Prayer for the Gulf - 2

The second canvas in my Prayer for the Gulf is a triggerfish, painted over an excerpt from the prayer sent out by Lakota elder Arvol Looking Horse:

We ask for prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding, will stop. That the winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be guided in repairing this mistake & that we may also seek to live in harmony as we make the choice to change the destructive path we are on. As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected & that what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

Prayer for the Gulf

When Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, sent out his call for prayer for the wound in the Gulf of Mexico, I entered silence to find what to do.

What I found was a 5-canvas painting prayer. Each 12 x 12" canvas will have a prayer written across its surface. Over this background texture I'll paint representative Gulf animals, transparent but clear: pompano, green turtle, pelican, blue crab, & triggerfish.

This first one is the pompano. Its prayer is my thought while sketching:

How much of our way of life has to go? Will I be able to paint? Will I need to go to some northern island & hunt & fish & gather? How do so many humans agree to live in harmony & respect--gentle to the fiber of kinship--newly beloved of countless beings we no longer terrorize. What do we need stripped down to love & how much can we take with us? May every heart open to this question & accept the diminishing answer with grace & joy.

Salmon Heart

Living in Northern California means living in a watershed that rightfully belongs to salmon. All up & down the coast we are witnessing the peril of 5 salmon species whose lives have literally built the forests from California to Alaska.

Last summer I painted Salmon Heart of the People to express the spiritual connection native people have always honored. This compound acrylic work is 54 x 30". I cut a hole in the center canvas & stitched over the hole a piece of suede leather painted with a healing hand. While the salmon are endangered, so are we--restoring their heart is the pathway to our own health.

Last week I watched Jack Kohler's movie, River of Renewal. He traces the conflicts on the Klamath River from the mouth to the headwaters, giving fair voice to the divergent suffering of commercial fishermen, Yurok & Karuk tribes, fish, & farmers. I especially love the scenes of Leaf Hillman & his son talking about Fixing the World.

Meanwhile, last month the Pomo at Stewart's Point lost their fishing rights. As Jack Kohler shows in his film, it's often Indians who pay for conservation measures. For more information, see Violet Wilder's Facebook page, KEEP THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BEACHES ACCESSIBLE FOR THE COASTAL TRIBES. When the world is falling apart, how do we find the right way to heal it?

Maybe we can hear again the Heart of the Salmon.

Standing Bear

In 1879, Standing Bear, chief of the Ponca tribe, took the United States government to trial and won. He was arrested near Fort Omaha while taking his son’s body from Oklahoma—where his tribe was forcibly relocated—to their ancestral lands along the Niobrara River between Nebraska and North Dakota. Judge Elmer Dundy defined Indians for the first time as persons under the law, and ruled that Standing Bear and his people were free to return home.

Standing Bear's story deeply inspired me. Why hadn't I heard it before reading Cowboys & Indians last summer? Why aren't kids taught about this American hero? I had to paint him.

This painting is constructed of three canvases & painted in acrylic. The upper portrait is 20 x 16", & has a lot of texture. The mid-section with the spirit bears is 10 x 30" The lower section, 11 x 14, has a copy of a treaty with the Ponca people. A hole is cut through the treaty & canvas, then woven over. It was featured at Sebastopol Gallery last fall.

His story also inspired Joe Starita. He wrote a book, I Am a Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice. I'd like to read it.

for Wilma Mankiller

I was in the middle of this painting, Power from the Past, when I heard Wilma Mankiller had died. The spirits who led me to this image had given a tribute to her life, now diffused among all of us, like a great light. I feel the tremendous benefit of her work, insight & love. How she carries us, how she coaxes us to keep our minds clear & act for the good of all our people.

The pepperwood is an important Pomo medicine. Wilma gathered seaweed with Pomo women, using their beautiful baskets. She went to Kashia for the Strawberry Festival when Essie Parish was leading ceremony.

Pronghorn antelope once roamed Pomo land & I dream their return. This female stands in a wreath of pepperwood, lit by the sun, & surrounded by the mystery of the night sky. She calls the power of the past, as Wilma called the power of tribal tradition into modern activities & policies.

I dedicate this painting to Wilma Mankiller.