Franklin Eriacho

My name is Frank Eriacho, and I do have a Native American Indian name. As a Bear Child from the Bear Clan from Tseyatoh, N.M. and I belong to the Bear Clan in respect to the traditional stories and legends as I have been taught from the Elders and Medicine People. At this time during the 2001 Spiritual Gathering at Tseyatoh that we are able to express our feelings and our ways of understanding about our culture and how we practice our tradition as it's been brought down for years and years that we continue to live to the traditional way of life and also we teach our young ones so they can also carry on the traditional way of life. There is a great understanding as to the reality as to where we are coming from, what's happening, and what's going on, and how we need to cope with life and reality...how one needs to keep life in a simple way, and to practice...to become strong and be strong in a spriitual way. A lot of people throughout the world are confused, they don't know what to do they don't know how to be calm, be more at peace, to feel that peace of mind, and because of the movement of the Spirutal Gathering throughout the country we are very fortunate to have one here at Tseyatoh.We have people that have come to us from many miles across the country to be with us to pray with us, to sing with us, to do ceremony with us and to help heal the hurt feelings the grief, to experience the goodness of life. We all come together on this simple way of understanding...sometimes I tend to say that tranquility of life and also the serenity keeping it in a simple matter that we are people, that we are the children of nature, and that we are G-d's children and that we do have prayer and that we have song in our heart and only with a good understanding that we can continue to strive in life and feel that goodness of life, and knowing that it is a new day as we pray early in the morning, the dawn. We use the white cornmeal to pray to the Holy Ones facing the East and we pray for the good things of life, and to have a good life, and to have a good day. It's a new world that we face every day. The way we experience by praying through prayer, what we pray for becomes real, and we tend to be happy throughout the day as the time goes by as we plan, a lot of times we like to think of different things, the beautiful things, the good things, sometimes we dream about it, and it becomes to mind that something it's a mark in life that we need to remember what we dream about or what we think about. So then we pray about it telling the Creator, our Master, the Supreme Being, the Holy Spirit, sometimes we call G-d and as we do then we talk about it with our family members the good things that come to mind and then we talk about it and do it through action and then in time it becomes real. It could be for the things that we need to survive at home, what we have in the home, what we use in our daily life, even food, even our travel, even our friendship, even the love, even the empathy that we want and we want people to understand us and we want people to accept us the way we are. The Spiritual Gathering is so great that it becomes real...As we pray for things that we know we need and we also remember our Elders, our Medicine People, we carry on their teachings as we pray we ask our Holy Ones to be with us, to guide us, to protect us and it's always good to be in a quiet place to feel that peace of mind and to be able to talk. When we talk we talk about the things that we have and how our life is made out to be, and life has to go on. Life cannot be disturbed in any other way, life cannot be abused in any way whether it be physical or verbal. We all need to understand one another, we all need to take care of ourselves, we all need to watch out for ourselves, and we all need to either sing or dance for ourselves and for one another, and the story about whether things are on the left side and whether good things are on right side and how we can continue to live on the Red Road of life as the time goes by from generation to generation. As I look back into the early 40's and compare to the year 2000 there has been great changes, a lot of things are going on throughout the world and we hear things through the radio, newspaper, tv, even faxed letters across the country. In a split second information is being shared throughout the world and yet way before the computer was discovered we too had computer way back from generation to generation we knew what was ahead, we knew how the 4 seasons are taking place and what the stories are about, the full moon, and the half moon, the fall, the summer, the winter, and the springtime. There are sacred stories pertaining to these and the way the cloud moves there are messages in those clouds. The way the plants moves there are messages in those elements and also the trees and the shadows, anything that has a shadow has life so therefore we pray to all. We do have a power on Mother Earth,we pray and talk to the rocks, we pray and talk to the trees and we pray and talk to the plants, and we pray and talk to the rivers and the waters, and we also talk and pray to the animals, to the birds, to the Eagle and we also talk to the thunder, the male thunder and female thunder and in the Blessing Way whether it be raining or snowing, it's a blessing.