Filled Fry Bread

Use one of the bread recipes above. Roll the dough out extra thin and cut into slices about 4 X 6 inches and put a small amount of chopped cooked beef or chicken on each piece. Fold the dough over and pinch the edges. Fry in hot oil until browned.

Indian Tacos

Fry some ground beef until it is nicely browned, seasoning the meat with salt and pepper to taste.
Drain away the excess fat, and spread a layer of the meat onto a piece of hot Navajo Fry Bread. Then add shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, chopped onions and chopped tomatoes. ...very tasty!

Wild Onions and Eggs

3 bunches of wild onions
2 eggs

Wash onions and chop them into small pieces including the green tops. Boil in water with water just barely covering the onions, add 1 tbsp. bacon fat. Boil 20 minutes, or until the onions are tender and the water has been asborbed. Stir eggs into the onions and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Some people like more eggs than onions so with this recipe you can adjust it to your own preference. It is a traditional springtime meal that is delicious when prepared properly.

Fried Green Tomatoes

2 pounds green tomatoes
4 eggs
1 1/4 cups corn meal
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup minced chives
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper, fresh ground
1/4 cup butter or margarine

Slice the tomatoes 1/2 inch thick, but do not peel or core. Drain well on paper towels until most of the moisture of the tomatoes is absorbed.

While the tomatoes are draining, make the batter. Beat the eggs then mix in the corn meal, water, minced chives, salt and pepper. In a large iron skillet, heat the butter or margarine until very hot. Dip the tomato slices into batter, and brown quickly on both sides. Serve hot.

"When the white man discovered this
country Indians were running it.
No taxes no debt, women did all the work.

White man thought he could improve on a system like this."

---- Old Cherokee Saying

"We walk in our moccasins upon the Earth
And beneath the sky
As we travel on life's path of beauty
We will live a good life and reach old age."

---- Navajo Blessing

Legend Of The Rose Rock - (A Cherokee Legend)

There was once a young Indian maiden who lived with her tribe in central Oklahoma.The young maiden was always cheerful and singing and was much loved by the people of her tribe. Then one night she became very ill. The medicine man could do nothing to make her well. When she died the tribe was so grief stricken that they built huge altars made of small sandstone rocks as an offering to the Great Spirit.

After several days the Great Spirit spoke and the sound of his voice turned the little red sandstone rocks into roses, an eternal symbol of the young maiden's spirit.

Another version of this legend says that the rose rocks represent the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens who traveled the Trail Of Tears.

The rose rock is Oklahoma's State Rock. Rose rocks are actually barite rock crystals and are found in central Oklahoma. They say you can find them laying on the ground.

"Everyone has to find the right path. You can't see it so it's hard to find. No one can show you. Each person has to find the path by himself."

---- Charlie Knight, UTE

"Praying is what has brought us old people through life. We've all gone through hard times. We've all done our share of bad things. But through our prayers and faith in the Creator we get together again and we try hard to live right."

---- Paula Weasel Head, BLOOD

Very very true...

And if the whole world would realize this.., there would be more happiness.. and less people getting scammed by fraudulent people, who claim to be Spiritual leaders..

Nice to see you in here again, Storm..

Many Blessings..

"Praying is what has brought us old people through life. We've all gone through hard times. We've all done our share of bad things. But through our prayers and faith in the Creator we get together again and we try hard to live right."

---- Paula Weasel Head, BLOOD

"When you get older and you are ready, your ancestors will show up to guide you."

---- Joe Coyhis, STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE

"The devastated earth, the air, water, the extinct species of mankind, animalkind, and plantkind, the drugs, suicides, family separations - these are all the result of false ceremonies."

---- Barney Bush, SHAWNEE

"We have to have one mind for the Four Directions. Until we reach that one mind, we cannot be filled with understanding.... The Creator will not answer until you have just one mind, just like if you have one person."

---- Grandfather William Commanda, ALGONQUIN

"Nature is the storehouse of potential life of future generations and is sacred."

---- Audrey Shenandoah, ONONDAGA

"From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things: the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals, and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery."

---- Chief Luther Standing Bear, SIOUX

"Always remember that the Great Mystery is good; evil can come only from ourselves!"

---- Grandmother of Charles Eastman. SANTEE SIOUX

"Grown men can learn from very little children
for the hearts of the little children are pure.
Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them
many things which older people miss."

---- Black Elk

Frank Fools Crow

On Healing

Ceremonial Chief - Western Teton Sioux

Frank Fools Crow has had many exceptional things written about his profound love and concern for all races. It was his fervent wish to share his profound gifts with as many as he could reach.

"Survival of the world depends on our sharing what we have, and working together. If we do not the whole world will die. First the planet, and next the people."

"The ones who complain and talk the most about giving away Medicine Secrets, are always those who know the least." He had little time for anyone who attempted to keep blessings for themselves."

Fools Crow agreed with Black Elk when he said, "I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured, it was the power from the Outer World, the visions and the ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds. If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish."

He believed that the Higher Powers taught that this healing power comes in and through a person first to make us what we should be, and then flows through us and out to others.

In his becoming a hollow bone, Fools Crow believed that he went through four stages.

First, he called in Wakan Tanka to rid themselves of everything about them that would get in the way, such as doubt, questions or reluctance.

Then he recognized himself as a clean vessel or tube, ready to be filled with hope, possibilities, and anxious to be filled with power. Third, he experienced the power as it came surging into him. Finally, giving power away to others, knowing that as they are emptied out, the Higher Powers will keep filling them with even greater power to be given away.

There is no consensus among Native Americans or outside observers regarding the definition of power, but the general view seems to be that power comes initially from a supernatural source or sources, and that it is best described as an astounding and electric like energy that pervades the universe.

Power is present everywhere, in ever varying degrees in everything. This power exists in everything so that it can justifiably be said that each of us is, in a sense, part of this power. Frank Fools Crow expressed the idea that it was his belief in this power, which he recognized as an entity, that made his communication more effective. In order to prepare for receiving and using the power, he performed a simple, yet powerful, prayer and ceremony.

With his eyes closed, he began to pull with both hands at his chest and abdomen as if he were pulling out evil, negative things or stumbling blocks. He grabbed many handfuls, and threw away what he had gathered.

He clutched at the air above him, where he seized unseen things in his head and body.

Finally, he started to pull invisible things out of his chest and body, holding both hands side by side in front of him and threw what he was clutching out into an invisible audience.

As he sang a "sound song" to the Higher Powers, he became like a clean new hollow bone.

He prepared for any spiritual or healing act by this simple ceremony. He taught that the cleaner the bone, the more powerful the healing. Medicine People do what they do for their community and nation.

"We are called to become hollow bones for our people, and anyone else we can help. We are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor. What we bones really become is the pipeline that connects Wakan Tanka, the helpers and the community together. This tells us the direction our curing and healing work must follow, and establishes the kind of life we must live. We have to be strong and committed, otherwise we will get very little spiritual power and will probably give up the curing and healing work. The lessons we are taught by our human teachers, as Stirrup was for me, stressed that the traditional way of performing a ritual is more important than curing someone. Curing a single individual is only important in terms of what this teaches the entire community. This community must continue to know that Wakan Tanka, and the Helpers are always with it, and that it need no be afraid."

Seeing a person healed gives them this assurance, and it gives the community strength to carry on in the face of distress and disasters. So the Medicine Person sits at the center of every important thing that goes on in their community and nation, and when power is set in motion and distributed, it brings us more and even greater power. We emphasize that prevention is more important than treatment where the community and individuals are concerned.

Getting ready in advance may not prevent our being hurt, but it keeps us from being destroyed. It is unfortunate, but our people have begun to forget this, and they are paying a tragic price for it. They get knocked down and they do not have the strength or the way to get up.

In summary, Fools Crow was taught that while we are each given natural power at birth, we are also surrounded by spiritual or supernatural power. This spiritual knowledge includes the knowledge needed to obtain power and to set it in motion. If we wish to go beyond the natural power we were born with, we must entrust ourselves to Wakan Tanka, Grandmother Earth, and the Spirits of the Four Directions (Helpers) and then call in spiritual power from them. When we have made contact, we can ask them to send to us their individual spiritual powers to be added to our natural powers. We then receive the knowledge we need to understand what we have been given and the directions for changing this power into motion.

The procedure for receiving power:

* Purification - Becoming a clean tube for the Higher Powers to work.
* Using focusing tools to walk the Ancient pathways where we will find guidance in ways to achieve goals.

Dispensing this power to others:

As all of this is done, we enter into a special reciprocal relationship with our community. By sharing this power everyone is cared for.

"Anyone who is willing to live the life that I have led, can do the things that I can do," said Frank Fools Crow.

If the prophecies are right, making our communities a place of cooperation and communication with the Higher Powers may be critical to our survival.

Prayer before the U.S. Senate - 1975
by Frank Fools Crow, Old Lord of the Holy Men Ceremonial Chief and Medicine Man of the Lakota Nation

"In the presence of this house, Grandfather, Wakan-Tanka, and from the directions where the sun sets, and from the direction of cleansing power, and from the direction of the rising sun, and from the direction of the middle of the day.

Grandfather, Wakan-Tanka, Grandmother, the Earth who hears everything, Grandmother, because you are woman, for this reason you are kind, I come to you this day. To tell you to love the red men, and watch over them, and give these young men the understanding because, Grandmother, from you comes the good things, good things that are beyond our eyes to see have been blessed in our midst for this reason I make my supplication known to you again. Give us a blessing so that our words and actions be one in unity, and that we be able to listen to each other, in so doing, we shall with good heart walk hand in hand to face the future. In the presence of the outside, we are thankful for many blessings. I make my prayer for all people, the children, the women and the men. I pray that no harm will come to them, and that on the great island, there be no war, that there be no ill feelings among us From this day on may we walk hand in hand. So be it."


For more information read: "Fools Crow", and "Secret Native American Pathways" both by Thomas Mails.