Dear Stonehorn,
My name is Gary Morris, the author of the book you read "Sporen In Ons Hart." Not long ago I was trying, yet again, to find out what happened to my publisher, Bres Publishing, when I came across your post here. I. like you, feel that any book, any claim, by anyone to be a "spokesperson," shaman, healer, practitioner, must be approached with a great deal of skepticism. Most are complete frauds and horrible abusers of Indian people and anything you, or anyone can do to strip these people of any audience they might have is commendable work.
With your permission I would like to answer all the questions that have been posted on this site and then give you my email address so I might speak to any other questions about my life and my writing you might have.
First "Yurok" is the name of Calvin Rube's tribe given to them by a tribe up river from them, the Karok, and means "Down the River People. Their name for themselves is Pulikla (poo-leek-la) which also means "Down The River People."
The pictures in the book of Calvin Rube and Georgina Matilton were the only pictures ever taken of them. They were taken by a San Francisco Chronicle photographer when one of their staff writers came to Calvin Rube's house to be Doctored. I was never photographed with them and the truth is they didn't want their picture taken as a matter of principle.
I am not now, nor will I ever be an anthropologist. I came to Calvin's house as an orphan the year my step-mother murdered my father. I think they let me stay there because they felt sorry for me. I was, indeed, a hard case and I knew almost nothing about how human life should be conducted. I ended up living with them for more than 20 years until they died; Calvin on February 3, 1985 and Georgina on February 3, 1989.
Calvin and Georgina did speak their language, lived on their own reservation. Yurok country was very unique in very many respects when it came to whiteman incursion into their lives and their land. White people first showed up there in 1853 and Calvin's and Georgina's parents were children when this happened, so when they spoke about their original tradition, they spoke about it from their own personal experience and personal experiences of their parents.
As to my book, it was never published in English, although I have copies of my writing in English and if you wanted a copy, I would be more than glad to email it to you, if you promised me not to post it on the internet in its entirety.
Although it says on the back of my book that I write articles and lecture, I must admit that I do not like the term lecture. I have done many talks, for which I received no pay of any kind. It was never my intention to gather a “following,” never conducted any “ceremony,” workshop, training, get away weekend, shaman training, vision quest, or in simpler terms---I never spread any bullshit.
The reason I wrote the book was because I wanted everyone to know that such people existed in our lifetimes. As that old saying goes; “Another heaven and earth will have to come to pass for the likes of them to ever pass this way again.” They were the two most peaceful people I ever met and I would never have had any life at all if they hadn’t taken me in and treated me the way they did. I miss them every day and the whole world was diminished by their passing. Please feel free to ask me any question you have and I will be glad to reply in a timely manner.
Respectfully
Gary Morris
hawkoom@hughes.net
