Magnets n Me

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives.

Back in the early 1980s, I developed, marketed, & patented a product that relieved pain & muscle spasms using little "pressure pointers" & elastic straps to stimulate / relax acupressure points. It made a profit both years I marketed it.

I had way too many irons in the fire at the time & couldn't give it the time & attention it deserved, so I put it on the shelf "for a couple of years".

Recently, I was hounding the Spirits (ie, strong prayers) for something that I could put in the market that would support me & the church I head, since we have both been staring starvation & death thereby closely in the face. It must be: effective; cheap to make; easy to make, therefore fast to make; & have a strong market already bcs it takes lots of time to build a market demand, & don't have time to squander.

(I "lived" on $9,000 total income for 2008, & unless there's a miracle, so far in 2009, I've garnered a total of $8,370. No unemployment compensation, no welfare (gack! hiss! even the thought of it should go 'way! fast!!), & very little (obviously) in the way of jobs.)

Anyway, the Spirits popped the memory of my TheraPressure System into my consciousness!

It meets all of the requirements. Acupuncture / acupressure are systems with a 4,000+-year history of effectiveness. "Barefoot doctors" successfully treat all manner of conditions with them & have for thousands of years. The parts are inexpensive, & easy to make. And the U.S. pain market alone is something like $35 Billion / year. Duwahleh! Better yet, we now have The Internet & the World Wide Web for marketing, & sites like Amazon & eBay. My heart leapt as these realizations dawned.

That was in something like late July or early August of this year. Since then, I have participated in "webinars" on selling on sites like Amazon & eBay; made / bought the tools needed to make the parts, & kept praying. After all, if you don't speak up, you won't be heard.. the Spirits are no different in this regard than any other part of the world.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I was visiting with a friend on the Internet & she asked about the system, so of course I was delighted to tell her about it.

In the course of all of this, the Spirits blessed me with another Thought of Note - magnets work wonders on pain & other conditions, so I should update the System to include them. Which I did, so now we have the TheraPressure System, & the MagneTheraPressure System, & I'm within $250, at this writing, of getting them on the Internet. I prayed for "a suitable shear to cut the sheet metal needed for these Systems' clips", & found more than one on eBay.

When I couldn't participate in the auctions because they always seem to end when I can't get to a WiFi site or other Internet access, a friend said, "I can do it for you, & you can pay me back when we win one. How much do you want to pay?" I told him "As close to $100.00 as possible without going over, but use your best judgement. I'd hate to lose out for a measly couple of bucks." He got it for me for $102.10 including shipping! When I opened the box, I found a well-made piece of equipment, probably worth 2-3X what I paid. Heaven forbid it doesn't cut the metal for the clips used in my System, but "if" that should happen, I can sell it for what I have in it, easily.

Today, I went to a sheet-metal shop to see about something better for our needs than what I had been using, & the shop foreman gifted me with a piece big enough to build over a dozen kits.

Looks like a winner! OK - I blush a bit about the "couple of years" actually being more like 11 couples of years, but I counter it with, I've always been 15-20 years ahead of the curve, so I should now be about at the top of it. Way to go!

I'll keep you posted. I have no great objection to not eating 'whenever".. I do have a great objection to not being able to, for simple lack of money. That's just not the Indn Way.

Mitakuye oiasin. All (are) my relatives.

Solstice

Hanh mitakuyapi. It's that time of year again - Solstice, when the sun begins to shine longer. We say, "when the light returns". Temperature this morning at 5:30 was -15F where I was, but some people further north had -24F. Brrr! And to think we used to roll up in a buffalo robe & sleep near embers! And survived pretty well at it.

I told a friend in Louisiana about these temps, & she said, "It's impossible in the real world to have numbers less than zero, so obviously, those temperatures are not real!" I'm holding that thought..

Brightest n mostest blessings on you as The Light Returns! Mitakuye oiasin.

I Limp; So What?!

Hanh mitakuyapi. Hello my relatives. Last year, my total income was $9,000.00 . You read that right - less than $10,000.00 for the whole blessed year. I 'lived' on that. No 'assistance'. No 'welfare'. Was it fun? Not really. Was it tough? Yes. But I have a rugged kind of perverse pride in being able to say "without assistance"/"without welfare". I'd much rather have read about it than done it, but just the same..

It did leave me with one very uncomfortable thing, though.. I couldn't afford new orthopedic inserts, & I can't walk without them. Thus, I spent this year - nearly the whole blessed year - on either crutches or a cane. And I limp.

I can't tell you how many people making $80,000 & more / year expressed "sincere sympathy" for my situation. And not one of them offered to pay for another set for me. How very sincere. In the Ndn Way, if you don't walk your talk, you compound the misery by shouldering a burden equal to the burden you could have relieved & refused to. Which says, you should not wonder why the world is in such a sorry state, the Mayan Codex Prediction notwithstanding.

Because of the crutches/cane/limp, this year my income may not even come to $9,000 for the whole blessed year. I no longer talk to those "sincerely concerned" people making $80,000 & more / year, needless to say. They don't avoid me; I haven't got time for lip-service-sorts like them.

They are the same people who are 'forever' carrying on about 'social responsibility' - until it steps into their yard or onto their front walk. Then, the silence - in the form of footfalls from them walking their talk - is deafening.

Some sage has observed that you're either part of the problem or part of the solution..

Not too long ago, I had a temp job & took some of the money & bought the materials to make my orthopedic inserts. I'm bright enough; I have the necessary skills even if I don't have the training; and now I make my own. I remarked on this to one of those "sincerely concerned" people. They said, "But what if you don't do it right! You could hurt your feet worse!" Can you beat that? No offer to get the "right" ones made; but "concern" that I might further injure my feet if I make a mistake. Go figure.

An Anti-Traditional Incident

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives. I trust this finds you all well & happy, or getting there.
I just figured out now how to do this, or you'd have heard from me before. Not that that's a big deal, but it is 'so'.
Recently, I was cleaning in one of the local public schools, (n in Bismarck) as a temp or contract worker. Such work is way below my skills level, but it's suitably humble & it fills in blanks in the "bills paid" column of my life from time to time.
I nearly always wear a hat with 4 Channunpa on it, partly because it is my spirituality & I'm proud of it; partly because I Sun Dance, & am proud of that' & partly to remind people that not all of us have knuckled under to the whiteman's ways, but still follow our authentic Traditional Ways. That we Indns have no "acculturated" or "assimilated" & we are still here & so are our cultures. The Channunpa are central to our cultures up here on the Northern Plains, after all.
Someone in official-dumb asked me to remove my hat & not wear it, on the grounds that "it makes some people uncomfortable". Well, hooo-eeee, ain't that a sad thing; that reminders of the Holy Pipe make "some people uncomfortable". I asked who & was told I didn't need to know. ( ! )
My expectation is, it's some of the considerable over-supply we have around here of "born-agains" who call themselves part of the majority culture's supposed religious way. You know - the one where they're forever trying to stuff those 10 "commandments" they don't keep, down our throats.. Well, hey, takoszja, I'm a born-again, too! A born-again Pagan, through the Sun Dance, & way proud of it. It takes a lot of hard work & courage & determination to Sun Dance successfully. We earn our rightful pride about it.. the humble kind. But that does not mean we should hide it! Not hardly. All those who wander lost & in misery need to be reminded that some are keeping these Ways, & so be encouraged to do so, too.
Therefore, I refused, on the grounds of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EEOA, and the Constitution & Bill of Rights - specifically the First Amendment, the sections about religious freedom & freedom of expression. This person complained to my supervisors at the temp agency, who actually asked if the hat & the Pipe & making this essentially silent statement are all that important!
Yes, they are. How many millions of us died for the Sun Dance & other Sacred Ceremonies, doing them in secret & getting hauled to prisons & mental institutions for it? It happened to me, in 1994. That's not particularly long a go. So - Yes, they most certainly are.
I complained to the School Board, the local Human Relations Commission, & the mayor about this. So far, everyone is ducking & trying not to address the "issue". Denying hard & hearty that there was - or is - any discrimination or bigotry involved.. One has even said, "You misunderstood.." HAH!
Considering that the Bismarck Public School system "prefers I not work in the schools" (& the temp agency is knuckling under to them on this), I most certainly have hit the nail squarely on the thumb.
I'm a grandmother, takoszja - I most surely do "understand". I did then, I do now, & I will into the future. I've walked the earth awhile, but I'm nowhere near senile. And they know it; which apparently scares them pea-green or they wouldn't make such an issue of it.
The truth being the most powerful weapon there is to deal with reigns of terror & general bigotry, and the Internet being such a terrific tool for spreading the truth about such things, I write it down here for you so you will know about it. Perhaps some of you will want to do something about it. After all, if you don't speak up, you can't be heard!
Mitakuye oiasin. All, my relatives.

Why We Beat Our Heads on Walls

Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives.
I've made so many job applications since March 7 I finally started listing "job applicant" as my current job. I've heard the dumbest collection of excuses for not hiring me, & I get no unemployment & I don't want welfare! Excuses include: you know too much; you have too much experience; you were in business, we can't hire you; you have a limp.
Lessee - the Army advertises "be all you can be". Hm. Must be just a slogan, not real encouragement.. After over 30 years of work, I should have lots of experience! I do - at a high level, too. I've never been a slacker. I wanted to retire & just work a job, but apparently it's not an option, although I can't figure out how to get back in business, since I am currently down to less than $50 total money.. & temp services aren't doing anything either. As for the limp - who's hiring gymnasts these days, anyway? (Not to mention, it's illegal to focus on the limp.. but this is ND - land of bigotry of every kind & accompanying denial lockstep..)
You know why we bang our heads on walls? Because it feels so0o good when we quit! That's my rant for the day.. Thanks for listening.
Your thoughts are still welcome. Anyone interested in beautiful custom handmade moose or buffalo leather mocassins, let me know.

No Global Warming in ND This Year

Hanh mitauyapi / Hello my relatives. It's October 20 & the temperatures are once again 15 - 20 degrees F below average for this time of year. And it's wet. We need some warm n sunny & dry-er!
An elderly noted the other day that this year we only had 2 months with no snow somewhere in ND! June 5, Dickinson had over 2 inches of snow - that's 90 miles west of my camp.. and then that area got skunked again October 6th with about 5 inches! Duwahleh! Not fun!
In between, "summer" was mostly more like spring or early fall for temps; & when I read the corn leaves this year, it said last winter was not the only ugly winter in the current time - this one would be cold & wet again.
Friends of mine got their Bi-D (bi-directional tractor - a huge 8-tired 4WD monster) stuck a couple of times last winter, striving to keep their in-drive open! NO FUN!
I'm a fair-weather Indn & no apology! Besides, I have a raft of scars & they don't like this weather either. For those who don't know - scars try to contract from the time they first form until you go to the spirit world, & like many other things, wet weather makes them try harder. OUCH!
Someone from official-dumb said on the news recently that the economy isn't all that bad up here. Mitakuyapi - he lied. Or he's got a lot more mazaska / PteDhoWakan/money than sense, because this Indn has skinned by - more like bumped & dragged by - on maybe $7500 for the whole year to date. It has not been fun; it has been hairy & scary even for one who - like all 'eagle' people - lives dancing on the edge of the abyss. Worse, I'm hardly alone. News says ND leads the nation in # of families where both adults hold 2 or more jobs. : 8 0 !! Since that's more like 'the norm' up here than not, & it's nothing to be proud of, this Indn sez things are economically, spiritually, & emotionally rugged up here -- again. Or maybe that's "still".
If you're into praying, thank you for including me & all the others in this leaky canoe. "W" & his goons put us here, & now socialists seem determined to sink us. I keep hunting for that "happy medium", & I can't find it's scat or footprints, let alone evidence of its existence..
Thanks for the towel. Mitakuye oiasin / All, my relatives.

My Favorite Holiday Approaches

Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives. I am no fan of cold & even less of cold &/or snow &/or ice. But fall is when Hallowe'en comes, & it is my favorite holiday.
Pumpkin ghouls, wild carvings, and dressing up as "something Other".. fun stuff. But then, I am one of those women who speaks with the spirits, so in our Indn Way, I guess I should enjoy this holiday.
Last year, I carved a Hubbard squash into a buffalo & made horns from cow horn caps - lit it all with LED lights. Oooh! I carved holes so the light could go up into the horn caps & they glowed at night. Yeah!
I carved another squash into a dragon's head. Very cool, yes? I think so..
And I carved a cannibal pumpkin eating a smaller pumpkin. (Big grin).
I set them on chairs out by the road.. and attracted some of The Lunatic Fringe. The best/worst was the woman who zoomed in off the road screaming that we "worship devils" & the carvings prove it.
Duwahleh! This is supposed to be the Age of Enlightenment, but apparently it hasn't registered on everyone yet; particularly the "jesus freaks".
I don't generally say "born agains" because as a Sun Dancer, I am a born-again, too. Just very, very Pagan.
Hallowe'en isn't an Indn event - it's one of the few good things imported from Europe. But it's definitely the most fun.

Cretinous Columbus Nothin' to Celebrate

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives.
Today is October 12 & there's nothing to celebrate or commemorate about it in this Turtle Island insofar as Cretinous Columbus goes - yet on Prairie Public radio & in the Morton-Mandan Public Library, there are references to this as a day to commemorate this slime.
Let's get this straight - this cretinous creep lopped off Indn men's hands for not bringing him "enough" gold - just what is "enough" gold, anyway? - and he made sex slaves of Indn men, women, & children. Certainly there is nothing to celebrate or commemorate in either instance. We don't commemorate Hitler or Mengele.. and Indns' holocaust is still going on!
As for "discovering" this land - he didn't do that,either. We Indns were here for something like 60,000 years before any Europeans made landfall here, claims by "scientists" (who can definitely be bigoted, as we all know from reading history) to the contrary. Trust me - we were well aware of where we were - and where our neighbors were, too, along with whether or not they were friendly or enemy.
Dakota Territory is some of the most racist part of "America" yet South Dakota was the first of the 50 states to make a Native American Day, sometime in the 1990s. And in 2001 or so, North Dakota followed suit, with First Nations Day - to be celebrated the second weekend in October.
For those of you who might want to correct me with the term "Native Americans" - I'm not one of those, either, & neither are the rest of us, because this is not "America". That's a term tagged on this land by a self-promoting Italian mapmaker, Amerigo Vespucci, who wanted to immortalize himself.
This is Turtle Island, & we are properly (as a group, anyway) Indigenous Turtle Islanders or ITI for short.
We're supposed to be in the Age of Enlightenment, yet these stupid backward "commemorations" continue, & when someone (usually me) raises a stink about it, the yeowls of denial are nearlydeafening. Pitiful! As if denial made any difference. HAH!
It's long past Time to get rid of "commemorations" of monsters - other than Halloween. But then, that - in part - is what Halloween is for. The rest of the year isn't. Mitakuyapi oiasin / All, my relatives.

ND Higher Ed Board Lies Again

In this morning's headlines is a story that the ND Higher Ed Board has again extended their "deadline" for getting rid of the "Fighting Sioux" logo. These people have given so many excuses as to their reasons for repeatedly extending the "deadline", we can no longer count them.
Recently someone asked me why I am so adamantly against this logo. (1) We are not the "Sioux"; we are the D/L/Nakota. Not the "treacherous, untrustworthy people" - that's the ND Board of Higher Education. We are "the Allies". (2) The Oxford Standard Dictionary of the English Language - the dictionary used everywhere in the English-speaking world to define words at the highest level - gives "pet" & "caricature" as the 2 lead definitions of "mascot". Living people are neither. The Vikings are dead; we are not. Neither are our cultures. Make pets & caricatures of dead cultures if you will, but not of ours, which are still living. (3) We Indns get no benefits from this mascot. We get no payments. We get no classes or anything having the logo on it free of charge. Nothing. But the U of ND gets millions of dollars. While we Indns are forced onto welfare or ultra-low-wage jobs. (4) Many of us are against this entire situation. We never gave our permission to be logo-ed. And just because someone else did it 40-50 years ago, when the vast majority of Indns lived in fear of their lives, let alone jobs or such, if they did not accept the proposal to become 'mascots', especially means it is unacceptable now.
So - get rid of the logo now, & stop meddling in our cultures again! Hechetu chto!

Hire EXPERIENCE!

Hanh mitakuyapi. Since March 7, 2009, I've been applying for jobs. As many as 6in one day ( ! ). I recently began listing mycurrent occupation as "job applicant" as a result. Why? Because of short-sighted & just plain stupid perspectives among the hirers. Among them: I'm over 40. or 50. or 21. It doesn't matter how long you hung around the fort; what matters is what you've done! Having walked the earth as long as I have, I should have acquired a wealth of experience. This therefore should be a plus to a prospective employer, not a minus.
Talk about head-in-posterior-defolade "thinking" of the part of hirers! Or, there's the nonsense that "young people need jobs more than older people". Why?!? We are not disposable as of a certain age, but it certainly explains the myths about "death panels" in the press of late... And aren't these boneheads who are carrying on about "the youth" & "their needs" also the ones who decry a woman's Right to privacy in the matter of her reproductive organs? Lessee here - they want to commit statutory rape on women, but they also want us older ones - the ones with the wisdom & experience they really need - to live on air or disappear or.... Does not compute.
My resume could easily fill 7 - 8 pages; & no, of course I don't list all myexperience &/or expertise. I call it a "pick-&-choose" resume. And even so, it's "so0o impressive" the hirers say they can't decide what to focus on.
CRAP! They lie.
It's just like the menu in a restaurant. You don't go in & buy everything on the menu; you pick one or 2 things & pay for them. Hiring someone like me is identical to that.
The upside to this appears to be, after much prayer & meditation, I am to resurrect an old product of mine & put it back in the marketplace & see what comes of it. I made money with it the first time; perhaps it willsupport me now. With luck, in a style far better than what I currently have, so I can do more to help fulfill my SunDance vow's focus.
And when I need to hire help, you can be sure I'll hire old fogies, not "youth". We need to eat & such, too.

Why Long Time No Speak (Or Write)

Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives. It has been a long time since my last post..
First, there was fighting winter, and this last one was a real old-fashioned one. Snow & more snow - came within 1.5" of the record for a winter. Everyone is just now beginning to recover from the exhaustion, & some of us may never. It was like a marathon, but there were no rests possible.
One friend told me, he didn't think he could ever be more tired than he is since last winter. Ain't that the truth! He has fallen asleep while driving his tractor! That's tired.
And then when it finally thawed, it all went in a short time, so we had Floods. Not "floods", "Floods". I had up to 46" of water out back; & an average of about 2.5 ft. out front, flowing at about 40 mph. I didn't lose a lot; I was blessed. But I & the neighbors I share a driveway with lost a chunk of the west in-drive that was on average 26" deep X 55 ft X 120-some ft...
We were all going nuts trying to dig out of the mess, but I got by the best in many ways. Because the stubborn rock-head Indn grandma refused to wait until or if the Emergency Mgmt people would ever do their jobs by us, she & a friend hauled 700 sandbags & used them to fill in the driveway enough that no one would become a permanent resident if they pulled in.. This with a 28-year-old Rolling Restoration Project & on a leg that doesn't work right.. At least 28,000 lbs. of sand. Anyone uses the word "lazy" with "Indn" within my earshot is in for an earfull..
And then, for me, there was getting laid off March 7; being told a-gain by Unemployment Compensation that I 'don't qualify' for UEC; & having had to skin thru on the sales of custom-made mocassins & the very occasional temp job. I sure would like to thank all those stinking washichu who loused up the economy with their rampant greed & deregulation.. I'd like to thank them with my war club. Or a skillet, applied with vigor.. take your pick.
There's a line in a book I just read - a great book! - "No Birds Sing" by Jo Bannister, an Irish author.... the line is, "Cal Donovan has a mind as flexible as a ferret in a drainpipe". That's flexible, takoszja... I must have such a mind; I can't imagine what else is keeping me alive, other than prayer & some over-worked spirit out there slaving to keep me fed & my expenses covered.
I have some gorgeous bronze irisses in the front, & every year for the past 7 years, I've hoped they'd bloom & got nothing. But this year, after they were under water for a couple of days - water flowing at 40 mph, remember - & got a load of clay silt dumped on them, they bloomed! It was worth the wait! If I can find out how to post the pictures I took, I will, but otherwise, picture bronze and lemon yellow irisses, the blooms as big as softballs. Wow! I thought I had them watered enough, but obviously not.
Mostly, scratching like a cat on a shale slope for a living has kept me from posting. Thanks for your patience, and thanks for reading! And if anyone out there wants gloves for your feet, you know how to contact me.. I'll be so0o glad to help you out.
Enjoy..

January 20 2009 - End of an "Error" in US History

Hanh mitakutyapi. Hello my relatives.
I don't know if I'll be able to get to a computer w Internet to post tomorrow or not, so this goes in the site today.
On January 20, 2009, we will see the end of an "era" - spell that "error", in U.S. history. We will no longer be living under a bush (Bush) in "America". For which I fervently Thank Tunkashila.
The first black person or known mixed blood person in U.S. history will be sworn into the office of the Presidency of this nation. 233 years after the 'nation' was formed, if I calculate right.. I can only say, "better late than never".
Like ITI everywhere, I am cautiously hopeful that Mr. Obama will continue to prove out - that the hope & optimism he has engendered throughout his campaign will be fulfilled. That under his leadership & driving ethics, much of the corruption & ethical laziness we have seen as "business as usual" while we were all forced to "live under a Bush" will be driven out of the offices of the 'leaders' of business & government - or at least, whipped into submission & corralled in a corner.
In our Traditional Ways, we women rattle our tongues to en-courage & to show support & to promote good hearts. So in this vein, I will rattle my tongue for this incoming Administration & these concepts, & urge all of you who read this to join in. Mitakuye oiasin - All, my relations.

Civil Rights Workers Day

Hanh mitakuyapil Hello my realtives. Today should properly be called "Civil Rights Workers Day", for all of the civil rights workers who died to get to the Civil Rights Act, not just one man.
You should know that after the Civil Rights Act was passed, representatives of our Indigenous Nations went to the leaders of the black people & said, "We helped you get this Act. Now it's time for you to help ensure that our Rights are covered, too." They refused us - on the same grounds that whites have since Europeans first came here. The black "leaders" said, "You have no money, so you have no power. Get your Rights insured to you, yourselves."
That's strike 2 as far as we're concerned.. Strike one in black - ITI relations was after the War Between the States. Before that war, we ITI helped blacks escape slavery via the underground railroad. We took blacks into our homes, married & had children with them, taught them our ways & our secret places, gave them pride, respect & dignity. How did they thank us?
After the war, the U.S. government bullied them, saying, "If you don't help us find & exterminate Indians, we'll take your citizenship & freedom away & make you slaves again." So the blacks turned us over. Those were mainly the Buffalo Soldiers - we named them that because they curly hair reminded us of the buffalo's hair, & they were in the bluecoat army.
Martin Luther King Jr. was by no means the only person who "made a difference" in the battle for civil rights for everyone who lives under the U.S. Constitution. And I believe he would not have been at all comfortable with having a federal holiday in his name, for the same reason I believe it's wrong to call this holiday after him.
So while there's tons of fuss & furor being made over "Martin Luther King Jr" day, we should all be focussing instead on the many others who died to get the Civil Rights Act passed, and enforced. That battle continues for us Indns. Hechetu ye.