Author Topic: International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers (aka the 13 Pay to Pray Old Ladies)  (Read 203879 times)

Offline nemesis

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #60 on: June 16, 2010, 12:16:43 pm »
there are videos on youtube
Quote
Grandmothers, introduced by Janet Weber, Assistant to the Grandmother's Council. Janet has been affiliated with the Center for Sacred Studies since the mid-1990s, and is an Interfaith Minister. Her work is in support of native elders and teachings of the Sacred Hoop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASE0Ri_0F8g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF5tzPjkzZI&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmQOlb1yDKM&feature=related


more videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fZhnt5BHQk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4NTgsxa04k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSYY1IDt4nc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyUT2PzMNEQ&feature=related


« Last Edit: June 16, 2010, 12:25:26 pm by nemesis »

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #61 on: June 16, 2010, 07:35:38 pm »
Finally after researching the Grandmother Council for these past many months, it is my opinion they are non-frauds. They have not promoted pan-indianism, they have not blended traditions, they are not Ceremonial Leaders and never represent themselves as such, they are Grandmothers, and it seems to me they are using the spirit and intent of Ecumenism. Just like Chief Arvol does. Yes i think there many problems with some of the linkages they created, but that's a different scenario in my mind. Are they responsible for every action that some of those linkages do? No.
« Last Edit: June 16, 2010, 07:43:13 pm by apukjij »

Offline educatedindian

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #62 on: June 16, 2010, 08:41:52 pm »
Read the thread more carefully. The council is just a front for Jyoti to sell fake ceremonies. These grandmothers are being used to make her seem legit.

And at least one of the grandmas is actually a ceremony seller and possible fraud. The grandmas themselves sell tickets (or allow themselves to be used to sell tickets) to sweats in Sedona, no less.

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #63 on: June 16, 2010, 08:58:51 pm »
I think the first day time the Grandmothers were in Indian Country Today it was found by one of my friends in 2005 long before their appearence in NAFPS and that's when i started researching, Jyoti was not in the picture and her name never mentioned until 2010. On their current website and any cached versions there is no association with Jyoti. May i ask which Grandmother may be a fraud so i can research it???

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #64 on: June 16, 2010, 09:07:33 pm »
So how could it be a front for Jyoti  is she was never involved until 2010? On Phil Lane's website, (he i say should be put in the Frauds section in my opinion) theres Chief Arvol, so using the same logic Educated Indian would you say Chief Arvol is a front for Phil Lane?

Offline Defend the Sacred

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #65 on: June 16, 2010, 09:09:55 pm »
Read the thread, Apukjij. Jyoti is an alias of Jeneane Prevatt, the woman who organized this group in the first place. Prevatt hand-picked these women, and admits some women she approached for it turned her down. It's in the first page or so of this thread.

There have been other groups calling themselves by similar names. Maybe you're thinking of one of those.

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #66 on: June 16, 2010, 09:24:48 pm »
Hi Educated Indian, it certainly could be another group of Grandmothers, to use an expression from one of my Maliseet friends, "I could be wrong and often am!"
This is the council of Grandmothers i am referring too:

from Indian Country Today,  2005
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28165419.html

ndigenous grandmothers pray for the world
Photo courtesy Marisol Villanueva -- The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers gathered recently for prayers and to discuss their concerns for the state of the world and the future of all species.
By Brenda Norrell / Indian Country Today

Story Published: May 30, 2005

Story Updated: Sep 10, 2008
POJOAQUE PUEBLO, N.M. - The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers gathered for prayers at sacred Pueblo sites and sent a message to the world to protect Mother Earth and honor the sacred ways for peace.

Agnes Baker-Pilgrim, 80, is the oldest living female of the Takelma, who lived in the valley of the Rogue River in Oregon for 20,000 years. Baker-Pilgrim joined indigenous grandmothers from Africa, Mexico, the jungles of Brazil and the mountains of Tibet and Nepal.

Together with Lakota, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Hopi and Yupik, the grandmothers sent a message to the world.

;'The grandmothers of the world want to go forward and not only talk to the women of the world, but the president of the United States and the world leaders. We want them to hear our voice,'' said Baker-Pilgrim, speaking for the council.

''There has got to be a better way of taking care of our Mother Earth,'' Baker-Pilgrim told Indian Country Today.

The grandmothers, she said, are sending a message that there must be better medicine and a new awareness of the pollution around us.

Baker-Pilgrim said she has traveled to many parts of the world and found the water polluted. Never in her 80 years did she foresee a time when she would need to buy bottled water because the rivers and streams are too polluted to drink. Mercury is building in the rivers and smog is clogging the air of our cities, she said.

''We need to enlighten people and tell the world leaders there has to be a better way. If we allow the animal kingdom to disappear, at the rapid rate it is disappearing, then we are killing ourselves faster than we think.

''We are the natural nurturers of the Earth Mother. The Earth Mother needs our help, she needs our prayers. We need to educate the women of the world that prayer works.

''We want to preserve the beauty we walk in for the seventh generation, for the unborn to be able to walk in beauty and have clean air and good water.

''Now the government wants our reservation land, our First Nations land, for garbage dumps. Years ago, smallpox blankets were given to my people to kill them off. Now they are sending garbage and toxic waste to be dumped on our reservations.

''The biggest disgrace in the history of America is the treatment of the First Nations people, but the genocide is still going on,'' said Baker-Pilgrim, who is a Confederated Tribes of Siletz elder and granddaughter of Chief George Harney.

Mona Polacca, Hopi/Tewa/

Havasupai, is working on her doctoral degree in Justice Studies at Arizona State University and has directed her efforts toward alcoholism, domestic violence and mental health for Native people.

Polacca said the primary purpose of the gathering in the northern pueblos of Nambe and Pojoaque was prayer.

''Many of the grandmothers are practitioners of their earth-based medicines, keepers of [the] medicines of their people.

''Many are involved with struggles involving multi-national corporations coming into their homelands to take their natural resources; they oppress them for the practice of their religious indigenous ways. We are able to support one another through prayers and our ceremonies,'' Polacca told ICT.

After saying prayers at the Nambe River waterfall, Polacca said, ''This is a prayer from the grandmothers of the world, from the four directions of the world. We are not leaving anyone out. We are praying for our existence and our generation. Everyone, no matter what color our skin is, is part of this prayer.

''We all have sacred places within ourselves and wherever we might be.''

The grandmothers from Tibet, Africa and Nepal traveled in New Mexico with translators. Polacca shared the message of Tibet grandmother Tsering Dolma Gyalthong, living in exile in Toronto, Canada.

''She is praying for freedom, that her people may reclaim their country and the Dalai Lama will be able to return home. That is our prayer with her.''

The 13 grandmothers wore bracelets bearing the words of a prayer for freedom for the people of Tibet.

The grandmothers, including Margaret Behan, Cheyenne-Arapaho and fifth-generation descendant of the Sand Creek Massacre, met for the first time in October 2004 in Phoenicia, N.Y. Sponsored by the Center for Sacred Studies, the purpose was to preserve the traditional medicines and sacred ways while praying for world peace.

''This event brought together indigenous grandmothers, who are the guardians of the traditional healing and medicine ways of their peoples, with women wisdomkeepers of Western culture,'' said Donna House, Navajo.

House said as a result of the Global Women's Gathering, the indigenous grandmothers formed ''an international alliance unlike [any] the world has ever seen, with the intention that this visible form may inspire others to pray and act for unity and peace on Earth.''

Ambassador Carole Mosley Braun, Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker and Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, attended.

Earlier, in Gabon, Bwiti elder Bernadette Rebienot had a vision of the grandmother's council. In Gabon, women gather in the forest to share their visions, pray for world peace and then share their voice with their president.

In New York, grandmother Rita Pitka Bleumenstein, Yupik, cried as she shared a vision she had when she was nine years old. In the vision, she realized that she must pass down the traditions and teach the young people to save the earth.

Flordemayo, Mayan curandero (healer) from Nicaragua, now living in New Mexico, was among the grandmothers.

In New Mexico, on the rainbow trail, House likes to remember a Navajo song.

''Walk on a rainbow trail, walk on a trail of song, and all about you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow trail.''

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #67 on: June 16, 2010, 09:35:03 pm »
Hi kathryn, i found the post you were referring to it was written in 2007, do you know of any other links before the Indian Country Today article in 2005? ty!.

Offline Defend the Sacred

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #68 on: June 16, 2010, 09:37:22 pm »
Archived page from their website, Nov 03, 2005 http://web.archive.org/web/20051103033704/www.grandmotherscouncil.com/news.html


The Roots of the Movement

When Jyoti, an American spiritual teacher who holds a PhD in clinical psychology, came to Gabon to study with Rebienot, the two women found that they shared a vision of the Grandmothers' Council, and they decided to work together to manifest it in the west.

Jyoti mobilized her organization, the Center for Sacred Studies, to sponsor a council for indigenous grandmothers. She hooked up with Lynn Schauwecker, a former fashion model and fundraising expert, Ann Rosenkranz, who is also a spiritual counselor and a program director at the Center for Sacred Studies, and Carole Hart, an award winning television and film writer and producer, best known for "Free to Be You and Me." They organized both the 3-day Grandmother's Council and the Global Women's Gathering.


So, Prevatt does some spiritual tourism to Africa. Comes back to the US and she and some other non-Indigenous women cook up the idea of a "council". If you read the thread, she's involved in spiritual tourism and ceremony-selling in various areas of the world, and has been all along.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2014, 10:15:04 pm by Kathryn »

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #69 on: June 16, 2010, 10:09:42 pm »
Thanks Kathryn! i was trying to find cached pages!!!

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #70 on: June 16, 2010, 10:17:03 pm »
well its been 5 mins and it aint still all loaded yet (the Central Office HighSpeed Hookup  on my Rez sucks!) but what did load so far was and what may be pertinent..."Bernadette Rebienot, a Bwiti elder and grandmother of 23 had a vision for a Grandmothers' Council. She said that the women of Gabon regularly gather together in the forest to share their visions and to pray for world peace and the well being of their people. "In Gabon, when the grandmothers speak, the president listens," she said..."" then tells about that joytl going to meet her, so it looks like it was Bernadette Rebienot's Vision to begin with????

Offline Defend the Sacred

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #71 on: June 16, 2010, 10:30:13 pm »
Councils of elders are common to many cultures. Maybe to all cultures. And many groups do interfaith work. I can't count how many people have said they had a vision to unite all people, all tribes, all faiths, all races, etc. (Usually with them as the leader of this process... and it's usually a non-Indigenous person, claiming to speak for Indigenous traditions.)

IMHO, The point is how that powerful image is being used, represented, or misrepresented. The point is how that spiritual desire for unity and guidance by elders may be being used to exploit people or ceremonies. 

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #72 on: June 16, 2010, 10:36:28 pm »
well it finally loaded, i read it and pondered on it, and i am gonna stand firm on my original post, IMO this is an attack on Ecumenism, which i have spoke out against and attack on anything connected to sedona which i agree has to happen to anything that comes from there, so its certainly belongs here in NAFPS.
i guess i will be the minority, as this is not a consensus based forum, i understand that things may end up in the Frauds section that i dont agree with, and i am perfectly fine with that, i understood that when i joined a few years ago, but on a personal note, i think this Council is the only good thing i seen come out of sedona in 20yrs...

apukjij

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #73 on: June 16, 2010, 10:56:25 pm »
lastly do not take my acceptance of the council for acceptance of Jyoti, my heart feels much different  about her, suddenly  reappearing with the council on youtube, theres something not quite right about it!

Offline educatedindian

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Re: International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
« Reply #74 on: June 17, 2010, 09:55:06 pm »
How could this "council" be ecumenism if they don't represent anyone but themselves? (I put council in parentheses because they don't seem to be one. They are a rubber stamp for Jyoti, who seems to make all their decisions.)

They call themselves grandmas, not elders (though some may be seen as such in their communities), and they are not claiming to be leaders of any traditions or faiths (except that one likely phony).

And I don't see any sign they've united anyone, or even tried to, outside of people that go to Jyoti's fake ceremonies. They've taken their message to Nuage dilettantes who buy ceremonies to make themselves feel better. A real ecumenism would be speaking to many groups, establishing ties, speaking to poltiical leaders, working on issues, etc. The last time they did that seems to be 2005, after which Jyoti has hijacked their good intentions ever since. They are a commodity now, not a uniting of religious movements.