The Buffalo Dancer - A Song of Life

[KayaNitaWolfwalker]

The Buffalo Dancer - A Song of Life
I chant the words and no meaning comes to mind,
but the feelings of something more powerful than myself.
I chanted more though I did not understand,
as the words carried my heart and spirit up and away;
To a land I did not recognize as mine;
To people who would never turn away an open heart or mind...

I walked the plains as they began to rumble with the distant thunder
of stampeding hooves of majestic creatures...
The mighty buffalo, as they ran through me, as if I was not there.
I saw a woman bearing a pipe, descending from the clouds;
She came my way and handed the pipe to me, saying,
We must pray once more for those who are losing hope...
For peace, harmony, and the balance of all life..."

A tear formed in the corner of her eye as she pointed...
To a felled forest that exposed families of raccoons, squirrels, deer, insects...
Off to one side, I could see an eagle's nest,
with all her eggs cracked and bleeding, as the mother eagle screeched in pain,
for her lost little ones, taken by our own people...
People who have been swept up by the spirit of Windigo,
making room for greed that has no place upon the land...
Lying dead was a badger who’s home had been among the roots of an ancient oak.

Is it not bad enough we have blamed the white eyes for so much destruction;
And now we seek to destroy what we fought so hard to keep as ours...
We fought for our Great Earth Mother's creatures, great and small;
We battled for the rights to hunt, the rights to live as we once did;
But now we too have turned a blind eye to our Great Mother Earth,
so now she weeps, for the loss of the life she helped so hard to preserve.

For now, it is not only a battle for the people of Turtle Island,
but also of all peoples of all walks and nations.
The Great Earth Mother is crying from the painful scars...
Scars we have placed upon her...
The wounds lie deep into the ground as the poisons slowly seep down,
to infect her fiery centered Spirit with the illness of man's toxins;
Draining her of her life-giving, life-sustaining protective energy
That she has so many times given of herself to us...

What right do we have to rape and molest our Great Earth Mother?
When she has given so much of herself to us?
Balance must be found; All life in all forms are crying for our help.
We turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the cries,
"We are dying, and no one cares...
We will not, cannot make it another generation without your help!"
We are all dying; only slower and harder to see, but the Great Mother has
shown us her signs, so why do we ignore her cries for help?

As I thought I could not bear to see any more pain,
She pointed to the herd of buffalo as I watched to my horror,
as the majestic creatures turned to dust,
of shadows of what they had once been...
She showed me a bleak, cold world of no life, and said,
"We are all connected to the circle and cycles of life, and if the Great Mother dies,
so does all life. We have lost so many and yet no one sees the wounds."
Then again, she handed me the pipe and said,
"Pray for the peace and survival of all walks of life.
Pray for the little ones who cannot pray for themselves.
Pray for those who refuse to see our Mother's wounds
that need to be healed for her creatures, great and small,
to find life free of extinction, that they too may walk upon our Mother,
free of the fear of death eternal."

We walked for what seemed to be days. No words by either of us spoken;
Just the pain of seeing life slipping away by the greed of human creatures…
Stealing life from the Great Mother as if to say,
"We are only borrowing your Life Spirit,
but have forgotten how to give it back,
in return for what we have been given."
We walked plains with no grasses, just dust;
Forests’ no longer standing just bare stumps sticking from the ground.

Rivers crying from being so ill with poisonous toxins;
Her creatures floating, and the putrid stench of death filling the air.
The Oceans churned with oil slicks of our making,
Her wondrous creatures that once lived there, now littered the beaches.
All I once saw as a thriving Mother Earth,
now a bleak reminder of what once was.
A beautiful place once to live and be, is now a ball of dust;
Only the breath of Windigo's death and destruction is what now exists.

My head could not take one more scene of pain and destruction.
I begged the Spirit of the Pipe,
"Please tell me! Are these just things that could be and not what will be?"
She smiled a weak smile and replied,
"These are the things that will be,
if no one hears The Great Mother's cries for help...
These are the things that will be, if all turn a blind eye
to life, great and small...
Even the blades of grass must be protected in the circle.
We can't afford to forget one life Spirit,
lest if we do, all life will follow the same demise..."

Again we must have walked for days, and still no signs of life.
The tears could no longer be held back.
As we walked on, we came upon a field of grass...
Oh Glory Be! Back to Life once more!
I saw a group of people of all races...
of one race... Human...

I saw a Buffalo dancer, and watched his twists and turns
as the others chanted,
and my feet could not find peace...
Until I joined him in his dance of life, love, peace and balance.
As our bodies danced, twirling and twisting on the winds,
across a moon that was full and so bright.
Beneath me I could see the herd of buffalo once again,
grazing in peace...
The eagle mother was feeding her newly hatched young...
The badger was digging his home among the roots of the great oak...
Mother raccoon chased her babes, running free in play...
Life weakened, but yet, still very much alive.
Yet I could smell the poisons that threaten this fragile balance of life...
As our feet touched the ground once more,
the Buffalo Woman handed me the Pipe one final time,
and spoke to me one last time,
"Pray daughter of the leaves...
Child of the forest...
For us all...
Pray for our Great Mother Earth Spirit...
Bring the Pipe and the word to the people,
of all walks, before it is too late..."

As she drifted away from me into a cloudburst,
once more I heard the thunder,
as the hooves of the stampeding buffalo ran through me, following her,
Up into Father Sky...
I looked at the Pipe in my hands,
and I again began to cry once more,
as I sat upon the Great Mother Earth...
So I lit the pipe, and began to pray...

"Creator...
Father Sky...
Father Sun...
Great Mother Earth Spirit...
Life giver...
Life sustainer...
Great Spirits of the Four Directions...
Gods of the multitudes... seed of life to us all...
Goddesses of the multitudes... life givers and sustainers...
Please show us the ways of peace
for all walks of life that possess your Spirit...
Show us the path to knowledge for balance,
so we may in wisdom find ways
to heal our Great Earth Mother's Spirit of her deep wounds...

Let each and every heart cry for that we have already lost;
giving way to hope for a future of our children of yet-to-be...
May they too learn to continue the ways to care for the blessings of all life.
Let hearts learn to open minds;
May the tears flush away the greed from our eyes and spirits;
Open them to what we have already done to ourselves,
and to our Great Mother earth.
Give me the strength to stand strong
like the dark dog soldiers,
to battle the wrongs we have set upon the land.
Let my will bend with the winds of turmoil,
yet remain strong against the influences
of Windigo's greed spirit and ravenous destruction of all life...
May we all see the errors of our ways..."

I thanked the Buffalo Spirit woman of the Pipe,
for now, not only do I understand the words chanted in prayer,
but with her help,
I now understand the true divine plan of all life upon our Mother Earth...
Life giving to life...
The Spirit that connects all of us...
From the smallest and most innocent of creatures,
to that most dangerous of them all...
The "Human Factor..."