East meets West
Traditional medicine man heads to India on
cultural exchange
Gibson Gonnie, a traditional Navajo medicine man, is preparing for
a month-long trip to visit an Ashram in India to share and exchange
cultural teachings. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]
By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau
WINDOW ROCK Gibson Gonnie is quite possibly
the first traditional medicine man ever to be invited to share his
knowledge of Navajo culture and way of life with spiritual leaders
in India.
The idea surfaced following the recent World Uranium Summit in Window
Rock. "When they were having this uranium summit, there were
a few people from this foreign country who approached me and said
that they wanted to have a prayer done for them," Gonnie said.
He performed the prayer for the East Indians and the idea of a cultural
exchange emerged.
Next week, Gibson and his wife Saia will travel to the spiritual
headquarters of Sathya Sai Baba, one of India's renowned religious
leaders and world teachers, to provide insight into the lifestyle,
religious and spiritual beliefs of the Din.
This will be Gibson's first time out of the United States.
Safe travel
"A lot of people, especially Navajos, when they go overseas,
they get to have a ceremony done, like for safe travel ... the Protection
Way Ceremony," he said. It is also used for persons going into
the military.
"This has been done since the 1860s when the cavalry and the
Native Americans were running around. Now we use it for safe traveling.
When you come back, you have another prayer done for you. A lot
of Navajos don't know this. They just go somewhere and then come
back," he said.
Gibson is not quite sure what to expect once he reaches the ashram,
but said he's pretty sure he is going to be asked how the Native
Americans live, how they pray, what their everyday lifestyle is
like, what kind of food do they eat and what is the reservation
like.
"From their point of view, when people say Indians or Native
Americans, immediately their mind goes through where there's a teepee:
Everybody lives in a teepee, everybody lives on the plain, everybody
still wears feathers in their hair and has horses," he said.
But times have changed. "So I guess that's what we're going
to talk about."
Family tradition
Gibson, whose father was Dr. Hosteen Gonnie, comes from a Navajo
medicine family. His brothers, Larry, Dale, Nelson, Gilbert and
Leslie are all medicine people.
Based on what he was told by his dad, Gibson thinks that maybe the
plan for this cultural exchange trip began many years ago.
Back when just a few people had vehicles on the reservation and
there was still a lot of medicine people around, the elders gathered
in Teesto at a place called Star Mountain.
"I guess the elders, they got together, including my dad, and
they sat. One of the medicine men, he used to do the crystal gazing,"
Gibson said. His name translates to A Tall Person With Short Hair.
"He did the crystal ceremonies and the ceremonies that my dad
does and then what I do today. It's been passed on from generation
to generation. Now I have the things that they have," he said.
"I guess back in those days when they were praying, they had
this crystal vision and then the hand-trembling also.
"They said, 'What we pray for, what we're doing here, we're
just doing it on the reservation, we're just talking about it on
the reservation.'
"They said, 'If what we pray for what we hope for is true,
if it's to be a strong belief that what we pray for and what we
have worked so hard for, if it were to become true, then it would
travel as far as the eye can see,' " Gibson said, like the
proverbial pebble dropped into a pond that sends ripples across
the surface.
Gibson believes the elders were talking about taking their message
overseas. Now, he said, what they talked about is about to come
true. "That's kind of how I'm thinking about it."
Vision
Back in the days before they had electricity, the elders had a vision.
"They said there were lights everywhere. 'We're not going to
see it, but that's how it's going to be.' And that's how it is today.
There are lights everywhere. Electricity is what they were talking
about," he said. "Another thing they say is this cultural
exchange I'm talking about will happen." That's due to prayer,
Gibson said.
Now, this exchange discussed by the elders is about to happen. "It
seems like I'm the key to turn that lock. I'm just there, kind of
like a stepping stone. I'm trying to open that door. Somebody has
to," he said.
"Everywhere I go I don't know how it happens somebody approaches
me and they start asking me questions, then people start coming
around and it becomes a group. So that's kind of what we're hoping,
to share their culture and my culture and talk about spirituality,
because that's what people do over there," he said.
There are teachings everywhere, according to Gonnie. All one has
to do is look. "To me, if you're going to go see a holy man,
a holy temple, or a holy place, it seems as though they already
know you're coming," Gibson said.
"That's kind of how it's working for me. The time is now. I
might go over there and then somebody might come over here.
"What I say over there, telling them about world peace, what's
going on here, what's happening to the earth and what's happening
to our environment, global warming and everything. This might also
be a bridge where people can get together and just do a prayer,"
he said.
"Maybe there can be where people can get together, all nationalities,
and pray about something like this. We have lights and everything
now, but we can only go so far, and then it will shut off. We'll
go back to where we started from.
"Nothing's going to change. The world's not going to split
or fall apart, or anything like that. It's just going to change.
It's just going to go backwhere we started from."
It's just like a little kid, he said. You tell them not to do certain
things, but they continue doing it and doing it until they hurt
themselves. "That's how this whole thing is going to go,"
Gibson said.
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Thursday
February 8, 2007
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East
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