Call of the Great Spirit by Bobby Lake-Thom

Author:Bobby Lake-Thom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Native American Studies/Shamanism
ISBN: 9781591438649
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2012-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

Nancy

“A lot of the doctors back in those days wore Flicker feather regalia when they doctored or did ceremony, both the red-shafted and the yellow hammer. That’s the way my mother was also meant to be, to work with the Flickerbird, Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers, and certain mountain spirits (ghosts of former shamans). One time she kept having dreams about a large Sea Serpent up in a big lake. You know the kind, like the famous Loch Ness monster, with horns on its head. That’s how the power comes, through dreams about different kinds of spirits in different places. Strange, though, how some of these places can be so far away in a different tribe’s territory.

“Well, like I said, this Indian doctor from up there at the Quartz Valley/Ft. Jones area was helping my mother, teaching and training her. He used to call her his little spirit sister. But the spirits, good and bad, can play games with a human. They like to tease, lead a person on, and test them to see if a neophyte shaman has what it takes to endure the pain, suffering, and arduous training.

“Such spirits can take away a person’s mind. They can make you kerpey-it, or what the White people call paranoid schizophrenic. You can feel terrified seeing and hearing these things coming after you, but other people can’t see them. Such phenomena are real, and they can torment a person day and night, as you yourself have come to learn.

“Well, Mom kept looking for this big lake. She would wake up singing and go in a trance talking to it, pointing up there, back east. Whenever she got the urge she would drive everyone else crazy until we got in the car and went looking with her. This adventure, of course, led to other shamans and different lakes, which in turn led to new encounters, then new dreams, and more spirits, and more singing and craziness; she was caught in a vicious cycle.

“Benoni doctored her and talked to the Sea Serpent. He found out it came from way over there in Washoe Indian Country, from Lake Tahoe. So that’s where he took her to find it. She fasted all the time, with the trip taking about a week. Just a little smoked Salmon and acorn soup, no water. Then when she got there she had to find a place away from all the White people and casinos and motels. They built a fire, offered walthpay root (Grizzly Bear root, angelica in Western English, keeshwoof in Karuk language), and they all sang kick-dance songs.

“Mom got so crazy she jumped in the ice-cold lake and almost drowned, but that Serpent with the horns saved her, it pushed her back up on the beach. After that she had a connection with Indian people from other tribes and could doctor long-distance, meaning she could use that Sea Serpent to soul travel and doctor, often flying with the Flickerbirds or traveling through the water. My mother was a righteous person and led a good life.

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