Stormy Red Door / Reddoor / RedDoor

[Ingeborg]

Stormy Red Door / Reddoor /RedDoor


I received a request about a person going by the name of Stormy Red Door who lives in Germany. He claims Assiniboin; according to a video at his site he was born at Fort Peck rez, Montana. SRD has made a living as an artists and musician, but apparently also sells ceremonies.



This is his site about artistic and musical activities:

http://www.stormyreddoor.de/html/musik.html

In August 1998,Stormy and Holly first met. It was the beginning of a very special friendship.
Some days later, they composed a song just for fun. Accidentaly, this song made it in the charts on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Stormy and Holly went on composing. The Blue Medicine Music was born.
Blue Medicine Music is music medicine for cleaning our souls,
for cleaning our aura and for freeing our spirits.
The music will set moods, let your spirit travel.
Allows one to feel the inner emotions, and yet move one physically to
the natural heartbeat of Mother Earth.
The lyrics speak of sacredness, spirituality, reality, brotherhood, love,
hate, happiness and sadness.... human emotions.
Very often words and music are created spontaneously using guitars, nature sounds,
Native American instruments and the mood of the moment.
We all get a little blue sometimes.
Listen, heal yourself. Music for all that lives on the only
blue planet in the Universe.

[original text from website]

At the start page of this site, there is a video of SRD in which he explains he was born at Fort Peck. The further comment, spoken in German, claims that when SRD was 18, he fought in Vietnam for three years and returned to the USA in 1969. Since his bio at this site says SRD was born in 1950, the three tours in Vietnam are to be doubted. SRD then explains he started with artwork at the rez in Montana, but „got my full creativity in this area which is the Navaho reservation“.

The video also describes SRD as an „ambassador for his culture“ who goes to museums, kindergardens, and schools where he is said to „explain the meaning of various rituals, various herbs, of the medicine wheel, and what it means to carry the pipe“. There are accompanying sequences in which SRD shows kindergarten kids a pipe; the children are allowed to touch the pipe.


His bio as an artist:
http://www.stormyreddoor.de/html/kuenstler.html

Stormy RedDoor Born in the Summer of 1950, raised on the Sioux-Assinibion-Reservation, Stormy started out on a road many people can only dream of. Living on the very most northern border of the United States, travelling south to Mexico, Los Angelos , New York and also serving a tour in Southeast Asia, he finally ended up in Europe, still following the free spirit of his heritage. Comming home from Vietnam, dazed and confused, Stormy decided to isolate himself moving to a remote area in the southwestern part of the U.S. It was there he allowed the seed of creativity and traditional medicine to take hold once again. He became known in the visual art world for his unique "basrelief" stone sculptures. This created a bridge for him to come to Europe. It was where he discovered a new gift, the ability of songwriting and singing. true to his nature, he has taken these "gifts" to heart.

[original text from website]



However, he also maintains another website with his partner, Ms Heidi Janssen (they are both mentioned in the imprint). Via this site, they sell ndn spirituality and ceremonies:


http://www.indian-life-art.de/

Sweatlodge ceremony ? spiritual cleansing
Meditation ? ancient wisdom about the medicine wheel
Workshops ? e.g. from Evening Star to Morning Star
Experiencing of Indian culture [sic!] in „camp“
Individual coaching

lead by:
Stormy Reddoor
(Dakota / Assiniboin)
Nativ North American Indian [sic!]
and
Heidi Janssen

[translation by me]


These are their price tags:

http://www.indian-life-art.de/html/preise.html

Price for a sweatlodge ceremony:
EURO 55 per person
Groups of 6 persons and more: EURO 50 per person
Partnership offer: EURO 50 per person

Price for a workshop all night:
Drum session, sundown ceremony, sweatlodge at night, sleeping in a tipi, sunrise ceremony and breakfast in a tipi: EURO 120 per persons (for groups of 5 persons and more)

Prices for classes in camp, including meal,
Time: approx. 2.5 hours, EURO 12.50 per person (groups of 15 persons and more)

We also come to your school resp classroom to give an authentic touch to the issue of „Indians“ for project days.
Prices for this will be negotiated with schools according to needs and requirements.
Since we also cooperate with the Wingst Youth Hostel, it is possible to book a complete offer in the course of a class trip when booking rooms at the hostel.

Prices for meditation events:
Meditation in a tipi: EURO 10 per person
Meditation at random places in up to 100 kms distance: EURO 12.50 per person

Individual Coaching:
EURO 40 per hour

[translation by me ]


Here are a few letters sent by grateful customers. Except for one which I translated, the others were written in English:

http://www.indian-life-art.de/html/feedback.html

Hello Stormy and Heidi, I just want to say thank you for a really wonderful morning. The kids seemed to be more than enthusiastic about the experience they had in the sweat lodge and those who were going home with me really enjoyed the stay at the camp. One boy told me that it would be cool to stay the night at the camp! So they are looking forward to meet you at school, when they are 9th graders.
Lots of love from
Elizabeth



Dear Mr RedDoor, Yesterday I had the honour to meet you at school, but the time just seemed to fly away and at the end I did not really have the chance to thank you for that great lesson. I was impressed by the many things you told and taught us! I will keep them in my mind and in fortune I promise I will take more care for our Earth, for if the coal really is her liver, we must have hurt her already quite a lot. I like the way you respect our Earth and everything that lives on her. Many young people are not taught this respect, I believe. I also liked the way you explained all that to us. I have never met such a charismatic and wise person like you before! It would be great, if you found the time to come again maybe next year, and if I had the chance to listen to you again then. I keep on hoping. Yours truly Maike PS: I want to apologize for my English. I know it is not the best. I hope, I did not make too many mistakes.
Maike
 


December 7, 2007
Dear Heidi,
I was able to make an emotional journey with Heidi’s prompting questions:
Please allow me to thank you for the precious time we had together. I was especially impressed and felt some honesty going on inside myself with the guided imagery and questions that you asked me.
Question # 1. “What are you feeling?”

I answered “sadness”. I felt sadness about the separation I feel from many of the people I love, separation that is caused by a lot of seemingly insignificant things. It seems it is mostly by things I do that creates space between them and me. These feelings arose in me when Heidi asked me.
Question #2. “What is this sadness about?”

Then I told her my sadness had moved to anger. I was angry with my wife for choosing to be so distant from me. I felt she had distanced herself from me because I had made so many mistakes in our marriage and she no longer trusts me. This did not appear to be big anger for me. It was just slow creeping anger and my next feeling was loneliness.

Question #3: What is the loneliness about?”
I explained I just felt lonely; lost and alone, even though I knew I have quite a few people that love me. I began to cry and cry. Heidi stood and came over to me and hugged me. Stormy, (Heidi’s companion) with compassion in his eyes also came to me and hugged me. It felt so good to me to be so accepted by these beautiful people.

“What is this sadness about?” then later “What is the anger about?” and finally “What is your loneliness about?”. They each said to me “I love you, Jim”. Mar was also present. She also gave me a hug and communicated her love for me in her hug.
This was an especially powerful and valuable healing experience for me. Thank you,
Thank you.
Dr. James L. Christensen
Alta, WY.

[original text from website]

Hello!
The kids liked it very much and we chanted again in class. Will send a picture done commonly by the kids soon... I would also like to participate in the sweatlodge at June 8. If there's still a vacancy there, I will gladly fill it! Dearest regards, Desiree

[translation by me]


This is the site's photo section:
http://www.indian-life-art.de/html/fotos.html

This photo shows SRD in front of a sweatlodge:
http://www.indian-life-art.de/galerie/pages/s011.html



I found another entry (a regional online project publishing info on cultural events) in which SRD is called a medicine man:

http://www.niederelbe.de/ostemarsch/hem-kul.htm

March 26, 2008: In the course of the event „Family Worlds“ in the towns of Wingst and Otterndorf, the Wingst Zoo invites to a Day of the Sioux at Friday, March 28, from 2 p.m. To 6 p.m. The Indian medicine man Stormy Red Door gives an introduction into his culture.

[translation by me]

[clearwater]

Here is a news article about Stormy RedDoor that appeared in the Teton Valley News, November 8, 2007. He presents himself as a Sioux-Assinbion medicine man.

http://www.indian-life-art.de/grafik/medien/teaching-ways-to-heal.html


According to the article, his sister operates the RedDoor Rehabilitation facility in Driggs, Idaho

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=vuo&q=RedDoor+Rehabilitation%2C+Driggs%2C+Idaho&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=

A quick review of the web domain "indian-life-art.de" seems to indicate the IP address in in the US. All other domains I peeked at are in Amsterdam or Germany so are not shown here:

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/indian-life-art.de

[EDIT/ADDITIONS]

A MySpace site, which includes same YouTube video above. Spoken mostly in German
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=514002909&blogId=524783611

BlueMedicine Music's MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/bluemedicinemusic

A pdf file promotional flier of BlueMedicine Music found on homepage of stormyreddoor.de website.
http://www.bluemedicinemusic.de/download/BlueMedicine_engl.pdf

From the .pdf flyer above:

Stormy RedDoor was born on the Assiniboin/Sioux reservation in Montana in
1950. In 1967 he joined the US Marine corps and spent thirteen months in
Vietnam. Art and the traditional Sacred Medicine helped him to deal with the
experiences he had, after the war. His unique “basrelief” stone sculptures were
shown in several exhibitions in North America as well as in Germany. Since
2001 Stormy has been living in Germany.

Here is a reference made to stone carvings of Stormy RedDoor:
(you will need to use the scroll bar withint the page to see all the article)

http://www.globalpossibilities.org/media-weekendhouses.html

The above article is about the weekend rental houses, as far as I can tell The article describes the Danson House in Tesuque, New Mexico. From that article:

Danson wanted a romantic, very feminine interior. "It's a very pink and red house, only for girls," she says with a laugh. From upholstery to artwork, much of the inside is conceived in these pale shades. She sculpted the figurative bronzes that dot the rooms her self. Other pieces here are mainly by local artists, including Dan Namingha, a well-regarded New Mexican painter of mixed Hopi Tewa extraction. The stone carvings throughout were done by a Sioux medicine man named Stormy RedDoor.

None of the photos are clear enough to see any carvings.

[EDIT/ADDITIONS]

Here is a .pdf file, which was the program for the "World Conference of Ethnotherapies" held October 8-10, 2004, Munich University, Germany (found on page 15 of this 19 page file):

Sounds of healing has been cancelled
Regretfully Stormy RedDoor, Sioux-Craw, H.Petersen, Musictherapist have cancelled

clearwater

[somebody]

i have seen SRD in Hamburg with Blue Medicine Music end of 2008. The music was nice but i had a problem with the pipe in front of them,lighted(angezündet) before the concert started and smoked after the concert was finished(not in front of the people).For me that was very strange because i could not "escape" fast enough to bring some distance between the pipe and me. sorry if i say this as a white person but it didn`t felt right to me(personly).