Santa Clara Pueblo
New Mexico
June 2-5, 1983

COMMUNIQUE NO. 8

The Elders Circle in session at Santa Clara Pueblo, Rio Grande Lifeline, is alarmed and dismayed at traditional peoplesĘ reports from the Four Corners of the Great Turtle Island.

The prophecies and visions of our grandfathers are upon us. The Chief of Trees, the Maple, is dying from the top down as we were told would happen; this is from industrial poisons that rain down in the northeast.

The rivers are running backward as was foretold. This is from the dams on our rivers, the lifelines for living things.

The children are leading the parents as we were told would someday come about. Children grow up on their own without proper instructions or guidance or love from their families, andthe families are scattered like ashes in the wind.

These are just a few of the devastations reported to the Elders Circle. Our poeple have reported that our grandfathers, the Winds, have continued to increase in force and destruction, and tornadoes have multiplied and visited the four directions now occupied by our white brothers.

Etenohah, the Earth we call Mother, has tears running down her face; great floods and rains are everywhere, and people are suffering.

Our people report that our grandfathers, the thundering voices, are speaking in all parts of the land with force. The sacred lightning strikes everywhere, and people are running about in fear and confusion.

The Earth has shaken herself, rumbling in the Four Corners of the Great Turtle Island, and mountains are stirring, smoking, sailing their powers over the lands and its inhabitants. These are warnings clear and direct. These are the powers the Great Spirit has put here to work in harmony with people through prayer, ceremony, and respect in how we live. We have failed, and we are being warned.

How did this happen, and who is responsible?

The forces of the American military industrial complex are once again raising their face to the powers of the creation, the natural world. Their judicial system is being used to suppress the spiritual indigenous people of the Four Directions.

The leader of this country has deputized runners of destruction and exploitation, with instructions to find all natural resources and remove them from their ancient habitats and deliver them to the industrial complexes that gird for war. This action is not in this country alone; leaders of industrial nations throughout the world confront one another on ideological dogmas that speak of peace but mean war. This is done without regard for the consequences that will be visited upon our children.

Our white brother, whose gift from the Creator was invention, has used this gift to unleash the ultimate power of fire -- the force of the atom. This was done here in these very sacred mountains that held these forces within their protection since we were planted here by the Creator. These sacred sites are being desecrated and destroyed in spite of the protests of our spiritual leaders and people by exposing these buried powers. He has unleashed poisons upon our lands and in the waters and springs that we need for survival. By destroying the sacred mountains and sites he has destroyed the prayer sticks and sacred places that hold the dust of our ancient ones who are there to work with the Creator for our welfare.

Our sacred objects are being held in universities, museums, and historical associations and societies. Medicine bundles, sacred pipes, medicine masks, wampum, prayer sticks, kachinas, prayer feathers and much more are being exposed to a curious society that does not understand the spiritual significance of such things. The holders of these objects now become the experts, and tell our own people what they mean, without respect, and exercising a cultural arrogance that they say was manifested by God to be their destiny. Our Nations have suffered death and destruction, forced removals, and desecration of our dead, and sad to say, it continues today under the guise of education, going so far as to train and use our own people against us. It is this blindness that is so dangerous. We have failed, and we are being warned.

We look upon a society of the contraries. Our Lakota brothers have a society that is called Athe contraries@ who do the opposite of what they say. Everything they do is contrary to what they mean. Now we see a whole government of contraries who are not in a spiritual way, and who seem not to understand even themselves, but who hold these powers and brandish them to all who oppose their directives and ways.

We must heed the warnings being visited upon the earth. We must make the connection between the warnings and the desecration of the earth. The drumbeat of our hearts will cease and we shall have destroyed what we are sworn to protect, and there will be no life or future for our children.

Our Elders who carry the ancient instructions and teachings stand in a Circle praying for land and life. The ceremonies are sacred; the instructions are sacred and must be treated with respect and conducted by the proper authorities in the Four Directions. As long as we hold fast to this, our life will continue, and there will be a future for all people. We look to other peoples in other lands to recognize and stand with this Circle of Life.

Wo Wa Tse Woegah Nah Keh Wiat
(Finished with respect for life)

The Traditional Elders Circle