Support a Spiritual & Educational Journey across Native Land
Donation protected
Hello everyone. I'm currently preparing to go on a new journey around the country. It will be similar to my last three journeys---visiting sacred places, learning about pre-Columbian history, and offering prayers at "the wounded places."
There are a lot of people out there who travel the country, exploring the beauty, hiking, vacationing. My journeys are more like pilgrimages. The focus is spiritual. It's all about honoring the land, paying respects to the indigenous people who once so powerfully populated this continent, and praying for those who were brutally killed on our continent. (Although my primary focus continues to be the First Peoples, I have also offered prayers at a detention center for Japanese Americans, at a veal farm in California, and at a school where students were massacred (Columbine, CO). There are so very many places that hold sorrow.)
During and after journeys like this, I write, speak and share about what I've learned and experienced. There's a rather profound difference between sitting in a classroom and trying to learn what a teacher or curriculum deem appropriate, and learning it yourself, on the road, live and in person. There is a breadth and depth to the learning experience that is absent in most schools. Certainly we have been taught very, very little about the lives and history of the First Peoples. And this has become my passion.
If you have found value in my past journeys and in what I've shared with you all, and if you feel guided to support me in this spiritual adventure--and not just me, but the hundreds of people I hope to touch with my books and talks--I'd be very, very grateful for your support.
I have just begun my research. (I do more as I travel.) Thus far, here are some of the places where I hope to pay respects, learn, and/or offer prayers:
- Jamestown, VA. Our history books teach about the massacre of the colonists, but not of the many hundreds of indigenous people killed both before and after the attack. (ie, the Kecoughton/Kikotan massacre, plus 200 Powhatans killed with poisoned wine, and land seized, crops burned, horses and canoes stolen, etc.) When native people acted violently, it was never in a vacuum or without cause.
- Mabila, AL. Spaniards killed an astounding 2500-3000 indigenous people.
- Anhayca near Tallahassee, FL. De Soto captured 100 indigenous people and forced them to be slaves, in metal collars and chains.
- Chiefdom of Anilco at confluence of Arkansas River and the Mississippi in AR. De Soto killed hundreds of women, children, and men, all because the chief would not pay tribute to De Soto.
- Traveller's Rest, TN (formerly called Golgotha because of the human skulls found there.) Mississippian village. I need to offer respect to those whose skulls were found there!
- Shiloh Indian Mounds, TN. Remains of wattle and daub buildings still visible.
- Oklahoma. There are more than 87 native boarding schools in the state. I'd like to find at least a few where I can pray for the children.
- Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM. There are three native boarding schools in these areas where I want to offer prayers.
- Weeping Mary, TX. Small settlement of slaves freed soon after the Civil War. Caddo Earth Mounds are nearby.
- Mt. Shasta area, CA. Indigenous people were invited to a feast where they were given poisoned wine.
- Grave Creek Mound, WV.
- Munsee-Delaware Nation, Ontario. This is one of the three primary reservations of the displaced Lenape, who were/are the people indigenous to the land where I was blessed to be born and raised.
My pattern when I go on these trips is to envision a primary route, do research along the way and, whenever possible, allow for intuition to alter my course as needed.
The best ways to keep up with my travels are to follow me on Facebook or to visit my website: www.soulofcynthia.com. I do Facebook posts fairly regularly and I try to add a new blog post each week when I travel. I have a hundred or so videos that I never got up on Instagram or YouTube, but I do occasionally post there as well.
Thank you, my friends. Blessings to you all.
Organizer
Cynthia Greb
Organizer
Plumstead Township, PA