NAFPS Forum

Ran accross this group on the internet.  Thought I would post it to see if they are 'on the level'.

Thanks,

Matthew

http://www.pipekeepers.org/beginning.htm

http://www.pipekeepers.org/



The Keepers of The Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers  1996

We are a 501C3 non profit Tribal spiritual organization with members all over the world and from many Tribal nations.

This organization was formed in 1996 to protect the Pipestone Quarries in Pipestone Minnesota for all Tribal People. At that time there were various groups around Indian country saying the Quarries should belong to them only and not all Tribal nations.

We are a 501C3 non profit Tribal spiritual organization with members all over the world and from many Tribal nations.  We are open and welcome all 4 colors to be part of our organization, this includes Asians (Yellow), Europeans (White), Africans (Black) and Indians (Red) .We believe in preserving the Sacred Tradition of the pipe and allowing free access to the Great Pipestone Quarries for all Native Americans as they have been for time immortal and support the art of pipemaking.  We also believe it is important to preserve each tribes unique culture, arts and stories for future generations.

With your help we can unite the four colors of man to help heal mother earth. We do many presentations and workshops in schools and with prison groups to share our tribal cultures, history, stories, arts, crafts and of course background of these Pipes and the Pipestone quarries in Pipestone MN.

The Great Pipestone Quarries of Minnesota have been a special place or sacred site for American Indian Tribal people for over 1,000 years. Many nations of people came to these quarries; including the Sac-Fox, Otto, Mandan, Kiowa, Hidatsa, Dakota, Lakota, Ojibwa as well as many other Native American tribes. The pipes made of this stone, called Catlinite by Europeans, withstood the heat well without cracking and was easily worked with flint tools. Therefore the Pipestone from the quarries here became a very precious trade item. Trade and travel dispersed pipestone throughout the Tribal Nations from Hudson Bay Canada to the Anazazi and Aztec of Mexico. The Pipestone region became the major crossroads for trade. This north south Trade route first used by our tribal people became the corridor the Europeans used and later major highways including highway 75.

Hi All,
I have been a voting councel member of the Keepers for several years. We are an inter tribal org that is dedicated in preserving both free accsess to the quarries for all Registered NA's as well the art of Pipemaking.
As with all things of this nature, we have those who oppose what we stand for as well as those who stand by us. I would be happy to answer any questions about this.
I personal do not sell the Pipes I make but I support those who do, esspeically those who live in Pipestone itself.
Tree

Thanks for the message Jim. Thanks for posting.

Matt

Not everyone who's tribe had pipes are Lakota/Dakota/Nakota. So what Arvol Looking Horse has to say does not apply to them. Anishanabes, Kiowas, Cheyennes, Arapahos, and many other tribes also used the Pipestone found at Pipestone Monument.

Here is some more ;
Jim Tree in 2004
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=31.msg60#msg60

Jim or James Tree

"Here is my imput on this, but understand that it is just from my experiance and limited background. I am Cherokee but by no means imersed enough in my culture to be
a representitive of it. I am still learning our ways. I am a Pipe carver and a Cherokee. I have carved a few Pipes in the plains style but mainly carve what would be called "effigie" Pipes. "

So how does a person go from a limited background and still learning , in 2004 , to knowing enough to become a Spiritual advisor to the "Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers" , in 2006 ?

Why does a Spiritual advisor to a group of people dedicated to selling Pipes , repeatedly explain he personally doesn't sell Ceremonial Pipes because of their Sacred nature  ?

And if the teachings of the Buffalo Lodge being offered by Jim Tree are traditional, and he was instructed to share these with all mankind , why does the web page inviting people to join this lodge, say all the information is copyright protected ?

And there is more stuff here that doesn't make any sense . (from the first post quoting from the webpage of this organization )

"We believe in preserving the Sacred Tradition of the pipe and allowing free access to the Great Pipestone Quarries for all Native Americas as they have been for time immemorial and support the art of pipemaking.  We also believe it is important to preserve each tribes unique culture, arts and stories for future generations."

http://www.pipekeepers.org/beginning.htm

The Keepers members are in 40 states, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Faroe Island, Australia, and most of Europe. Over 1/2 of our members are tribal members from over 35 different tribes

.

Pipestone from this particular place, is supposed to be legally protected , and only directly available to enrolled Indians . How is creating an organization which has a large non indian membership , and which has come to dominate the protocols and culture around the distribution of Pipes and Pipestone , helping to preserve each tribes unique culture ? I especially wonder about this , when from what I can see, a substantial number of those members who are Indian are urban, and they say they grew up largely outside of their culture . (?)   

How is being willing to sell an item with deep cultural signifigence , completely out of it's cultural context , going to help preserve each tribes unique culture ? 

Ah ...and I see Bud in over in Pipestone, MN (USA)has been forwarding Lekay's associate Elizabeth's misleading article which is trying to discredit the message in the film Spirits for Sale .
ht tp://my2point2cents.wordpress.com/2007/08/30/spirits-for-sale/
Gee ...I wonder what Bud's interests really are ...preservation of the culture or $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ hmmmmmmm .

As Adam Fortunate Eagle, is said to be the spiritual leader of the "Keepers", I am posting some of the information about him found in the article in the links below .

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/10/21/MN3809.DTL

"Nordwall was born in 1929 in Red Lake, Minn. His mother, Rose, was Chippewa;his father, Anton, of Swedish descent. The family of eight lived on the north side, the Christian missionary side, of a 200,000-acre lake. He sometimes wonders now how his life might have turned out had he grown up on the south side, the pagan
Indian side, of the lake.

When Adam was 5, his father died. The Swedish side of his family had long since disowned them. Against his mother's wishes, Adam and four other Nordwalls were shipped to a boarding school, Pipestone Indian Training School."

(con..)

"Some Native American scholars and activists have called Nordwall's book a fascinating history of the birth of Indian activism in the Bay Area. Others have attacked it as a 215-page tome of self-promotion. They say Nordwall exaggerates his role in the Alcatraz uprising and demeans the seriousness of the cause by his "clownish" behavior. LaNada Boyer, one of the original occupiers of Alcatraz as a UC Berkeley student activist, says Nordwall soared to prominence by embarrassing his people.

"We younger people involved at the time knew what he was about," said Boyer,who now lives on a reservation in Idaho. "He liked to use the Indian cause for his own benefit as a publicity seeker. He likes to be known as the big guy.

It's the attention he craves. People get taken in."

Joe Myers, the executive director of the National Indian Justice Center in Petaluma, counters that Nordwall's "act" was all about raising awareness. "(con..)

"In 1987, headdress-making landed Fortunate Eagle in jail for selling protected eagle feathers to an undercover Fish and Wildlife agent. Federal prosecutors in Reno sought a six-year prison term for Nordwall, who admitted to having eagle feathers but argued he had the right to have them because of freedom of religion.

A criminal trial ended in a hung jury, 11-to-1 for acquittal. But Nordwall later was found guilty in a civil trial and forced to pay $15,000 in damages."

There is some information in the link below, explaining how the largely urban American Indian Movement played a role in non Lakota people partially learning Lakota traditions  , and how this incomplete knowledge that was shared , led to problems.   
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1326.0

Though this "Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers" group may be supported by local economic intrests , I find Arvol Looking Horse to be a much more credible representive of traditional views on these matters .

http://www.dlncoalition.org/dln_issues/protection_of_ceremonies.htm
Arvol Looking Horse

"I have my own personal feelings on who should be Keepers of our Sacred C’anupa (Pipe). The C’anupa is very sacred and the  Keeper should first be given a dream and be of Native decent. This issue should be further discussed in our future meetings.  The reason for my feelings is that I am aware the C’anupa has gone out to the International community and has been for sale.  I know that most non-Native People do not understand the important protocols or have had the Traditional background to carry
 this sacred item properly. I am aware of women in their moon and men with blood on their hands (to take ones life intentionally) have been allowed to touch and carry the C’anupa. These serious situations were never to be allowed. I offer thanks to the non-Native People that have returned the C’anupa to our People, after I privately shared my concerns with them. I acknowledge their true sincerity in assisting our Nation to protect the survival of our Traditional way of life on behalf  of our future generations. They have helped us bring back honor and respect to our sacred Ho-co-ka and C’anupa.

The original teachings were that the Pipe Carrier should make their own C’anupa. There was an understanding of the sincere spiritual energy and the traditional values passed down through our bloodlines. All the values of compassion, love, honor, respect and truth are molded into the spiritual life they are creating. I hope that one day the future generations will again pick up this important protocol."

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=28.msg51#msg51
Arvol Looking Horse

"In a broader context, Looking Horse said the pipestone protest was part of the campaign to protect the sacred rites. "What we're up against today," he said, "is every time you turn around someone is borrowing our ceremonies. We're talking about protection of our ceremonies. In spiritual sense, we have a spiritual people getting sick as a people. It falls back on our people, and people are getting  sick because of it. Even people are trying to blame me. They say that I'm doing this and I'm doing that, and people are getting sick. Look at what's happening to the sacred sites and the pipestone quarries, the red pipestone itself. They're selling that and abusing that, and that's why the people are getting sick."

"And one of the elders we have today said the leaders think about the seventh generation, but today people just think about their back pocket. We need to bring strong leaders back to our sacred way, they need to understand why we have sicknesses
and negative energy - because people are not walking the sacred way of life."

It seems the only way Sacred traditions can survive , without being degraded through commercialization , would be if the power too make basic policy decisions is in the hands of those most concerned to respect and conserve these traditions . Not in the hands of those who want to make money selling them .

Although many traditionalists do not write letters or go to protests or post things on the internet , and even though many Elders express their sadness simply by a stoney silence and looking away , the values and concerns expressed by Arvol Looking Horse are very widespread and mainstream . ( for those who don't know the quiet ways of many traditional Elders , I would recommend reading Rupert Ross's book Dancing With a Ghost )  As the strict protocols are only attached to the Pipestone in this one location , and Pipestone is found in other locations , it isn't like these carvers have no other choice of materials.   

I support the traditional people who wish to see the protocols around the use of this Sacred Stone respected .

Nordwall/Fortunate Eagle's part in Alacatraz wasn't that large. No one's was more than anyone else's, really. He calls himself the organizer when really the whole thing was spontaneous, small groups deciding on their own. Others were at Alacatraz before he showed up, and the main group best known for the occupation deliberately chose a time when he was out of time to launch the occupation. (Nordwall was an exterminator living in the suburbs. The name Fortunate Eagle as given to him by a Crow man, not his own people.) They complained he was a publicity seeker and regarded the whole thing as a joke or stunt.

So I don't know why Tree would call an Anishnaabe without much ties to any NDN community (up to the time he moved onto the Paiute rez in Nevada) "his elder".

That, plus two he says are Cherokee elders who've passed on and an Apache whose band and first name are never mentioned.

It's also worth noting they say that they have members of Manataka as members of their group too, and that they link to the phony "Red Nation of the Cherokee," Dupree, and Lekay's tabloid.
http://www.pipekeepers.org/links.htm

Interesting, Dupree's link on the pipekeepers site now says she represents "Lakota women and Creek."

The pipekeepers also link to a pretty obvious fraud, Eva Rose Goetz, who deserves her own thread.

My husband and I were there in 1992 so this occurred after our visit. The only people we spoke with were the Ojibway and Dakota people who had been there for years. Now I understand this group better as what they were saying did not totally jibe with whast I learned.

The pipestone is sacred and should not be abused.