Inside this issue:

President’s  Corner 2

Water Blessing 3

Native Ways 3

Ishka Indian

Trading Post

3

Monument Update 4

January 2015

Volume 2, Issue 1

The Circle South Texas Alliance of Indigenous People

Ceremony for 1000 Year Old Tree

Last May, Larry Running Turtle led a spe-cial ceremony for a grandfather of a tree, known  as  “The  Big  Tree”  at  Goose  Island  State Park in Lamar Texas near Rockport. Currently the tree is fenced off to protect it from people, however, special permission was granted for everyone to go inside and get close to the tree during the ceremony. In many Native traditions, trees are very highly respected. On some Indian Reserva-tions, often one can see elders bringing young children to a tree for teachings as well as for the tree to look over the chil-dren. These grand sentient beings need to be honored and taken care of. Sadly, old growth forest and trees are becoming more and more rare. They are being clear cut at an alarming rate on a global scale in the name of development and progress and to feed our insatiable appetite for beef. Old growth forests are responsible for keeping our planet cooler, they take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. This is an important function to help balance our ever growing carbon foot-print. It also provides many living organ-isms with vital habitat. Some species, like

the spotted owl, need old growth forest habitat and cannot survive without it. The Big Tree is a Virginia live oak (Quercus virginiana) and is one of the old-est trees in the world. It is estimated to be over 1000 years old. From an historical point of view, it has seen its share of natural disasters and war. For example, the Big Tree, along with a few houses and a Catholic chapel were the only structures left standing after  being  bombarded  by  the  Union’s  Navy  during the Civil War. Climatologists also speculate that the tree has survived between 40-50 major hurricanes, as well as numer-ous droughts, floods and wildfires.¹

According to the Texas Forest Service, the tree could be as old as 2000 years. Its girth is 35 feet around and it is more than 45 ft tall. The circumfer-ence of all the branches are 90ft. This makes it the second largest live oak, the biggest being in Brazoria County, Texas. Because the tree is so close to the coast, it is sub-jected to high winds on an almost constant basis, re-stricting the growth of the tree. Cont’d  next  page

Page 2 The Circle

The  President’s  Corner

Many people in South Texas have American Indian roots. Throughout history, Native Americans have played an im-portant role in the Catholic Church and the missions of Texas. It was the American Indian,  or  “the  

forgotten  people”  who  built  these  beautiful  missions,  maintained them and protected them. They played key roles in the history of Texas and endured many strug-gles and challenges. Sadly, Texas has been very slow to officially recog-nize Texas Indians. Currently there are no federally recognized tribes of Texas Indians. The State of Texas only recently recognized the Lipan Band of Apaches. When the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was instituted by President Andrew Jackson, many Native Americans were forced to blend in and in Texas, we had to adopt Spanish  surnames  so  we  became  “Mexicans”  in  order  to  survive. For generations, Indians were not allowed to talk about their past and hid their identity to their chil-dren out of fear and out of shame. We have been dis-

However, because the girth of the Big Tree in Lamar is so large, it is estimated to be older and it is one of the old-est trees in the world..² To honor this sa-cred tree, a special

ceremony was performed to bless it, followed by a water offering to the tree. Afterward, everyone sat, in the com-pany of the tree with a picnic lunch. Prayer ties were passed out to the people to tie onto the tree to give thanks. The

day’s  ceremony  was  closed  by  the  Danza Mexika Kalpulli (Aztec) group honoring the tree. If you are interested in visiting The Big Tree, you can get more informa-tion from this website: http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island 1. Source from Wikipedia http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Tree%

2C_Rockport

Ceremony for 1000 Year Old Tree Cont’d

guising ourselves for so long that some have forgotten we were pretending. According to Native American traditions, the 7th generation is upon us and things are changing, coming back full circle. It is now  time  to  reveal  these  people’s  true  heritage.  More  and  more  people are learning that they have American Indian roots. They want to learn and embrace their heritage. We are now reaching out even more to the community in Corpus Christi, with the Ishka Indian Trading Post in the Cor-pus Christi Trade Center. You can see the article on page ...Many visitors to our booth are hungry for knowledge and they want to learn about their heritage. We are promoting this Native American heritage through ceremony and other teachings, keeping the culture alive for all to experience. In the last year, we had the honor of conducting a special water bless-ing and ceremony for a sacred 1000 year old tree which you can read about in this issue. All of us should be proud to embrace American Indian tradi-tions. In Update of the Ishka Monument you can read about the latest developments and the intent of the Ishka Monument and how it relates to the past and to all of mankind. I hope you en-joy the articles in this newsletter. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to contribute to this newsletter or if you have any comments or suggestions. God Bless and Ishka (Apache  for  “Until  we    meet  again”) ~Larry Running Turtle

all our greatness and might, we too need to

humble ourselves for the conservation of

our precious waters, the veins of the Earth.

Clean water is becoming more of a rarity

and we need to stop polluting them, and

ultimately ourselves. Our waters need to be

appreciated, honored and taken care of.

They are after all what keeps us and all liv-

ing beings alive.

At Hazel Bazemore

Park in Calallen

Texas, the Nueces

River runs through a

good part of the

park. It was here, in

this beautiful park,

that we conducted a

water blessing cere-

mony to honor, pro-

tect and bring

awareness to the

people about the

important life giving

force of water. It is said that in every body of

water, lives a grandmother spirit. Because

the water has a female spirit and female

energy, the water blessing was led by the

women. Water was brought in a small con-

tainer by each participant from their

home and poured into one large earth-

enware pitcher. The water was blessed

and then the water was offered to the

river by all of the women. The men

made offerings of tobacco to the river.

All Rivers and streams eventually

run into the oceans because the ocean

is lower than they are. The mighty

ocean is the queen of all waters, yet,

she humbles herself to all rivers and

streams. This should remind us, that in

Water Blessing

Page 3 Volume 2, Issue 1

Ishka Indian Trading Post

We now have a booth for the Ishka Monument in the Cor-pus Christi Trade Center! We are between Tokyo and Mexico streets, (between New York and California), toward the front of the building and in the center. We have items for sale that support and promote the

Ishka Monument. You can also purchase artwork and handmade Native American items by Larry Running Turtle and his book. We have lots for sale and we are also here to teach people about Native ways, to give council and to educate peo-ple about Native American heri-tage.

Stop in and visit with us.

Native Ways—Prayer Ties

Prayer ties are

often used in

ceremonies of all

kinds. In prepara-

tion of our Annual

March to Bless

Sacred Grounds,

we make hun-

dreds of prayer ties to be passed out to

the people to tie onto tree branches or

bushes at the site of our future monu-

ment. A prayer tie is made up of tobacco

that is placed in a small square of red cot-

ton and tied up with red string. Some-

times prayer ties are different colors, such

as white, black and yellow. These 4 colors

represent the colors for the four direc-

tions on the prayer wheel. Sometimes

prayer ties are

purple, which is

a color reserved

for elders. All the

materials to

make them are

first smudged, or

cleansed, before-

hand and the ties are

made with prayer.

When a person takes

a prayer tie, they put

their prayers into it

as well and then

hang it in a tree or

bush. As the fabric

decomposes, the tobacco is released back

into the earth along with all the prayers.

The monument will be placed in the center of a prayer wheel, which will be a sidewalk made up of the four sacred colors. The colors in the prayer wheel represent all 4 directions as well as all human races. Educational graphics will be placed around the wheel to explain Native traditions as well as about the environment and the inter-relatedness of the earth, all the 4 legged, the winged ones, the ones with fins, the crawlers and of course the 2 leggeds with Creator. A monument of this caliber will also generate more interest for Corpus Christi and honor the people of South Texas, descendants of many Native American Nations.

1929 Yale St Corpus Christi, TX 78416

(361) 563-6702

Lrunningturtles@aol,com Ishkamonument@yahoo.com

S o u t h T e x a s A l l i a n c e

o f I n d i g e n o u s P e o p l e

Membership—How to join

Send an email inquiry to: Ishkamonument@yahoo.com for an application

Contact us via mail or phone for an application

Annual Membership Fees:

Individual—$10 Family—$20

Join us! STAIP holds sunrise ceremonies, full moon cere-monies and other seasonal ceremonies on a regular basis.

Weekly Drum Circle at the Janet Harte Library in Flour Bluff every Tuesday from 6pm-7:30pm in the courtyard. All people that come in a good way are welcome.

STAIP Quarterly Meetings are held every second Mon-day in March, June, Sept and December at the Janet Harte Library at 6pm in the meeting room.

We’re  on  the  web!  

http://ishkamonument.webs.com/

Update on the Ishka Monument

from  one  of  Dave’s  original  molds.   To commemorate the 2nd largest and still unmarked burial ground in the State of Texas as well as to instill Native Pride  to  the  “Forgotten  People”  of  Texas, the monument will be one and a half times life size of a Holy Man facing the East. The Man is bearing a cross around his neck, and holding an eagle fan while he greets the Holy People as the sun rises. He is thanking Creator for another day, each and every morning. This is very symbolic and sacred for indigenous people. It will honor the ancestors buried along the Oso Bay as well as all Native American people in Texas, remembering their important, and overlooked contributions to the history of the state as well as their role with the Church and the Missions.

After world renowned bronze sculptor Dave McGary unexpectedly passed away, we reached out to his wife Molly. She has been instrumental in allowing us to realize our dream of having one of  Dave’s  bronzes.  Due  to  his  untimely  death,  we  were not able to get our original idea of a holy man on a horse, but we can get a bronze made