Countdown

One month from today and we head back to Rosebud!


In preparing for the trip, I rediscovered a lovely passage from Neither Wolf nor Dog by Kent Nerburn.

I'd like to share it here because it speaks so perfectly to the experience of those of us who have traveled on this journey before.

They were inheritors of something that whispers in the wind and echoes from the land and nothing they as individuals can do will silence these voices that rise up around them.

They search - for common meaning, common understanding and common redemption.

And, because they search, it does not matter that they are on opposite sides of a cultural chasm filled with tears and guilt and broken promises and dreams.

They struggle together to reach across to each other and, finally, they become more than friends – they become brothers and sisters.

The land you walk upon, whether it be city streets, country lanes or suburban cul-de-sacs, is Indian land.
There are echoes beneath your feet that are there to be heard if you are willing to listen to your heart.

In the last analysis, we must all, Indian and non-Indian, come together.

This earth is our mother, this land our shared heritage.

Our histories and fates are intertwined, no matter where our ancestors were born and how they interacted with each other.

Our shared reality, built over a decade, is what makes our return to the reservation feel, on many levels, like going home.