"Bernice Falling Leaves Crowfoote" / Bernice Sophia Noad

[Sandy S]

She died in 2015 but she still has followers so I want to tuck in some information on her.

Wearing her white deerskin dress, Berniece was in the movie On Deadly Ground

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https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/151901098/bernice_halligan

She claimed she was "half-Lakota", adopted by Hopi, a mystic, "medicine woman". She did "medicine wheel" events.

She spelled her first name both Bernice and Berniece. Nickname was Bunny.
Her birth surname was Noad, step father surname Simard, married surname Halligan.
Maternal grandparents both from Denmark, paternal grandparents both from England.

As "Grandmother Bernice Falling Leaves" she ran the "Blue Moon Medicine Lodge" in Washington state.

"Kirlian photography" https://vibrantvitalwater.com/testing-research/

Grandmother ... invited Susan to go to Hopi Land to meet her adopted Grandfather David Monongye, the Hopi spiritual leader. Grandfather told Berniece that she was part of the prophecies and adopted her into his family.

https://hilltopwellness.ca/
https://hilltopwellness.ca/2015/04/18/bernice-falling-leaves-2/

In Oct 21, 1989, Maricopa county AZ, she legally changed her name from Bernice Sophia Simard to "Bernice Falling Leaves Crowfoote". A family member on ancestry.com says that Bernice did not update all her own records to reflect this name change.

[Sandy S]

She was also a painter under the name "Bunny Halligan".

She changed her name legally after her mother died.

She was described as a "spiritualist and a Native American Hocule" in the 1991 book "What to do until enlightenment : healing ourselves-- healing the earth". In the 1994 book "Psycho-regression : a new system for healing & personal growth" she is "Bernice (Falling Leaves) Hucole, native American teacher, USA".

Maybe she was claiming she was Huichol?

As far as I can see, her children did not claim any Native American ancestry.

[Sandy S]

Another spelling of the word:

Berniece Falling Leaves later honoured Susan in ceremony as a Hucoule (medicine person)

https://hilltopwellness.ca/
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She gave followers names such as "White Butterfly Woman" and "Standing Tall Tree". She did "Native American ceremony", including use of pipes.

I'm curious about this:

To close the ceremony, all of the women who were busily preparing the feast of Kayin’s favorite foods were called to the healing room for the presentation of the Blue Moon Medicine Necklace. This gift, which was made in the late 1800s, came from Berniece Falling Leaves, a Lakota/Danish medicine woman and Kayin’s adopted grandmother. The original owner of the necklace was a Choctaw chief who wore a ceremonial white eagle feather head piece which touched the ground as he rode his horse.

https://www.whiteravencenter.org/2017/11/28/our-childrens-coming-of-age-by-dr-marianne-rolland/

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She mixed in pendulums, metaphysics, "orgone energy accumulators", "muscle testing", and other new age/theosophical trappings. Active in WA and AZ.

Her name still bubbles up from time to time, some people use it in their new age bios. Her supposed teachings are being passed down to younger generations. This doesn't seem to involve many people now.

We now have here the only complete fact check of Bernice Falling Leaves Crowfoote / Bernice Sophia Noad/ Bunny Halligan available online.
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Bernice Falling Leaves Crowfoote / Bernice Sophia Noad was second generation English and Danish.

Her parents were James Samuel Noad and Anna Margrethe Jensen.

Paternal grandfather Frederick William Noad, born Durham England.
Paternal grandmother Sarah Ann Elliott, born Durham England. They married in Nova Scotia.

Maternal grandparents Lars Peder Jensen and Karen Kirsten Sophie Hansen, both from Denmark, married in Denmark, lived in Canada and Washington state USA.

[Sandy S]

The medicine wheel ceremony I participated was at VanDusen botanical garden. Elder Phil L’Hirondelle led the ceremony based on the teachings from Bernice Falling Leaves.

Eun, Y. (2023). Time, and the Ecological Futures of Everyday Living https://ecuad.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/ecuad%3A18160

Phil L’Hirondelle (https://www.allmyrelationsteachings.ca/) about the "medicine wheel" at VanDusen Botanical Gardens at Vancouver, B.C.:

A lady named Bernice Falling Leaves introduced me to it. She was quite an amazing woman who traveled all over the world, making networks. She’d go up to Alaska and put a stone there and then she’d take a stone from Alaska down to Mexico. And she made a kind of worldwide wheel you might say. She always said, “These rock people are very alive!” Because we consider everything to be alive, and we call the stones the old record keepers.

https://vandusengarden.org/interview-medicine-wheel-ceremony/

Ceremonies are held there every solstice and equinox https://vandusengarden.org/explore/events/2025/03/spring-equinox-medicine-wheel-ceremony/

Phil L’Hirondelle mentioned here http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=382.msg1724#msg1724

[Sparks]

She mixed in pendulums, metaphysics, "orgone energy accumulators", "muscle testing", and other new age/theosophical trappings. Active in WA and AZ.

My bolding. That stuff has been mentioned in the forum half a dozen times or so, in connection with Wilhelm Reich.

More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone  &  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

[Sandy S]

Thanks Sparks!

Yes, "orgone" is one of countless pseudoscience spiritualist nonsense she promoted. I watched an interview video that included her teaching how to make an "orgone blanket" which was basically a wool blanket layered with steel wool.

I've been looking her over for several days now. I don't know what caused her shift from "Bunny Halligan" the artist to "Bernice Falling Leaves Crowfoote" "Grandmother of the Blue Moon Medicine Lodge".

I think untreated mental health challenges might have been involved. She had a grandiose, pressured speech style.

I'd like her followers to know that she was a pretendian, playing dress up. Her claims about petroglyphs, ceremonies, pipes, stone circles, rituals, practices, drumming, history, culture - all of that is false.

She was not a "Metis/Lakota Sioux Elder Metis" "half Lakota Sioux and half Danish". She was Danish and English. She wasn't an "Elder". She was just a white lady making shit up.

[educatedindian]

Moved to Frauds, very obvious. She was exactly what she looked like, an obvious white woman playing dress up for profit and power. So many years of white Hollywood actors playing Indian make such a ridiculous claim seem possible to outsiders.

Note to her followers, other white Nuagers, and other outsiders-
Someone mixed with one white parent doesn't look like a very fair skinned white woman in buckskin. They look like actor Benjamin Bratt or actress Qorianka Kilcher. European features and skin tones are recessive. Mixed Native people are still brown, just less brown.

There's a definite need to debunk Noad's claims. These followers still seem to be around spreading her nonsense.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/walter-askins-02aa21b6/
Walter Askins
Qi Gong Instructor 24 Therapeutic Set And More.
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Fairview, Pennsylvania, United States  C
Self-employedSelf-employed
Jun 2019 - Present · 6 yrsJun 2019 to Present · 6 yrs
Fairview, Pennsylvania, United StatesFairview, Pennsylvania, United States
I've worked a long time in the metaphysical field. Have a lot of training and experience in things like Reiki through the master level (various flavors). Native practices through the Blue moon medicine lodge (90's)....

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https://vibrantvitalwater.com/testimonials/  Endorsement near bottom.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE-3iQiva9U
Evolving Ideas with Elaine Smitha: Using Orgone Energy for Healing (1999) Bernience Falling Leaves

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The last link even admits the orgone nonsense comes from Wm Reich, not Native.

[Sandy S]

The wind is a child by nature, so give it a wind sock or flag to play with. Otherwise the wind will get bored and possibly cause destruction.

Grandmother Falling Leaves of the Blue Moon Medicine Lodge, a great friend, told me the following. In Native American tradition, a less well known use for herbs, whether wild or in a garden, is that they are just as healing left as they are. As the wind blows through and plays with the herbs, their healing and beneficial qualities blow them to.the four corners of the earth, bringing peace, healing and harmony. In this way the healing essences of the herbs are given to the whole world; the air, the wind, the earth and all elements present. A wind sock or wind flag is essential so that the wind has something to play with, as it is a child by nature, and if it becomes bored it will create havoc with its strength and in its boredom seek something, sometimes destructive in our eyes, to keep it occupied. What a lovely way to think of the plants and elements.

https://archive.org/details/noordinarylife0000unse/mode/2up?q=%22blue+Moon+Medicine+lodge%22

Also, according to this interview https://archive.org/details/WorkingWithTheAuricField.RoseHerlangBerniceFallingLeaves we can stop a cycle of drive by shootings in a neighborhood for two full weeks by dispersing rose petals.

She spent much of her life in the Tacoma, WA area. I know the neighborhood she is referring to, rose petals did not stop the violence.

[Sandy S]

Some gleanings from the "Honoring Grandmother Berniece Falling Leaves Crowfoote" Facebook page. It is not very active publicly but is still exists.

These posted about two years after she died.

As I prepare for Pipe Ceremony, I think of all the seeds BFL planted.
Today as I honor her and respect her, LOUDLY She gives me new information.
Grandmother reminds me and all those connected by her teachings.. IT IS MORE IMPORTANT NOW THAN EVER, TO DO OUR WORK. TO PRAY FOR WATER, TO DO WATER CERMONY, TO HEAL MOTHER EARTHE ~HO

She added to my personal pipe ceremony. I'm am so honored to continue to be her granddaughter... Ho

 

I am an adopted Granddaughter, she lives on thru her hundreds of students.

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She came to Phoenix for a few years. She came to the University Of Life church. She did all the classes that you said. She rented a old home on a hill in Cave creek and we are spent lots of time there. It was a big pleasure to have her here. Was sad when she went home. She spent time on the Hopi reservation. She brought the chief down here. Grandfather David. She came to my home and got along with my mom. Yes we miss her a lot.

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Then in 2024:

Thinking of you on your birthday, Sophia Noad. Thank you for everything.
 GBFL

[Sandy S]

Her family has a well researched public family tree up on ancestry.com. "Halligan Family Tree", she listed as "Bernice S Noad (Simard)". They know she is Danish and English.

In their description added to the name change document:

Berniece takes her Hopi given name, Falling Leaves,  as her last name, then adds Crowfoote.  She neglects to report name change to the SSA.  Therefore, SSA and Medicare continue to relate to her as Bernice Simard.

They describe her time in Arizona as "Bernice' life blossoms as a spiritual teacher.".

[Sandy S]

Lori Boess, was raised here in the Northwest  in  Olympia  area where it has been here home for over 16 years. She is an artist of focusing on her Cherokee tradition. She create drums, rattles, fans, and other art. Lori  also participate in local festivals, pow wows, and other ceremonial gatherings. 

She teaches people to make drums in the ceremonial way, taught to her by GrandMother Berniece Falling Leaves.

Honoring her  teacher

Reverend Berniece Falling Leaves, is a third generation meta-physician who received most of her early training from her Grandmother, and from growing up in a Spiritualist Church. She is a Metis, half Lakota Sioux and half Danish, who received training from many Native Americans of different Tribes, Bands, and Nations. She is also guided by her Non-Physical Spiritual Teachers.  She has been actively working and teaching for more than 60 years.

https://ravenredbone.com/tag/lori-boess/

Boess' current site Spirit Bear Arts Inc. https://www.spiritbearartsinc.com/

Lori was taught to make drums by Berniece Falling Leaves, fans by Bonnie Pemberton, and rattles are self-taught

A review on her Facebook page:

Lori is a highly gifted intuitive, artist, masseur and medicine woman. She also does amazing house clearings.

https://www.facebook.com/zvia.bird/posts/pfbid07EHYB7qFL5DBKquDh7wApXDh99ENBozDndb4Ag9DFdYUzzkudcJXatT3Gw5jPd4Jl

Here is the Bonnie Pemberton she refers to http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3644.0

[Sparks]

Some gleanings from the "Honoring Grandmother Berniece Falling Leaves Crowfoote" Facebook page. It is not very active publicly but is still exists.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Honoring-Grandmother-Berniece-Falling-Leaves-Crowfoote-100062978721466/