"We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as "wild". To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery."

Luther Standing Bear - Rosebud Sioux

Guardian of the Water Medicine

Guardian of the Water Medicine
Dale Auger

Dale Auger

Dale Auger: On Art, Blood and Kindred Spirits
by Terri Mason

Defining Dale Auger in one sentence is akin to releasing the colours of a diamond in one cut. It can’t be done. It’s the many facets that release a diamond’s true brilliance, as it is the many facets of Auger’s life, education, ancestry, experiences and beliefs that have shaped and polished his work into the internationally acclaimed and collected artist that he is today.

Born a Sakaw Cree from the Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta, Auger’s education began as a young boy when his mother would take him to be with the elders. “I used to say to myself, ‘Why is she leaving me with these old people?’ – but today I see the reason; I was being taught in the old way.”

Auger’s respect for traditional teachings led him on a journey to study art, opening the door to a doctorate in education. He is a talented playwright, speaker and visual artist whose vividly coloured acrylics have captured the attention of collectors that reads like an international ‘Who’s Who’ spanning English to Hollywood royalty. The essence of his work is communication, and now Dr. Auger has come full circle, interpreting the life of his culture – from the everyday to the sacred - through the cross-cultural medium of art.

Read the rest here:

http://www.daleauger.com/printversionbio.cfm

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Between two worlds

By: Ron Jackson

HAMMON — Only the green stubble of budding wheat lives on the high ground where the Whiteshield Camp once thrived.

Crude box tents made of canvas once home to entire families along the Washita River are gone. So is the water well, likely buried by a plow. Tracks where trains periodically carried supplies to camp residents have vanished. A drilling rig stands in its old path.

"This is the first time I've been down here in years,” said Archie Hoffman, 71, while he canvassed the terrain two miles north of town. "I have a sad feeling coming back. Everything has changed. Nothing is as I remember.”

Hoffman struggled to find his bearings at the old site, sifting through his memory to reconstruct the camp he knew as a child. Descriptions turned into recollections about life — the spiritual ways of his ancestors, the cadence of the Cheyenne language and the communal camaraderie of his people.

"Those were really good times,” said Edwin Pewo, 73, of Hammon and a Cheyenne peace chief. "My people never had a hard time putting food on the table back then. We lived off the land.”
Living the old way"We had a dirt floor,” said Pewo, as if still feeling the packed dirt beneath his feet. "No running water. No gas. No electricity. We chopped wood with an ax, and we kept warm by burning the wood in a big stove.

"For food, we'd hunt for turtles or we'd fish. We'd use a string and hook, or we'd just pull the fish out of the water with our hands.”

Read more here: http://newsok.com/article/3229457/1208218634
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