https://www.nativerainbows.com/product/heartbeat-of-life-chenoa-egawa-alex-turtle/
"HEARTBEAT OF LIFE – CHENOA EGAWA & ALEX TURTLE" — I did an extensive Google search yesterday, and in many results these two are performing together or mentioned together.
Chenoa Egawa is the main person of this site:
http://www.swanclan.com/She has a Facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/chenoa.egawaAlex Turtle also has a Facebook profile:
https://www.facebook.com/alex.turtle13As for Alex Turtle and peyote, I found dozens upon dozens of references to "Peoyte Songs", e.g.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o53b-cU6JOU. [Peyote Songs-Chenoa w/Alex Turtle]
I did find one description of "a sacred ten hour long peyote ceremony", purportedly taking place in Brazil, 2013:
https://soulxfoodblog.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/peyote-an-inner-nirwana/ [My boldings in quote]
Peyote: an inner nirwana
Posted by Shinta on March 20, 2013
“A nightmare, one of the worst journeys I ever had”. A Brit is accompanying us in the back of a truck. The driver is heading for Econois, gathering point for visitors of the Ayahuasca dreams; Condor Eagle festival 2013’. We all just attended a sacred ten hour long peyote ceremony in Templo Mãe D’Agua, a serene temple in the amidst of the Brazilian forest of Alto Paraiso de Goias.
Barely recovered from our breath, we were suddenly the audience of a few highly confused English people. The clique’s Mickey Mouse lighted a joint and explained his trip; how bit-by-bit he was beginning to doubt the peyote, healing plants and his path in general. “What am I doing here, who is this shaman guy, why did I spent this huge amount of money to sit here with a bunch of insane people I don’t know and don’t even want to know? I nearly promised myself to buy a second house and find a job at a fucking bank for fuck sake.” The man removed his flower bandana and joined in his friends’ laughter. I also had my contemplations earlier that night.
Alex Turtle, chief of Northern American Navajo and Cheyenne tribes instantly set the tone. “Who came here to trip and expects some sort of psychedelic visions should not be here”. I felt like he was talking to me. In the alleys of the Internet, field experts compared peyote to LSD. Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) has the size of a small cauliflower. The round cactus has fuzzy tufts instead of spines and hides mostly under the surface. Above the ground is only a ‘button’, which is cut and eaten or made into tea. The cactus is native to Southern Texas and the Chihuahan Desert of Mexico.
Attacked by the Spanish conquerors, governments and religious groups, the plant has nevertheless continued to fulfill a major sacramental role in spiritual ceremonies of Southern and Northern American tribes. Peyote contains mescaline, which produces nausea, a tendency to vomit and psychedelic effects. The visual peek lasts up to four hours and after about ten hours the consumer is sober again. In the end my aim was to gain new perspectives, so I decided to focus on my inner experience. The temple was packed, pillows from wall-to-wall, woven blankets, sheepskins and sleeping bags. The temple’s belly button was an open fire, carefully kept alive by Brandon (who could easily be a Brooklyn rooftopfarmer) from Turtle’s tribe.
A heavy bowl of Peyote was passed, along with tea of the same cactus. It wasn’t clear how many spoons to take. I followed the bowl as it went along and counted the spoons everyone took. When it was my turn I decided on three as my lucky number. After I succeeded to force the dreadful tasting, moslike blend through my throat I greedily welcomed something that resembled a blunt. As the chanting and the rolls of drums started to demand my ears’ attention, I followed the chief’s advice to “lay back, close your eyes and let the medicine heal your heart”.
In the intermezzos between the music performances, Turtle’s wife elaborated on the ceremony’s aim: “to honor the elements and to rinse the heart”. I slowly felt more and more mellow, in a dreamlike way, as if I was floating on Alladin’s magic carpet. Eyes closed, I saw fluorescent Barbapapa type of entities moving through a vast universe. The colorful film went on a while, until the cold distracting me. I surely felt the elements the chief’s wife was panegyrizing, it was windy, outside it had started to rain and the warmth of the fire was totally ignoring me. Also. I had a cold, I was nauseous and so exhausted that had to bitchslap myself to stay awake. Next to me Allan kept struggling to fold his stiff legs into lotus position.
Then the drums went mute and the chief said it was time for a new round of peyote. I looked at Allan and we agreed on three extra spoons each. Alex Turtle gazed at the visitors, around his head a bridesdresswhite feather construction was showing off. It was an heirloom from his forefathers and had stayed in his family since the 17th century. He was a proud man. I consumed another three brimming spoons and creeped under my blanket. The orchestra of the chanting, drums en the medicine rocketed me into a new world where geometric patterns ruled and physical discomforts faded away.
I think I was in a trance-state for an hour or longer, it’s hard to say. After the peak I just felt high. The ceremony itself had a highly meditative effect, I felt calm and energetic afterwards. In the end dishes full of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat took care of the appetite everybody clearly had. Before heading to truck, visitors expressed their feelings. A yoga teacher from England apologized in name of her forefathers, an expression much echoed by the other visitors. Turtle seemed to appreciate it. A Japanese girl finally broke down and also had a hard time carrying the guilt of her country’s past on her shoulder. A crewmember hugged her until she calmed down. Allan and I saw our chance to escape and sneaked out of the temple, where a guy in a white gown and a flower bandana was rolling a joint. He just consumed one spoon of peyote, I heared him telling his companion in a British accent.
To set the above event in context, I will point to another article by the same author, where you can see the program flyer for "The Condor Eagle Sacred Medicine Festival" of 2013. In the middle of it, where a light reflex blurs one or two words (
Chenoa …?), you can read "
Alex Turtle (Native American Church) - USA". Probably, then, it is Chenoa Egawa who is mentioned as Alex Turtle's wife in the above quote?
https://soulxfoodblog.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/meanwhile-at-the-ayahuasca-festival/The program flyer:
https://soulxfoodblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/sacredfest.jpg
