was exciting for you, and I especially loved the way you caught we humans by surprise when you knew we were not paying attention! You were always a welcome addition to class, and I used to secretly hope you would make enough noise so that you could join us more often. Now, I am glad that you have moved to a place where you will always fly your beautiful colors.
Lots of love,
Bear
GIVE BLESSINGS FOR EACH DAY
Join our group for the blessings you receive each day in your life. Keep a daily log, you can always refer back to the many GOOD things that come into your life. Never, never forget the wonderful people that make your life easier. I call these blessings, a precious gifts from Creator. Here is a sample page from my personal journal:
HEART FELT APPRECIATION, THANK YOU
- TOBY, Thank you for allowing me to share in your exciting life.
- To my son, Richard who helps me define my plans for exposing, selling, marketing the book Wind Wolf Woman to the buying market.
- To Jean Kesgamol, my physical trainer, who keeps my body strong and healthy.
- I know nothing about electricity and afraid of it. To Jackie Lee and Vonda Elsbury for taking a day out of their precious life to repair the electricity problems in my house. Plugs, breakers, etc.
- To Raul, a new landscape artist that maintains my beautiful gardens.
- To Ann Sims, Marcia Panda, Joy Siddiqi, Marion May, Vonda and Jack Elsbury, Margaret Mailer, Anthony Lang, Devi Michaels and Alan Hubbard. I thank each of you for supporting me on my many endeavors.
Copyright © 2002 all rights reserved. No portion of this newsletter may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher.
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