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Post by jiujitsupurple on Jan 24, 2018 1:28:40 GMT -6
Hello, my name is Daniel and I’m from California. Brief story of myself I’m 51% Native. I’m Maya and Totonac. Being raised mostly by my great grandmother I watched her grind corn, chilli, and other spices in stone bowls and cleanse me from time to time with a type of smoke in a bowl all while speaking a dialect I never understood. I remember when my mother purchased her first home my great grandmother and grandmother went over and cleansed the entire house with a type of smoke, which I later learned from a Navajo friend is known as smudging. Anyhow As I got older I started asking questions about some of the rituals I witnessed which eventually led me to start a family tree to learn my families history and origins. I realized these were all indigenous practices that were passed down from generation to generation. I also learned my family originated from deep inside Mexico and Guatemala and that I had family who were all Maya which I’m currently in the process of learning my peoples language. Sorry for the rambling but this all brought me here to this site to learn what I can from other natives to better educate myself about my people whether they are north of the border or south and pass on to my kids so our history doesn’t get lost. I do have one question for everyone. Do you consider indigenous people from Mexico and further south to be Native American?
Thank you guys and gals for your time and I hope to hear your responses. And I’m looking forward to learning from everyone on here.
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Post by Lone4eagle on Jan 24, 2018 18:23:42 GMT -6
Welcome Daniel! Yes, smudging is very important in NA traditions everywhere, often a white sage which can be used in a clay bowl, a large seashell on a wooden tripod stand, or as a smudge stick. A seashell should not be burnt on the underside. A person, from a Pacific NW tradition, might consider it negative to smudge using a shell that got burned on the bottom edge.
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Post by jiujitsupurple on Jan 24, 2018 21:56:37 GMT -6
Welcome Daniel! Yes, smudging is very important in NA traditions everywhere, often a white sage which can be used in a clay bowl, a large seashell on a wooden tripod stand, or as a smudge stick. A seashell should not be burnt on the underside. A person, from a Pacific NW tradition, might consider it negative to smudge using a shell that got burned on the bottom edge. Thank you. That’s some good info to know. Im going to research that.
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Post by Lone4eagle on Jan 25, 2018 20:22:34 GMT -6
I was looking online at a NA trading post called Crazy Crow, to see what is being used by tribes for smudge sticks. Sage & White will alaways be popular smudge sticks. Then you also find smudging sticks of Red Cedar, Cedar & Sage (combined), Pinion Sage, Lavender & Sage, Juniper, Grandfather Sage, and Northern Traditional Sage. Then you have Sweetgrass Braids which have always been very traditional or sacred pipe tobacco blends used in pipe ceremonies, can be smudged also. Special blends of NA herbs used for ceremonies, often have a name, especially true of sacred pipe blends. link-Native American Herbs & Botanicals
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Post by jiujitsupurple on Jan 28, 2018 21:12:45 GMT -6
I just had a Navajo friend of mine tell me the exact same thing regarding the herbs to use today.
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Post by Lone4eagle on Jan 29, 2018 15:14:03 GMT -6
I just had a Navajo friend of mine tell me the exact same thing regarding the herbs to use today. NA traditions today, hold to the old ways, keeping alive practice handed down by word of mouth for thousands of years.
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Post by jiujitsupurple on Feb 2, 2018 11:20:49 GMT -6
I just had a Navajo friend of mine tell me the exact same thing regarding the herbs to use today. NA traditions today, hold to the old ways, keeping alive practice handed down by word of mouth for thousands of years. Yeah, imma try to hold onto everything my grandma has shown me. Not sure what age to teach my little ones but I need to start thinking of teaching them. Where did you learn about native ways? Or who did you learn from?
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Post by Lone4eagle on Feb 10, 2018 11:46:39 GMT -6
NA traditions today, hold to the old ways, keeping alive practice handed down by word of mouth for thousands of years. Yeah, imma try to hold onto everything my grandma has shown me. Not sure what age to teach my little ones but I need to start thinking of teaching them. Where did you learn about native ways? Or who did you learn from? First encounter with native ways, decades ago I went to visit a Miami tribe spiritual teacher who was also custodian of the tribe's ceremonial pipes. Many visits and asking questions, eventually learned enough to get started. With the Internet we have now, you can learn a whole lot of NA traditons...just need to find the right sites, make sure they are really traditional.
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Post by Unega Uwohali Waya Adkins on Mar 7, 2018 13:35:54 GMT -6
Welcome aboard!
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