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Respect - The
Key To Life
By Dave Chief, Grandson of Red
Dog
Crazy Horse's Band
Respect means no interruption.
Respect means no
confrontation.
Respect means no
accusation.
Respect means no
"mocking,"
Especially, no mocking of elders.
Respect means no lies between us.
Respect means no betrayal of confidence.
Respect means no "ripping off".
Respect means no hording.
Respect means no "Lording it over" someone.
Respect means no ordering around.
Respect means no yelling in anger.
Respect means no bad language.
Respect means no name calling.
Respect means controlling yourself.
Respect is not a commodity.
Respect is a way of being.
Respect is in our chest not in our hand.
Respect is for all of life.
Respect is for every species in
the world, including all four races.
Respect is for all our relations.
Respect is focusing on and dealing
in
"issues" and not "personalisms".
Respect is focusing on "what" is right
rather than "who" is right.
Respect means owning our own
negativity
and not being a "Blame Shifter".
A "Blame Shifter" is one who projects or shifts
his own negativity onto someone else.
This is the process of bigotry, war, and genocide.
Respect is keeping the lines of
communication open
with those who have a different opinion, and making a sincere
attempt to let them be heard and understood.
Respect means
listening until everyone has been heard
and understood, only then is there a possibility for
Balance and Harmony,
the goal of Indian spirituality.
Dave Yakima Chief (Wakinyan) journeyed to
the spirit world on Friday evening, June 10, 2005, in Medford,
Oregon. A respected Lakota elder, warrior, spiritual advisor,
and member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Dave was born on June
25, 1930, at Rapid Creek, South Dakota. He grew up at Red
Shirt Table on the Pine Ridge Reservation. His parents were
Albert Chief and Hattie Fills the Pipe Chief.
Dave worked for the people and for treaty
rights for decades traveling to the United Nations, the White
House, the U.S. Congress, and other continents. In 1972, Dave
participated in the Trail of Broken Treaties, which culminated
in the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in
Washington, D.C. In 1978, he was in the Longest Walk from
Alcatraz Island to Washington, D.C., that brought about the
Freedom of Religion Act (P.L. 95-341), allowing Native people
the legal right to practice traditional spirituality. In 1984,
he ran in the Jim Thorpe 54-day run from the Onondaga Nation
in New York to Los Angeles, after which Jim Thorpe's nine gold
Olympic medals were returned to his family.
Dave served for many years as a spiritual
advisor to Leonard Peltier and to the Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee, traveling around the country in this capacity. For
over twenty years, Dave worked with Arvol Looking Horse, the
19th generation keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe,
and served as his spiritual advisor since the death of Arvol's
father, Stanley Looking Horse. Dave supported Arvol in his
work for world peace and protection of sacred sites.
Dave always said
that his job was "to pray for the people" and stressed the
importance of daily prayer, respect, service, and honoring the
seventh generation.
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