13 grandmas, 4 continents, 1 mission
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. - Several times a day over
three days, 13 women from around the world gathered around an open
fire as each led a prayer ceremony of her native tribe.
After each outdoor gathering they moved to an auditorium, where they
exchanged ideas and learned about problems that plague the Oglala
Lakota on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
The women share a vision and a mission to spare future generations
the problems that vex much of society.
"It's hard to be proud of your cultural heritage
and traditions if every day you face extinction," Debra White Plume
of Manderson told the women.
The women, formally called the International Council of 13
Indigenous Grandmothers, come from Africa, Asia and the Americas.
"They're not women of politics. They're women of prayer," said
Jeneane Prevatt of The Center for Sacred Studies in Sonora, Calif.
The indigenous grandmothers hope to ease war, pollution and social
ills by teaching traditional ways that served their people long
before the birth of modern peace and environmental movements.
Roughly every six months, they visit each other's homelands.
"We're praying for peace, which is not only the wars but in our
homes and in the schools. We need that peace amongst children," said
Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance, who believes social problems on
the reservation are a direct result of people abandoning traditional
ways of life.
The group first met in October 2004 in New York. The next meeting is
in October in San Rafael, Calif.
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For a better future
The 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, their tribes, bands and homelands:
*Aama Bombo, Tamang, Nepal
*Margaret Behan, Arapaho-Cheyenne, Montana
*Rita Pitka Blumenstein, Yup'ik, Alaska
*Julieta Casimiro, Mazatec, Huautla de Jimenez, Mexico
*Maria Alice Campos Freire, Amazon rain forest, Brazil
*Flordemayo, Mayan, highlands of Central America and Mexico
*Tsering Dolma Gyaltong, Tibetan Buddhist, Tibet/Canada
*Beatrice Long Visitor Holy Dance, Oglala Lakota, S.D.
*Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance, Oglala Lakota, S.D.
*Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Takelma Siletz, Oregon
*Mona Polacca, Hopi-Havasupai-Tewa, Arizona
*Bernadette Rebienot, Omyene, Gabon
*Clara Shinobu Iura, Amazon rain forest, Brazil
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