Author Topic: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman  (Read 615382 times)

Offline Tsisqua

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    • Native American Unity ~ NAU
Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« on: February 02, 2008, 01:42:00 am »
Suraj Holzwarth also goes by the name of White Eagle Medicine Woman. Shes apparently part Seneca and Celtic. I've found her on these sites listed below...
 

 
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/102507/pulse_4389.shtml
 
http://www.alaskawellness.com/sept-oct02/drum.htm
 
http://www.alaskawellness.com/InterviewArchive2.htm
 
http://www.whirlingrainbow.com/
 
 
This caught my attention...
 
 
NEW ONLINE COURSE
The Language of One
64 Codes and Keys for Conscious Evolution Activating the Prismatic Fire Light Body and the Soundscape of Enlightment
About the Lessons
These 64 Lessons will be taught directly by the Ascended Master Metatron through White Eagle Medicine Woman. Metatron's teachings are like a laser, giving us detailed guidance and clarity on the next level of awakening our fullest Divine Potential by activating the soundscapes of our Prismatic Fire Light Body in communion with the Dream of Mother Earth.
These teachings have never been given to humanity in their totality before. Are you ready to awaken to a whole new level of being and clarify your own soul purpose? Are you ready to accelerate your miraculous power to be the living hands of the Creator in the here/now? Are you ready to live your sacred purpose and serve the personal and planetary healing work unfolding on Mother Earth at this time? Then this course is for you!
Embarking on the Adventure
The Metatron will be giving 64 coded lessons in intervals of three per week over the next six months. The activation of these codes only requires an open heart and an open mind. To assist you, the Metatron will offer meditations and exercises throughout the lessons that will take approximately an hour a week. His lessons are designed to accelerate your spiritual growth and your ability to be a conscious dreamer and communicator with Spirit. After you receive and read each lesson by email, pay attention to what is showing up in your daily life, especially that which appears in threes. This will be the Metatron assisting you in applying the lesson. These amazing synchronicities will be more clear as you begin to journey with the keys and codes of the lessons.
Sign Me Up!
64 MetatronLessons: $333.
Payments available.
Register by email at thewhirlingrainbowfoundation@gmail.com Or call 907-745-5636
Begins September 15, 2007.
These lessons will be sent to you by email three days per week.
This course will also include one conference call per month with White Eagle Medicine Woman.
 
Taken from http://www.whirlingrainbow.com/language_of_one_course.html
 
 
Also this.........
 
 
NEW ONLINE COURSE
The HEART OF ONE
Wisdom Teachings of the GrandMothers
"When the GrandMothers Speak, the Earth Will Heal." - Hopi Prophecy
Prophecies of the world's mystery teachings herald this time on Earth as an age of great transformation, purification, spiritual awakening and healing. It's a bold opportunity and a legacy left for us by our Ancestors, our GrandFather and GrandMother Wisdom Keepers.
Come sit in the Sacred Circle of the Grandmothers of Mother Earth and listen to their gentle and eternal wisdom. In these lessons they will teach us how, at this amazing time on earth, to gather our medicine for the full flowering of human consciousness, awakening in us The HEART OF ONE.
Part 1: Spirit of the Waters
November 21, 2007 through February 13, 2008
Course Includes: 13 Weekly Wisdom Lessons by email, 4-Two Hour Group "Spirit Walk" Phone Sessions with White Eagle Medicine Woman and the GrandMothers. During these sessions you will be able to ask specific questions and receive guidance from the GrandMothers.
Dates of the Live Phone "Spirit Walk" Sessions*:
Sunday December 9th 11am-1pm Alaska Time
Sunday December 16th 11am-1pm Alaska Time
Sunday December 30th 11am-1pm Alaska Time
Sunday January 27, 2008 11am-1pm Alaska Time
Cost of Course: $222. Visa/ MC. Payments available.
Register by November 20, 2007.
*If you cannot make the Live Phone "Spirit Walk" Sessions, they will also be recorded and available to you on the internet.
 

I thought it better to bring this to your attention here...Im interested in your opinions.

With respect,
 
Tsisqua
There are no leaders in Unity

frederica

  • Guest
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2008, 02:05:46 am »
Here is an earlier account of her. http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=360.0
« Last Edit: February 02, 2008, 02:08:51 am by frederica »

Offline Tsisqua

  • Posts: 281
    • Native American Unity ~ NAU
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2008, 07:28:00 pm »
Thank you, I did not realise this had already been posted...I was alerted to this yesterday in American Indian Injustice...as this woman is heavily promoting herself just recently on various groups and sites...many native peoples I know are in the process of writing to Alaskan Village Councils, to the Seneca Nation etc...of which she claims to be from...and posted information far and wide to draw others attentions to what this woman 'really' is...not what she claims to be.

Is there anything else that can be done? Seems she is making a shed full of money selling over the phone courses etc...I also heard today how she charges quite a substantial sum for her 'ceremonial drumming'.

With respect,

Tsisqua

There are no leaders in Unity

frederica

  • Guest
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2008, 10:24:57 pm »
There was a query about her a few years ago about an ad in Australia and her program. What I remember is it is the same Drum program but she had advertised bringing Thlingit elders. All I can recall is that she is not enrolled Seneca. She supposably had a dream that she was Seneca. The Nation never heard of her.  The Thlingit I spoke with never heard of her. But, he said she is in Anchorage so she could recruit most anyone to be an Thinigit Elder.  Right now I don't see her saying this is a Seneca Ceremony. She is leaving that up to people imagination.

Offline matt e

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    • my site
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2008, 05:54:00 am »
about the ascended master metatron- it is believed by some that metatron is an archangel.

  in the old testement of the bible(the jewish torah) it says "enoch walked with God as was not, for God took him". Some believe that enoch became the angel metatron. The newagers refer to angels as "ascended masters".
   teaching through a person- the person allows a spirit to temporarily possess them, using their body to communicate.
  I say, based just on what she states, this woman is a fraud. combining several aspects of different belief systems to make one that will appeal to people. Dangerous because of encouraging possession by spirits, which can lie about who and what they are. 
feel free to share any post I make as long as you give me credit. I want everyone to know who to send the hate mail to.

Offline earthw7

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    • Standing Rock Tourism
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2008, 11:16:45 pm »
http://www.butterflyspirit.org/about/board/mfawp_indigenous.html

Suraj Holzwarth
Whirling Rainbow Center/GrandMother Drum Project Director
1620 Shore Dr. Anchorage A 99515
(907) 336-7439 Fax (907) 336-7439
rainbowdream@chugach.net
http://www.whirlingrainbow.org
Spiritual Healer, Ritual Artist and Drum Keeper

Bio: Suraj Holzwarth (White Eagle Woman) is a natural and trained shamanic healer, counselor, educator, ritual artist and drummer. Suraj offers a holistic healing approach developed from over twenty years of exploring, practicing and sharing paths of healing with thousands around the world. She is an international known leader, teacher, and writer of wilderness spiritual journeys, rites of passage, traditional healing, sacred ceremony, and the women's mysteries. She has lead hundreds of workshops throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Her work bridges ancient and contemporary healing arts through creative, expressive, and ritual arts, vibrational healing, shamanic healing practices, energybodywork and meditation. Her charisma and passion inspires others to break out of patterns of behavior that inhibit their life and relationships and to remember that life is a stage; a song to be sung, a dance to be danced, a story to be told, and a magical mystery to co-create. Her work reveals how the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples is relevant to our families, our professional lives and our relationship with Mother Earth.

She was born into the knowledge of her Seneca tradition, as well as a trained priestess of the Strega Wiccan mysteries. As a child growing up in New York, Suraj spent most of her time alone in the wilderness. Her mother and father nurtured her love of Mother Earth and gave her countless wilderness experiences throughout the northeast. She developed a deep love for climbing the highest mountains and spend her early teens and twenties as a wilderness guide, leading mountaineering expeditions throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. In 1979, at the age of nineteen, she was drawn to Alaska to climb Denali, North America's highest peak and became the youngest woman to do so. She led three more expeditions to the summit before settling on a homestead in Chugiak, Alaska.

In Spirit

Offline earthw7

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    • Standing Rock Tourism
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2008, 11:22:13 pm »
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008803170361

Alaskan brings drum project to Del.
Seven-foot-wide instrument part of healing tour
By ROBIN BROWN • The News Journal • March 17, 2008

With wings on her shoulders, White Eagle Medicine Woman Suraj Holzwarth of Alaska beat slowly on a 7-foot drum, singing of her ancestors who were forced from their homes.

 Many of the listeners Sunday closed their eyes or bowed their heads. Others gazed, tapping their feet or singing. Some cried. A child happily yelped, "Boom!" sparking gentle laughter.

Building the seven-layer drum -- lined with 200 crystals -- took 13 months, Holzwarth said, and had the spiritual support of Alaska's multicultural community including American Indians, Buddhists and Christians.

"It's fascinating," Jane Sharrocks, of Baltimore, said. "I've never seen anything like this."

Singer-songwriter-artist Holzwarth, who serves as drum keeper of the International GrandMother Drum Peace Project, said she left Long Island, N.Y., at 19 to climb Mount McKinley, called Denali in Alaska and the highest point in North America, then made Alaska her home.

Her group's Healing Waters Tour aims to help heal American Indians' Trail of Tears and suffering. It brought the massive drum to Delaware for the first time, hosted by the Awakened Heart Spiritual Center.

The center, an inclusive spiritual community aiding personal transformation and spiritual empowerment, held the event at Silverside Church in Brandywine Hundred, where the congregation meets.

Congregation manager Marty Borowski barely could believe the packed hall or the performance. "Surprise isn't the word," he said. "I'm in awe. I'm thrilled. I'm inspired."

Event planners had no idea what kind of response to expect, said Borowski, who helped move the drum into the church.

"It's like a magnet to everyone," he said. "It touches everyone in a different way and tends to be very personal."

Baltimore resident Sharrocks said she didn't know what to expect when a friend invited her. "I came into this kind of skeptical," said Sharrocks, a nurse. "I'm a person that needs data, facts." But soon, she said, "I became entranced."

Like others in the crowd, she wasn't sure what to think when Holzwarth held a doll, wrapped on a board in American Indian style and decorated with feathers.

She explained that when the group visited Australia, she had been thinking of how the aboriginal people there had been mistreated. As a parade led the Alaskans to where they would perform, she said, "an Irish woman steps out of the crowd and hands me this."

The "medicine doll" became a symbol for healing loss, she said, for American Indians who were victims of settler genocide -- or lost to abortion or death.

After the somber introduction, the doll was passed along to those seated in the pews.

Mary Szybist of Media, Pa., cradled the doll as her sons Finn, 4, and Liam, 2, smiled and Finn touched its face gently.

"This is about exposing them to Native American culture and custom," said their father, Bob, a teacher.

For ex-Delawarean Frank Rodriguez of Elkton, Md., experiencing the program was about his grandson -- and spirituality.

Six-year-old Kalum Julian Prino said the big drum was "cool." His grandfather said he was surprised to find such a spiritual offering in Delaware -- and hopes to see more.

"I was quite impressed," he said. "That was truly unique."

Contact robin brown at 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com.


In Spirit

Offline earthw7

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    • Standing Rock Tourism
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2008, 11:25:10 pm »
http://www.whirlingrainbow.com/schedule.htm

GrandMother Drum 2008 USA
Healing Waters Tour
We have been asked to focus our 2008 USA Tour on the Healing of Mother Earths Waters and will be hosting ceremonies at many of the major rivers and lakes throughout America. The tour highlights will include a five day Spring Equinox Delaware Water Gap Ceremony and another five day Summer Solstice Gathering of One with tribes coming together from all around the world at Yellowstone in Montana.


February 8, 2008-Loveland, Colorado
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance and Opening Tour Ceremonies

February 9-10, 2008 - Loveland, Colorado
Shamanic Sound Healing and the Power of the Drum with Community "Mother Drum" Initiation Ceremony

February 22-24, 2008 - Trail of Tears Broken Arrow, OK
Pipe Ceremony, Opening Healing

March 1, 2008- Chattanooga, Tennessee
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

March 2, 2008- Chattanooga, Tennessee
Traditional Fire Ceremony for the Healing of the Waters

March 8th, 2008 - Luray, Shenandoah Valley, VA
Spirit Walk Group Healing Session 6:30-9:00pm

March 9-10, 2008 Luray, Shenadoah Valley, Va

Medicine Wheel Portal Activation Ceremony 11-6 Sun

11-4pm Mon.

March 14, 2008 - Moorestown, New Jersey
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

March 16, 2008 - Wilmington, Delaware
Grandmother Drum Prayerformance

March 18-22, 2008 - Near Trenton, NJ
Spring Equinox Healing Waters Ceremony- Delaware Water Gap.

April 4, 2008, Weymouth, MA
GrandMotherDrum Prayerformance

April 5-6, 2008, Weymouth, MA
Medicine Wheel Portal Activation Ceremony with GrandMother Drum

April 13, 2008 Newtown, Pennsylvania

GrandMother Drum Prayerformance 10am-1pm.

April 20, 2008- Walter Reed Military Hospital, Washington DC Private Community Healing Ceremony

April 25, 2008- Rocky River, Ohio
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

April 26-27, 2008-Rocky River, Ohio
Shamanic Sound Healing and the Power of the Drum

May 1, 2008 - Worldwide
Grandmother Drum: Awakening the Global Heart Film Premiere on Global Love Day Worldwide!

May 2, 2008- Oakland County, Michigan
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

May 3-4, 2008- Oxford, Michigan
Shamanic Sound Healing and the Power of the Drum with Community "Mother Drum" Initiation Ceremony

May 11, 2008-Bowling Green, Ohio
Mother Day Healing Waters Ceremony

May 23, 2008- Fort Worth, Texas
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

May 24-25, 2008 - Dallas, Ft. Worth, TX
Sound Healing and the Power of the Drum

June 6-8, 2008- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Red Earth Festival- tentative

June 12-15, 2008 – Black Hills, South Dakota
Community Healing Ceremonies

June 17, 2008- West Yellowstone, Montana
Language of One: Metatron Graduation Ceremony

June 18-21, 2008 - West Yellowstone, MT
The Gathering of One, Global Eden Event

July 4-6, 2008-Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
Medicine Wheel Portal Ceremonial Weekend

BACK HOME IN ALASKA!
August 9, 2008- Homer, Alaska
GrandMother Drum Prayerformance

August 10, 2008- Homer, Alaska
Illuminating the Sacred Heart Teachings

August 14-19, 2008 Homer, Alaska
Morning Dove Lodge: Shamanic Women's Healing Ceremonies Launching of the Rainbow Fire Dream Lodge.

 
In Spirit

Offline Kevin

  • Posts: 182
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2008, 11:52:56 am »
Geeez! It sounds like she might even be a former Navy SEAL and able to change her shape into animals too   wow!
« Last Edit: March 27, 2008, 12:14:14 pm by Kevin »

Offline Ingeborg

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Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #9 on: April 10, 2008, 12:15:05 am »
Just found this;

Brawl erupts at peace ceremony
By Ed Baker
Tue Apr 08, 2008, 03:06 PM EDT
Weymouth -



Weymouth - Organizers of a prayer ceremony hoped to promote unity by playing a seven-foot Grandmother drum that is intended to symbolize the universal heart of all races at Chapman Middle School, but the April 4 ritual ended with the arrests of four protesters who challenged the validity of the event.

Police charged Hartman Deetz, 31, of Mashpee and Dylan Lach, 22 of Sagamore with assault and battery on a police officer, trespassing, and disorderly conduct in connection with the saga that began at about 9:20 p.m.

“Hartman Deetz and Dylan Lach got into a struggle with the officer who was on hand for the event,??? said Sgt. Rick Fuller. “There were two females with them who became very vocal and refused to leave at the request of the officer.???

Fuller said that about 130 people witnessed the episode that was staged by Whirling Rainbow Foundation, an Alaska-based organization.

“Hartman Deetz tried to damage the drum with a walking stick,??? he said. “He has been charged with attempting to commit a crime by trying to damage the drum.???

Police additionally charged Nicole Lach, 21 of Bourne and Melanie Deetz, 29 of Mashpee with trespassing and disorderly conduct for disrupting the ceremony and refusing to leave the school when Officer Patricia Critch ordered them to do so.

All of the individuals charged pleaded innocent in Quincy District Court on April 7. They were released on their personal recognizance with a promise to appear for a pre-trial hearing on June 6.

Critch, who was the only officer on duty at Chapman, requested backup when the protesters refused to leave.

White Eagle Medicine Woman, an organizer for Whirling Rainbow Foundation, said that the tension began when Dylan Lach, Hartman Deetz, Melanie Deetch, Nicole Lach, a young man, and a young woman approached her as an intermission got underway.

“They had the smell of alcohol and marijuana on their breath,??? White Eagle said. ???They came up to me and screamed at me. I believe they are all Wampanoag nation members.???
White Eagle said that Hartman was especially vocal to her.

“They called me an wannabe and said I was ripping people off,??? White Eagle said about their references to a Native American garb she wore, the admission price to the ceremony, and a two-day workshop that was held over the weekend at Chapman. “Another young man and three girls were with him.???

White Eagle, who has a mixed Caucasian and Seneca nation heritage, did not respond to Hartman and remained silent while Hartman yelled at her in the hope that he would calm down.

“It did not work and they continued to display their anger,??? White Eagle said. “A police officer at the school (Critch) intervened between us and asked him (Hartman) to leave. He refused to go, and it got into the beginning of a brawl. They then tried to smash the drum.???

Critch attempted to stop the destruction of the drum and was attacked by Hartman and Dylan.
Critch requested backup assistance on her portable radio.

“Send everyone you can,??? Critch said during the transmission to police headquarters.

Eight cruisers arrived at Chapman to assist Critch, who was getting help restraining the suspects from some men attending the ceremony.

“A lot of the men in the audience began to assist the police officer and try to quiet things down,??? White Eagle said.

Fuller said that police had to use pepper spray to stop the assaults.

Officers handcuffed Hartman, Dylan, Nicole Lach, and Melanie Deetch when the melee was brought under control.
“The audience was really stirred up,??? White Eagle said.

She said a ceremony involving the drum was held despite the violent encounter.

“I gathered people together in the room for prayer,??? White Eagle said “I felt this was an opportune moment to teach people how to remain peaceful in light of what is going on in the world around them. I felt we had an opportunity to walk the talk.???

White Eagle said she tried to speak with Hartman after officers restrained him.

“When Hartman was handcuffed, he was kneeling down because of the effect of the pepper spray,??? White Eagle said. “I knelt before him and said that I am ready to listen to you. Everybody in the gym heard me say that because I still had a microphone on, but he started screaming again. There was no room for negotiating.???

She said the gathering was quite moved by what happened, and the episode helped launch a healing discussion where Native Americans could share their frustrations over racism and historical injustices done to their ethnic group.

“We have to understand that there are a lot of things that have happened in this country to our indigenous nations,??? White Eagle said. “There is tremendous pain involved, and we desire to bring some healing and inspiration to that story. In that particular circumstance, there was not any opportunity to have some dialogue.???

She said encounters with the suspects are not dampening hopes of having an eventual dialogue with them and Wampanoag nation members.

“On Sunday, a member of the Algonquin nation, Dr. Cathy Gayoski, offered to help,??? White Eagle said.

As a peace gesture, she said, Gayoski helped some Whirling Rainbow members make six wooden shelves for the four suspects and their two friends who were not charged in the melee.

“They made a shelf for each of the children,??? White Eagle said. “We are hoping to meet with the leader of the Chippewa nation One Bear on how to approach the Wampanoag leader.???

The shelves consist of a large shelf that represents the Wampanoag nation as a whole and have six fragmented shelves that are linked to the larger board.

White Eagle said that the episode gave Whirling Rainbow an opportunity to put its message of peace and reconciliation into practice.

“We have left a far more potent message than we have in any other community we have been in,??? she said. “We have gotten numerous e-mails on how people thought we handled this.???

Whirling Rainbow Foundation describes itself on its website, www.whirlingrainbow.opg, as an international spiritual and educational organization that honors and celebrates the diverse cultural and spiritual paths of the human family.

“Our mission is to awaken the spiritual intelligence (divinity) of the heart of humanity, manifesting the full potential of the human spirit to co-create a world of unity, love, and peace with the self, family, community, and the earth,??? declares a Whirling Rainbow mission statement.

Whirling Rainbow further states that the Grandmother Drum is a symbol that is meant to promote peace and unity through the global language of music, dance, and the cultural and healing arts.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/weymouth/homepage/x450927248

hartman deetz
2008-04-08T23:11:56
wicked local should get both sides if it is truly objective<br /><br />any one no matter what faith should know a scam when people are charged up to 300 dollars a head to pray or gather for peace<br />these things should never be tainted with moneyhartman deetzReport Abuse
wicked local should get both sides if it is truly objective

any one no matter what faith should know a scam when people are charged up to 300 dollars a head to pray or gather for peace
these things should never be tainted with money
Bonnie Singleton

2008-04-09T20:57:44
The only crime committed in Weymouth on April 4th was the Whirling Rainbow gathering. It's a shame that gigantic "Grandmother Drum" wasn't set on fire. White Eagle Medicine Woman is no more a spiritual leader than my cat is.
B. Paddles Upstream

2008-04-09T21:12:08
Whirling Rainbow Gathering and their "Leader" is another example of Cultural Theft and Fraud of our Native Culture, that is the crime that happened on April 4th. Native People around Turtle Island needs to speak out about these frauds.

2008-04-09T22:39:05
Hartman I'm pissed at you! You shoulda wrecked the drum and her friggin outfit!
Stay strong man.

Offline Cat

  • Posts: 83
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2008, 02:27:36 am »
Have been posting on Suraj for a while now.... asking people to protest her events (before hand) in the hopes that there will be cancellations..... One woman in Ohio has called the park so much that they have canceled the event;)

She has RedEarth as "tentative.." we are assuming that she is using them as a spring board since she is not carded and can not get in like that....

If she shows up there - she's got a big surprise waiting there for her.

so yes - we can all make a difference....

Cat

Offline glendadeer

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    • MYSPACE
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2008, 03:23:30 am »
I await her visit to RedEarth.....SMILES ALL CHEESEY.... :-X

Offline Cat

  • Posts: 83
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2008, 03:33:51 am »
A Grandmother Drum Supporter's Account
Body:    I went to see the Grandmother Drum for Peace event, with my wife, and a friend.


The location was a public school gymnasium in Weymouth on April 4, 2008, 7:00 - 10:00 PM, at Chapman Middle School 1051 Commercial St., East Weymouth, Massachusetts .


I found information about the drum at http://www. drummingforpeace. org/

Drum? An amazing drum it was. We are talking about a hypnotic sound ritual from a 7 foot diameter wooden drum that weighs hundreds of pounds, a true giant in the world of drums. The audience paid just inside the door and walked to the far side of the gymnasium. The event took place in a corner of the gym, using only one set of seats, and about one quarter of the floor space. The tone was calm. Many people in the audience brought a drum or two with them. Some people bought drums from a table near the entrance. It was a very relaxed scene, lots of children and grandmothers, and some men, in a mostly feminine audience of about 150 people. Definitely a family-and-friends type of audience. People were passing around rattles, brightly colored plastic eggs containing garden seeds and dried corn. Children were shaking them, experimenting with the sounds.


There had been advertising on a local radio station, WATD-FM. Some internet publicity preceded the event also.


On a web page at youtube. com, I discovered this information: “White Eagle Medicine Woman (Suraj Holzwarth) is the director and Drum Keeper of the International GrandMother Drum Peace Project. She is an international renowned shaman, seer and performance artist of Seneca and Celtic descent. Her CDs include Journey of the Heart and songlines of the Soul. She is the director and co-producer of the newly released documentary film Grandmother Drum: Awakening the Global Heart. She is also the founder and director of The Whirling Rainbow Foundation and the Rainbow Fire Dream Institute in Palmer, Alaska.??? She performed in a beautiful white costume, and, in one part of the prayerperformance, posed in a beautiful, white eagle mask. She was accompanied by a young woman who sang, and also danced. The name of the dancer/singer was announced, but I didn’t write it down, so I’m unable to report that. I do have some pictures in my cell phone, which are low quality shot from the top bleacher seat. There were at least two photographers at the event with good cameras.

Everything was spiritual and calm, people singing, kids shaking plastic rattles, the picture of peace and harmony - until the end of the intermission. I was standing about 8 feet from the Grandmother Peace Drum on the opposite side from White Eagle Medicine Woman. I was in the “rattle??? section, holding 2 maracas that my friend brought. Between my position and Suraj Holzwarth was the massive drum, with corn meal sprinkled on it, and also scattered on the floor.

When she started talking again, she was interrupted by a group of 6 young people, who had marched quickly into the middle of the floor next to the drum, confronting her, and started shouting. Events happened fast so I’m not sure of the precision of my memory; there were 3 men and 3 women. I guessed their ages as between 20 and 40, certainly younger than most of the adults in the room. They claimed to be Wampanoag, and their leader, the foremost of them, demanded to know who gave this lady (self-admittedly only a part-blood Seneca) permission to be here? And they were angry, shouting because they were offended by this “mockery of their sacred rituals.??? They specifically didn’t like the sale of tickets to a Sacred Ritual.


He shouted, “What if someone was making a mockery of a Christian ceremony???? Bam!

The leader of the Wampanoag protesters had marched in carrying a substantial, thick, walking stick; to emphasize each of his points, he began slamming the stick down onto the gymnasium floor. Bam! Bam! Bam! White Eagle Medicine Woman had a bigger ceremonial stick, with a black rubber cap at the bottom, but she was not using it. However, he used his with enthusiasm.

“Who ARE you???? Bam!

“Who gave you permission to be here and do this???? Bam!

“Mockery!??? Bam!

Men in the audience started moving inward, towards the action; women and kids began backing up, moving away, their faces showing that they were uncomfortable. Most of the really young children were oblivious, not understanding the confrontation. A few children, however, were grasping it and responding fearfully.

Meanwhile, White Eagle Medicine Woman was not escalating, acting reasonably, plainly wanting them to sit down and talk. Her walk-in opponents, however, didn’t want any of that reasonable stuff. A bunch of people standing around became frightened and frustrated, so they start banging furiously on drums and shaking the rattles that they brought, originally intending to drum for peace. That hope was abandoned; they were drumming to drown out the shouting and the angry words. The volume level went through the roof.

The only cop on duty was a middle-aged woman, about 64 inches tall by my estimate. At the explosion of shouting and drumming, she came running out of the back room where she’d been hanging out with someone. If she had been at the front entrance, perhaps this story would be different. She ran directly to the young men and got in their faces, which provoked an immediate, further escalation of shouting and waving of arms. I could see that the leader of the Wampanoag protesters had veins standing out on his temples. He was visibly enraged. The guy behind him wore a tee-shirt, with the arms torn off, and the words “Homeland Security??? silk-screened in large letters on the chest. That was a wry comment on current American politics, viewed through the eyes of a Native American. The male protesters were not in ceremonial clothing. They were in street clothes.

The cop and the chief protester were suddenly engaged physically, when he decided to try to destroy the 7 foot wide buffalo skin drum head. Whack, whack, whack! He gave 3 hard strikes with the stick he carried. Suddenly, the policewoman and he were wrestling, shoving, grappling. They came around the drum towards me, with him putting a head lock on her. Then their positions were reversed, she was attacking him. Nearby men were reaching in, to impede her opponent. I saw that she had a device in her right hand, not a gun. They were struggling right in front of me, literally three or four feet away. I could see them clearly.

I heard myself shouting reflexively at him, at the top of my voice, “What are you doing???????

He turned and saw the pepper spray device aimed at him and he put out his left arm to stop it. Her hand with the pepper spray in it wobbled around in a circle, spraying people standing close by. Suddenly, I was tasting pepper, my lips were burning and I exhaled hard, instinctively, to keep that stuff out of my lungs. I backed up, putting my hands up in front of me. At that point the protester was down but kicking. Men were grabbing him. I saw her right hand come around and spray directly at his face from above. He twisted his head avoiding it, but most of the liquid hit him on the cheek and neck. I saw it glistening, dripping on his skin. I stepped further back, moving away from the biting smell, looking around for my wife. I began thinking about how we could leave the building safely after this nasty turn of events.

Having stepped back, looking for the exit, I saw that some policemen had run into the gymnasium. They had Mr. Homeland Security face down on the floor between the drum and the left-most exit door. The young Wampanoag women were shouting at those policemen. The women protesters were not striking out, only shouting. The police had physical control of the protesters at this point.

White Eagle Medicine Woman came over to the spot on the gym floor near me where the policewoman had subdued her opponent. White Eagle Medicine Woman knelt down in front of him and tried to talk to him. There was a lot of noise, so I guess that very little communication, if any, happened. The police picked him up and started force walking him towards the exit doors.

She noticed that his blood was on the floor. I watched her put her right hand down on the hard wooden floor, wet with his blood, and then deliberately rub her right hand around on the little red puddle. Then she paused and rubbed both hands together. She went to the drum and rubbed the blood off her hands and onto the drum skin. Her actions were eerily calm, slow and deliberate, in great contrast to the commotion and noise around us. She was not speaking.


The police woman got everyone’s attention by shouting loudly, no microphone needed. She said that if there was anyone here in the gym that was unwelcome, they should leave now. Her emphasis plainly said that greater police response would have been forthcoming against anyone silly enough to take violent actions.


My wife and I walked over to the far left corner where my friend was standing with the PA sound man, Ken. We talked a little bit about leaving. Before we could get it together to do that, everyone in the audience was making a big circle on the floor, holding hands. The drum was then surrounded, in the center of a fifty foot wide circle of about one hundred silent people, both adults and children.

White Eagle Medicine Woman started talking, using the melee as a teaching opportunity. I found myself disagreeing with some of what she said, but everyone in the gym was listening intently. She said that we were witnessing the pain of the Wampanoag, and that it’s not about us. They – Indians - don’t hate us. But the turn of events showed how deep is the suffering of the Native Americans, especially those that are looking backwards “seven generations.??? She said that the night’s events were about them expressing pain and frustration that had its roots in the horrible history that American Indians endured. She said that she had been challenged before, more than once, by medicine men and chiefs who don’t view her drum, and her rituals as authentic. She talked about being confronted by an aborigine fighter in Australia (I’m not making this up). She said that she had been “incested from age two to age five.??? Because of that experience, she had been an angry person herself for a long time. She used to be a “flaming lesbian feminist??? - her words. She said that we - all of us - must stop looking back at all the damage done historically.

She said it is now time for all of us to recognize that we are all one people, and we need concentrate on Peace. She said the 1000 year period of peace that had been prophesied is starting now. She said we need to honor and support women and also make sure that no child is ever hurt. She says we’ve been breaking those 2 basic rules, causing much needless human suffering.


Then, White Eagle Medicine Woman asked one of her “sisters??? to talk, so Ken’s mike ended up in the hands of one of the other Indian ladies that had been there all night. She talked a lot, making a sort of weak apology for the behavior of the protesters (now long gone, having all been removed by the police team). She asked us to view the protestor’s behavior in the context of their life experience. I found myself listening without sympathy. My lips were stinging; the skin above my lips was stinging. I left and went into the men’s room and attempted to wash my face with soap and water. Unfortunately, that did not work. The stinging sensation spread around my mouth. What I didn’t realize was that the pepper spray was on the skin of my right hand and I’d been smearing it around on my face. Yuck.





When we got home, all my clothes had to go in the washing machine. They smelled like pepper spray. I showered and washed up thoroughly. Then my wife noticed that she had a bruise in the corner of her left eye, and it was puffy. It did not progress, but we were somewhat worried. We speculated that she may have been struck by a small chunk of wood flying away from the clubbing of the drum.





The three of us had a lively discussion on the way home. That’s a separate story for another day.






Truth is stranger than fiction.






Thanks for reading

Jay Fulton

frederica

  • Guest
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2008, 03:44:27 am »
I only see it once, Ingleborg post another. Is this woman really going to Red Earth?

Offline ska

  • Posts: 162
Re: Suraj Holzwarth aka White Eagle Medicine Woman
« Reply #14 on: April 10, 2008, 03:47:47 am »
Here's another example of the hodge-podge that is her bio - the word "suraj" means sun, in the Hindi language.

ska