Fyi Manataka Gathering in Arkansas

[frankie]

The Manataka American Indian Council's Fall Gathering, Oct. 14-16

American Indians from across the continent will again reunite at
Manataka (Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas) for the Fall Gathering
at Manataka October 14 to October 16 at Bald Mountain Park and Gulpha
Gorge National Park Campgrounds.

 The theme of this year's event is "Native American Traditional
Learning Weekend" and is sponsored by the Manataka American Indian
Council (MAIC), a nonprofit educational, cultural and religious
organization based in Hot Springs.

David Quiet Wind Furr, vice chair of MAIC, said the major focus at
this Gathering is teaching traditional American Indian crafts,
ceremonies, history and culture. "We have assembled over a dozen
expert presenters who will teach traditional American Indian ways,
survival skills and art in open-air classes that are free to the
public and for all age groups," said Furr.

According to event chairman Rick Porea, the entire weekend will be
packed with entertainment, seminars, and ceremonies. "Many people
have a desire to learn some of the old American Indian traditional
ways, so Manataka elders, grandmothers and invited presenters will
volunteer their time to teach some very exciting things about our
culture. We encourage youth groups and their families to enjoy this
weekend of learning, entertainment, and ceremonies.  

Some of the classes include, Beginner Pottery Making; Beginner Flute
Lessons; Wood Carving, Animal Tracking; Fire Starting, Plant
Identification, Flint Knapping, Making Dream Catchers, Making
Chokers, Drumming, Storytelling and Grandfather Readings, Pipe and
Sweat Lodge Ceremonies, and Medicine Staff Making.

Classes are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. and will continue to 6 p.m.
on Saturday, October 15 and from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 4
p.m. on Sunday, October 16. All classes are free but supplies may be
required for some classes.

Nationally known artist, lecturer and author, Marcine Quenzer from
Oklahoma will present a mini-seminar entitled "The Great Law of
Peace." Quenzer will display some of her most famous paintings during
the event and demonstrate her techniques.

Marcine takes her inspiration from the traditions and legends of the
Native Americans amongst whom she has lived the last 15 years. She
combines her artistic talents and personal knowledge of Native
American tradition to produce art that preserves the culture of
America's indigenous people.

Marcine's latest endeavor is a series of paintings on the Great Laws,
which were established by Dekaniwida and Jikohnsaseh, both Hurons of
the Northern Great Lakes, and an Onondaga, Hayenwatha. This series
was first exhibited at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City,
Utah. Later that summer, the display toured Germany in the "Good
Medicine Tour" sponsored by the City of Tulsa. Because of this work
she was named "Associate Artist for the Wyandotte Nation of
Oklahoma". Marcine's work has been invited to participate in the
International Peace Festival in Onondaga, the place of the beginning
of Peace. She is moving to the very location where the story in her
series of paintings takes place. The opportunity to walk the sacred
path of the Peace Woman is a dream come true.

[frankie]

Part 2

Also featured during the weekend event are world travelers and
authors Robert and Juia Roskind of North Carolina who will present a
special program called "The Gathering of the Healers" based on their
book by the same title.

Robert and Julia Roskind are the authors of ten books including Rasta
Heart: The Journey into One Love, In the Spirit of Marriage: Creating
and Sustaining Loving Unions; In the Spirit of Business, and Memoirs
of an Ex-Hippie: Seven Years in the Counterculture. They are also the
creators of a record breaking PBS television series 'Business' and
organizers of The Fires of Forgiveness and other major events.

Religious ceremonies will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday with the Grand
Entry and Flag Ceremony followed by the Pipe Ceremony, Fire Ceremony,
and special elder teachings. The Grand Entry will feature the Flag
Ceremony with over 15 tribal flags donated to MAIC. The Naming
Ceremony and Making Of A Relative Rites will be begin at 10 a.m. on
Sunday.

A traditional American Indian wedding is scheduled to take place at 9
a.m. on Saturday and another wedding will take place at 9 a.m. on
Sunday in the Manataka Medicine Lodge Tipi.

Purification (Sweat) Lodge ceremonies will be held at various times
all weekend. A special Honoring Ceremony will be conducted for
members and friends of Manataka who have recently crossed the stream
of life. The Journey to Manataka prayer ceremonies are not scheduled
but will take place at Gulpha Gorge Campgrounds as required by
tradition and faith. Over 275 Manataka members and guests prayed at
the Fire Circle in Gulpha Gorge last July.

A Gourd Dance and Wolf Dance will precede the traditional Healing
Bear Dance ceremony after dark on Saturday evening. Six bear dancers,
three wingmen and drummers and singers from the Bear Dance Society of
Arkansas are expected to perform this ancient rite. The public is
invited to participate in the Bear Dance.

A free concert by Del Lillard of Hot Springs will be held at 6 p.m.
on Saturday evening. Lillard will perform selections from his new
release "Ghost Trails to Manataka" CD. Other events planned during
the weekend include the popular Trade Blanket event, children's
games, storytelling, drumming and singing.

Admission is free.  A $1.00 parking donation and $5.00 camping
donation are requested.  All guests are required to register. Plenty
of level parking for RV's and campers, 75 individual primitive
campsites and showers are available. Food concessions will be open
all weekend. Everyone is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, folding
tables, picnic supply.

Vendors are invited to display original crafts. The fee for booth
space is $30.00 for non-members and $5.00 for members. Electrical
hook-ups are available on a limited basis at $15 per day.  

The Manataka American Indian Council (MAIC) is the largest American
Indian organization in Arkansas with members in 45 states and six
foreign countries. MAIC's website, www.manataka.org features over
3,500 printed pages of American Indian history and culture.

For more information or a list of supplies need for some classes
contact Rick Wind Call-er Porea, Event Chairman 501-821-3120,
dragonflyerwind@sbcglobal.net or the MAIC office at 501-627-0555,
manataka@sbcglobal.net or log on to http://www.manataka.org

All are Welcome!
Jim PathFinder Ewing (Nvnehi Awatisgi)
Healing The Earth/Ourselves www.blueskywaters.com

All these ceremonies they have on their "agenda" what can be done about that?

[educatedindian]

"these ceremonies they have on their "agenda" what can be done about that?"

http://users.pandora.be/gohiyuhi/nafps/articles/art22.htm
Warn people as best you can.  You could go inside and start handing out flyers. Whether you want to do that is something you should carefully consider though. I understand they've been threatening with people before, have their own private security or "warrior society."

For me, the one to worry about the most is the how-to sweatlodge classes, since people could get killed or scarred. Here's our warning you could use.
http://users.pandora.be/gohiyuhi/nafps/articles/art21.htm

AI Heritage Center has some good information on them you could pass onto people, but you might want to just hit these most important points in any flyers.
http://aihsc.info/
""Manataka American Indian Council???  has long been noted among many traditional American Indians and organizations as an exploitative and misleading corporation that is causing damage to both legitimate American Indian peoples and those who fall for their impressive sounding claims. Promoting New Age concepts and rewriting or misrepresenting history is the foundation that the so-called "Manataka American Indian Council??? is built on.
That Manataka and it's members might believe that "star people??? placed crystal cones in mysterious crystal caves in Hot Springs, or that Hot Springs had a Mayan connection, or that they at times associate with Pagan, Wiccan, and New Age groups is not our concern. They are free to believe in, and do, all of these things.
Our concern begins when Manataka, and certain members and associates, present themselves as a legitimate council and spokes-organization for American Indians, tribes, cultures, traditions, and ceremonies. In most cases, Manataka has not the moral right to do so, and in some cases not the legal right."

"Twisted history is fabricated in promotion of MIAC's self interest.  Legitimate American Indians face enough obstacles as it is in reclaiming their heritage without the corrupted form being offered by Manataka diluting it."

"The majority of Manataka members claim Cherokee heritage, [but] they do not follow the common Cherokee naming tradition. [They choose] names are not Cherokee names, only English words that sound to the inventors like American Indian names."

"Many organizations and individuals have attended Manataka activities under a preconceived assumption that Manataka was a legitimate American Indian organization.  Once there, they discover otherwise.  As Dennis Stroud, president of the Cherokee Gourd  Dance Society has said: "Yeah, we were suckered into going once. We will never go back."

You could also point out Manataka has chapters in the twinkie capital, Sedona, and in Westminster, England.

Also found a discussion of them on Indianz.com that you could point people to as what most NDNs think of them.
http://www.indianz.com/board/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12089&whichpage=5

And Trish's warning.
http://users.pandora.be/gohiyuhi/frauds/frd0024.htm

Finally you might try asking Marcine Quenzer and the Rosskinds to not speak there. I doubt they realize Manataka's true nature.
Quenzer
Marcine@marcinequenzer.com
The Rosskinds
DIY@remarketing.com

[notawannabe]

I'm not an Indian, but a Hot Springs, Arkansas, pale faced native( in the sense that I was born here) who also does not appreciate the new ager wannabes and con artists who comprise a large number of the Manataka group.  I cannot get specific as I still live in the area and fear the retaliation of some of these people who are perpetrating this fraud.  They need to be exposed on a much larger scale as they are now trying to get a huge THEME PARK built under the guise of honoring and teaching about native american ways.  One of them at a local business across from the convention center also showed me a tunnel they were digging for the purpose of trying to tap into the hot springs!  His reason was ( and this was a blonde man telling me this ) as a Native American  he and his relatives had a right to it.  He was unconcerned over the possibility of irrepairable harm to the quality of the hot springs that make this national park famous.  

I have the unfortunate experience of knowing a few of their so called tribal leaders personally having even once been the victim of a ( non indian related) bit of fraud by one of them who is about as Indian as I am.

The local newspaper still prints articles they submit..without seeming question of authenticity as to the nature of what they say.  I find it very disturbing that they're being taken as legitimate representatives of Native American people..a number of these people in this group have quite dubious local reputations and it doesn't reflect well on Indian people who have for far too long IN this area been continually misrepresented and whose history and past deserves BETTER.  

Please help your own history.  And help other white folk like me..who don't wish to be a part of perpetrating myths..or to be standing on the sidelines and do nothing and thus lend legitimacy to it.  If I were not fearful for my family's safety as a result of previous contact with one of their leaders and his drug related behaviors, I would be much more revealing in the nature of what I know..any more details and I'd be placing myself in possible physical danger.  Local officials in city and the national park service don't want to touch this issue if brought up by a non native american indian as they fear being considered bigoted and the target of lawsuits.  This is crazy to me.

[j0atm0n]

I am Cherokee/Choctaw and am just now learning more of my heritage. I live just outside Hot Springs National Park and was duped by one of the biggest con men I have ever known. Randy Lee" Standing Bear" Moore is good at drawing in people like myself who want to learn about their heritage and are trying to learn about their ancestors and getting their money and provide them with a bunch of hooey. I learned afterwards that he has been a promoter of concerts and other events in the past and for a while was a Fund Raiser for non profit groups. He had been hired by a group my parents helped form by his slick talking of what he would get for them and never delivered. They have sworn statements from people who donated money about how much they gave yet he never produced records showing these people donating a single cent. When we discovered that he was the same person, he and his wife were asked about this yet neither one of them could remember him even doing this kind of work. The one good thing that came from being involved with this group was meeting one who is now my brother, Raised by his grandfather on a Seneca Rez, he has been helping me to learn more of the ways even if they are not traditional Cherokee ways. My mate is a Genealogist and has been doing a lot of research into my family to help us discover who we are and were our people came from.
I know I will never be able to join the rolls due to the fact I had no relatives anywhere near where they were enrolling at the turn of the 20th century and from what I heard growing up, they would not have enrolled if they were there. My families that my bloodlines came from were in Southern Arkansas and East Texas during this time frame. My purpose in researching is not to be on any rolls but to learn more about my family history. Moore even claimed to have been at the site of a camp that the first of my grandfathers to come to Ark. had been at. He came to Ark in 1819 after signing the Turkey Town Treaty of 1817. Yeah he was one of the ones that Jackson got drunk. Moore claimed that this was the first time he had heard this was one of my gfathers even though I had told him about him a week earlier. This was when my eyes began to open to him.
If anyone wants to contact me privately, I will answer any questions that I can about him.