As of this morning (Groundhog’s Day), the fabled groundhog has seen his shadow – predicting six more weeks of winter.  This is hardly welcomed news for those living on the Cheyene River Indian Reservation in north central South Dakota.  This story was posted by the Associated Press:  

Sonny Brave Eagle and his family spent six days in the dark without a phone or working radio before law officers found them in their home after a fierce winter storm cut power across South Dakota’s impoverished Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

“We didn’t know what was going on,” said Brave Eagle, among hundreds of people on the sprawling reservation amid a second week without electricity as utility workers struggle to make repairs. The storm brought down power lines, iced roads and led to water outages.

Tribal Chairman Joseph Brings Plenty estimated that 1,500 to 1,700 homes were still without power Monday, and said it would take “better than three weeks” to get the reservation up and running again.

The tribe has spent “enormous amounts” of money on such needs as fuel and water, and an emergency fund that had $175,000 a few months ago has been drained, said tribal spokeswoman Natalie Stites.

For now, Brave Eagle, his wife and their two young daughters stay at an emergency shelter or a relative’s house with four other families. They didn’t have a vehicle or even batteries to power a radio when the lights went out at their house, about 12 miles north of Eagle Butte in north-central South Dakota, after a powerful ice storm hit Jan. 20.

Ice coated roads and electrical lines, and forced shops and schools to close. Then before residents could recover, a blizzard tore through the Dakotas with wind gusts between 25 and 50 mph.

The frozen ground complicated efforts to replace power poles, and snow had to be cleared away to allow utility crews to get close enough to rebuild transmission lines, said Brings Plenty.

The power outage led to equipment malfunctions at a pumping plant in a pipeline system that provides drinking water to the reservation. Water service and pressure must be restored gradually in an old system with weak pipes, the tribal chairman added.

About 8,000 people live on the reservation, which is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and the outages affected everyone, Stites said.

But the reservation faced difficulties well before the storms. The unemployment rate is 80 percent, tribal leaders say. More than half of Ziebach County and 38 percent of Dewey County lived in poverty in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The reservation spans both counties.

Several shelters and distribution centers were set up around the reservation. At the height of the outages, about 14,000 people in the region were without water — most of them at Cheyenne River.

The number of water outages had declined Monday, with about 100 people still affected, said Tri County Mni Waste Water System general manager Leo Fischer.

The South Dakota National Guard helped bring in generators from the state. The tribe distributed fuels such as propane, delivered donated bottled water and sent bulk water tanks around the reservation.

Brings Plenty said no deaths had been reported, but a few people became sick from carbon monoxide fumes given off by makeshift heating sources.

“We could have had quite a few people perish in this,” he said.

Seventeen dialysis patients were moved to a hotel at the Prairie Winds Casino in southwest South Dakota, said Rick Shangreaux, the casino’s acting general manager. The patients are being treated at a facility on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the casino is located.

According to the Associated Press, ”yesterday authorities were hoping to evacuate the last tourists stranded near Machu Picchu, the fabled Inca citadel that is likely to stay closed for weeks even if the region dries out.

Peruvian Tourism Minister Martin Perez said only about 800 tourists — mostly younger travelers — were still in Machu Picchu Pueblo, the closest village to the ruins that stand on an Andean mountain ridge 8,000 feet up.

Clear skies Thursday allowed helicopters to fly 1,402 people out of the town, and Perez said the rest could be evacuated in another day if the weather held.  He said 2,542 tourists in all had been evacuated since Monday, a day after heavy rains caused mudslides that blocked the only land route in and out of the Machu Picchu area.

Peruvian President Alan García said the government will guarantee the reconstruction of the regions infrastructure and relief aid for some 25,000 people left homeless by the floods.  Authorities have also said the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu will likely remain closed for weeks until the government can repair highway and railroad tracks washed out by mudslides and the raging Urubamba River.

Many people in the region depend on tourists travelling to Machu Picchu for their livelihood, adding another strain to a population already living in poverty.  Hugo Gonzales, Cuzco’s governor, has estimated the cost of damages at around $280 million.”

I just witnessed the rising of the full moon.  Magnificent.  It is called the Wolf Moon, and it is at its perigee, which means it is closer to Earth and appears larger and brighter to us than at any other time during the year. 

The term ‘wolf moon’  dates back to Native American culture and the notion that hungry wolves howled at the full moon on cold winter nights.  According to a report from National Geographic, “The 2010 wolf moon will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than any other full moon this year, because our cosmic neighbor will actually be closer to Earth than usual.”

Astrologically speaking, the combination of the full Moon and the planet Mars in retrograde energetically prompts us to remember what makes us unlike anyone else.  Why are you alive at this critical turning point in human history?  Full Moons are a time of illumination, so watch for what’s revealed about your true desires.

Last night, President Obama used his first State of the Union speech to affirm his commitment to job creation, health-care reform and climate-change legislation.  Pundits, analysts, journalists and bloggers have all been weighing in on the tone and substance of his speech – some with praise, some with criticism, some with both.

Among the debates raging this morning is the effect of the President’s call for a repeal of the ban on openly gay and lesbian members of the military.  “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are,” Obama said during his address. “It’s the right thing to do.”

While some praise his leadership, others hoped for the President to call for a definitive time table.  Those who are impatient should try to remember that in using the bully pulpit of his State of the Union address, the President is not only moving forward on one of his campaign promises, he is supporting a much larger view of equality.  Let’s pay attention to the paragraph leading up to his call to end the ban:

“Abroad, America’s greatest source of strength has always been our ideals. The same is true at home. We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we’re all created equal, that no matter who you are or what you look like, if you abide by the law you should be protected by it, if you adhere to our common values you should be treated no different than anyone else.  We must continually renew this promise.”

Created equal – a refreshing reminder to his fellow citizens.  A basic principle of shamanism is the belief that everything is connected; that harmony, health, and peace becomes possible from a  position of equality rather than dominance.  I, for one, applaud the President for restating his commitment to that fundamental truth.

The board and staff of Winnipeg’s Urban Shaman Gallery have announced that Amber-Dawn Bear Robe has been appointed Director of the gallery beginning February 9th, 2010.  The Urban Shaman Gallery is a charitable, non-profit artist-run center that is dedicated to the professional development, education and training of Aboriginal (Status, Non-status, Métis and Inuit) contemporary artists, curators and cultural producers.

Amber-Dawn is a Blackfoot from Siksika Nation in Alberta and is currently completing her second MA in Art History at the university of Arizona with a focus on photographic history and contemporary Native North American arts. She also holds an MA in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design and has interned at museums such as The Tucson Museum of Art, The University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology and The Glenbow Museum. Amber-Dawn was also previously the manager of the First Nations Creations Cooperative Art Gallery in Vancouver and completed a curatorial work-study contract at The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillip’s Gallery.

If you are looking for a tangible way to provide support to the relief effort in Haiti, I would highly recommend a donation to Doctors Without Borders.  Their work is based on the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation.

Alert: Due to reports of fraudulent activity, they are asking all donors to please be wary of third-party solicitations for Haiti relief.  To ensure that your donation goes directly to Doctors Without Borders, please use their secure website or toll-free phone number 1-888-392-0392.

People all over the world are reacting and responding to news of the disaster in Haiti – some by donating money and supplies, some by volunteering – and then there are those like Pat Robertson.

Robertson, the American Christian televangelist and host of “The 700 Club,” said that Haitians need to have a “great turning to god” while he was reporting on the devastating 7.0 earthquake that shook the island nation — the most powerful to hit the country in a century.  He suggests that the country has been “cursed by one thing after another” since they “swore a pact to the devil.”

According to Jean R. Gelin, PhD, “the satanic pact allegedly took place at Bois-Caïman near Cap-Haïtien on August 14, 1791 during a meeting organized by several slave leaders, under [Dutty] Boukman’s leadership, before launching what would become Haiti’s Independence War. But, although the satanic pact idea is by far the most popular explanation for Haiti’s birth as a free nation, especially among Christian missionaries and some Haitian Church leaders, it is nothing more than a fantasist opinion that ultimately dissipates upon close examination.”

Robertson’s comments are also causing some fundamentalists to point to Haitian religious practices as evidence of their disconnect from God.  Vodun, a creolized or African and European influenced religion, is stigmatized in many parts of the world as “devilish” because of its worship of spirits, its redefining of Catholic iconography, and its “catching of the spirit” dance rituals.  Here is a brief video produced by National Geographic describing the elements of Haitian religion:

Rather than use the earthquake as a measure of God’s reaction to Haiti’s non-Christian history or religious practice, perhaps we can look at humanity’s response to this disaster as the true reflection of a higher power at work in the world. 

Dozens of organizations around the world are working around the clock to deliver aid to the survivors of this disaster.  One way you may help provide immediate relief and long-term support to earthquake survivors is to donate online through the Clinton Foundation.   You may also text “HAITI” to 20222 and $10 will be donated to relief efforts through the Clinton Foundation, charged to your cell phone bill.

There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012 – from spiritually transformative to apocolyptic – centering around various interpretations about the end of the Mayan calendar: December 21, 2012.  As we begin 2010 I thought I’d once again share a brief video produced in 2009 featuring Alberto Villoldo, a Cuban-born psychologist and anthropologist who has studied the shamanic healing practices of the Amazon and Inka shamans.

This little blog is 1 year old today!  Thanks for all the comments, interest and support.  As this new year begins, I thought you might appreciate a quick snapshot of the astrological month ahead from Karyl Jackson at Alpha Life Trends:

“Moving into the New Year of 2010, a universal THREE year, we have more opportunities to utilize our creativity, expression and our innovative capabilities. The energies of 2010 open a new door. 

The month of January opens into the New Year of 2010 and provides many energy shifts right from the beginning.  Mercury turns direct in Capricorn on January 15th, which provides changes within our business and career environments.  This shift opens new doors of opportunities.   The Solar Eclipse in Capricorn on January 15th brings in a powerful New Moon opening up new direction as created by the course correction of Mercury retrograde in Capricorn.

Jupiter moves into Pisces on January 17th, joining Uranus already in Pisces, which creates events that will unfold information, previously unseen, stemming from 2003, that becoming the combination to open new directions filled with new opportunities.  Pluto in Capricorn is within two degrees of Mercury turning direct on January 15th, which empowers the changes within our business and career environ.”

The ancient Incan civilization studied the correlations between astronomcal movements and events on earth and organized themselves accordingly.  It will be interesting to see the effects here below of so much in motion above.

As I type this blog post, 2010 is already 3 hours old in parts of the world.  Here in the U.S. it will be another 16 hours before we begin a brand new year with revelry in New York City’s Times Square.  While for some it is just another day, for others it is like hitting the “reset” button – a fresh start.  Shamans understand that, in fact,  it is our birthright to create the world we want to live in.  With our thoughts and our intent, we create the world anew each day.

We are what we think.
Everything we are arises from our thoughts.
With our thinking we create the world.  –Buddha

In that spirit, I invite you to begin this new year reflecting on the words of John Lennon’s song “Imagine”.  Happy New Year.