Post by jadedsage on May 11, 2004 10:44:10 GMT -5
Angus Thuermer 05/10/04, Jackson Hole News & Guide
A Shoshone spiritual leader and advisor will lead a 24 hour drumming ceremony north of Jackson starting at sunrise Saturday in an effort to heal environmental harm.
Bennie LeBeau, an Eastern Shoshone from Ft. Washakie, welcomed visitors "of all colors, all cultures," to the ceremony. The gathering will be north of the Triangle X Ranch on the Bridger Teton National Forest on North Topping road. The site also is known as the Shoshone Sundance Grounds.
Similar gatherings are being promoted at 19 other sites - mainly mountains, rivers and significant bodies of water - forming a 600-mile radius medicine wheel with the Teton Range as the hub. LeBeau said a vision calls for the simultaneous ceremonies, including ones at places like Lake Louise, Mounts Rainier, Whitney, Shasta, Lake Tahoe, and sites on the Platte, Arkansas, Colorado, James and Saskatchewan rivers, among other places.
"The ancestral spirits have spoken giving direction to build and reset into harmony a huge medicine wheel," LeBeau says on his Web site teton-rainbows.com.
"The spiritual vision is calling the Indigenous Nations, along with other cultures, living within this 600-mile area to come forth," LeBeau's site says, "putting our relationship with nature back into harmony and order with sacred vibrations." Sacred prayers, drums, songs and "sacred vibrational tools" will be the instruments.
The ceremony will place back into harmony and balance those lands, mountains and bodies of water that are now ''out-of-harmony,'' LeBeau says. Reckless development is causing the discord, which is manifest in increased earthquakes in Yellowstone, the release of toxic gases there and the exodus of animals from the world's first national park.
"The ceremony then becomes an important tool to teach all individuals the importance of our mother earth and the blessings she has given all of us," the Web site says. "The re-harmonization will help bring back the rains," and allow springs to flow again.
Those attending can camp at or near the ceremonial site. LeBeau said participants should understand bear and food storage regulations and keep a clean camp. Children are welcome but dogs are discouraged, unless tightly controlled.
The ceremony will climax at noon on Saturday, half way through. For more information, contact Jola LeBeau at (307) 335-7577 or Bennie LeBeau at (307) 851-6249.