This page describes them as led by Chris and Andrea Long. Chris says he is Cherokee and Choctaw and raised in OK, with a Welsh father. Andrea makes no mention of her ancestry. Again, they claim James Crow Dog, son of Leonard, authorized them. Both claim to be medicine people.
The photo of their group shows 17 people, perhaps 3 of them NDN, though they claim 200 members.
------
http://www.sacredbreathlodge.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/OWT-Eagle-article1.pdf....In fact, the guidance, answers and understanding we seek are available to each of us, stresses Chris Long, medicine man and spiritual director of the Oníyan Wakán Tipi, formerly known as the Great Mystery Alliance Native American Church. However, we may need to be shaken loose from ingrained conditioning in order to perceive and integrate this wisdom.
This shaking loose is one of the primary effects of the sweat lodge, vision quest and other forms of prayer and ceremony that have come down the ages through a direct lineage of indigenous wisdom keepers, Chris observes. He and his wife Andrea, who formed the Great Mystery Alliance about 10 years ago, have taken on the honor and responsibility of preserving and disseminating tools and teachings passed on directly to them by the son of Leonard Crow Dog, one of the world’s most admired and respected Lakota medicine men.
James Crow Dog recognized in Chris the true spirit, humility and integrity of a medicine man and roadman who could lead such powerful ceremonies as the all-night tipi meeting and the Yuwipi ceremony. As a key link in the lineage now being carried on by Oníyan Wakán Tipi, James gave the organization its Lakota name, meaning Sacred Breath Lodge.
Today Oníyan Wakán Tipi hosts regular Lakota language and ceremonial singing and drumming classes for adults and children, prayer circles, vision quests and men’s, women’s and family sweat lodges, all on a donation-only basis. Along with his ordination in the Lakota lineage, Chris is certified and registered with state and federal agencies to lead sweat lodges and all-night tipi meetings in the tradition of the Native American Church.
....Oníyan Wakán Tipi, currently in the process of obtaining a non-profit status, draws some 200 regular participants from across the county, especially during the warm months. Special ceremonies such as the Sun Dance bring participants from around the world. To better accommodate such groups, the organization is looking for an appropriate piece of land and funding to establish a permanent tipi village and ceremonial site.
Chris was raised in Indian country in Oklahoma of Choctaw, Cherokee and Welch heritage. Visions that foreshadowed his life’s path began when he was 9. When he was 17 he created a striking pen and ink drawing of the pipe he later received and now carries. A print of the drawing hangs in the living room of the foothills home near Crestone where he and Andrea live with their children, 8-year-old Uma and 4-year-old Soma.
Chris’s Welch-born father raised his son with ancient Gaelic songs associated with ceremonies at Stonehenge. From an early age, Chris remembers his father telling him he would grow up to be a medicine man. In the winter of 1994 Chris came to Crestone to live alone in the mountains. When he came down after eight months he met a Lakota medicine man of Leonard Crow Dog’s lineage and began apprenticing with him. A few years later Chris received a phone call from James Crow Dog, who had chosen him to receive James’s Yuwipi medicine bundle.
Andrea’s path to Native teachings began with a deep love of nature in her home state of Michigan. One night in her early 20s, under a full moon, she offered a heartfelt prayer that she would be led to what she calls “the real thing” in Native American spirituality. Part of her prayer was, if it was right for her, finding a partner would happen as well.
She found both. She moved to Crestone in 2000 to attend massage school, and met Chris. The couple recently celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary. Well on her way to becoming an ordained medicine woman, Andrea is in charge of women’s teachings and the women’s Moon Lodge. She also is becoming skilled in some traditional men’s roles, such as tending the fire....
