One thing I (always) wonder about is best-selling books. One source of info is Amazon. In their “Bestsellers in Children’s Native American Books” are the following titles. Some are on their more than once. In some cases, its clear that the duplicate is a Kindle edition, but others seem to just be repeats. There isn’t, for example, a note that says it is an audio copy.

It is, overall, a disappointing list and it makes me grumpy on this Monday morning…  I’m glad to see Native authors on the list, but duplicates of some really problematic books like Touching Spirit Bear?! And it is pretty easy to see that Amazon’s customers want works of historical fiction or “myths, legends and folktales.”  

#1 – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie.
#2 – Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
#3 – One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims, by B. G. Hennessy
#4 – Island of the Blue Dolphins (Kindle), by Scott O’Dell
#5 – Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, by Joseph Bruchac
#6 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#7 – North American Indians, by Douglas Gorsline
#8 – Tapenum’s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times
#9 – Encounter, by Jane Yolen
#10 – Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O’Dell
#11 – The Rough-Face Girl, by Rafe Martin
#12 – Paddle-to-the-Sea, by Holling C. Holling
#13 – Diamond Willow, by Helen Frost
#14 – Red Fox and His Canoe (I Can Read Book), by Nathaniel Benchley
#15 – The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Speare
#16 – The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, by Tomie de Paola
#17 – Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale, by Gerald McDermott
#18 – Touching Spirit Bear (Kindle) by Ben Mikaelson
#19 – Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
#20 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#21 – Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison, by Lois Lenski
#22 – Mountain Top Mystery (Boxcar Children), by Gertrude Chandler Warner
#23 – Grandmother’s Dreamcatcher, by Becky Ray McCain
#24 – On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott
#25 – Horse Diaries #5: Golden Sun, by Whitney Sanderson
#26 – The Indian in the Cupboard, by Lynn Reid Banks
#27 – Sacagawea: American Pathfinder, by Flora Warren Seymour
#28 – Code Talker: A Novel about the Navajo Marines of World War II, by Joseph Bruchac
#29 – The Heart of a Chief, by Joseph Bruchac
#30 – Little Runner of the Longhouse (I Can Red Book 2) by Betty Baker
#31 – Paddle-to-the-Sea, by Holling C. Hollins
#32 – Love Flute, by Paul Goble
#33 – Soft Rain: A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, by Cornelia Cornelissen
#34 – The Journal of Jesse Smoke: A Cherokee Boy, Trail of Tears, 1838, by Joseph Bruchac
#35 – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
#36 – The Birchbark House, by Louise Erdrich
#37 – The Legend of the Bluebonnet, by Tomie dePaola
#38 – Buffalo Woman, by Paul Goble
#39 – Cheyenne Again, by Eve Bunting
#40 – Where the Broken Heart Still Beats: The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker, by Carolyn Meyer
#41 – Julie, by Jean Craighead George
#42 – Children of the Longhouse, by Joseph Bruchac
#43 – Sacred Fire, by Nancy Wood
#44 – Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell
#45 – Mama, Do You Love Me, by Barbara J. Joosse
#46 – The Year of Miss Agnes, by Kirkpatrick Hill
#47 – Sweetgrass Basket, by Marlene Carvell
#48 – Sitting Bull: Dakota Boy, by Augusta Stevenson
#49 – The Talking Earth, by Jean Craighead George
#50 – Rainbow Crow, by Nancy Van Laan
#51 – The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble
#52 – The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale, by Lydia Dabcovich
#53 – The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble
#54 – Song of the Seven Herbs, by Walking Night Bear
#55 – Ten Little Rabbits, by Virginia Grossman
#56 – The Lost Children: The Boys Who Were Neglected, by Paul Goble
#57 – Moccasin Trail, by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
#58 – Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, by Scott O’Dell
#59 – Meet Kaya: An American Girl, by Janet Beeler Shaw
#60 – When the Legends Die, by Hal Borland
#61 – Sacajawea, by Joseph Bruchac
#62 – Knots on a Counting Rope, by John Archambault
#63 – The Porcupine Year, by Louise Erdrich
#64 – Star Boy, by Paul Goble
#65 – Jim and Me, by Dan Gutman
#66 – Kaya: An American Girl: 1764/Box Set, by Janet Beeler Shaw
#67 – Between Earth and Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places, by Joseph Bruchac
#68 – Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen
#69 – Weasel, by Cynthia Defelice
#70 – When the Shadbush Blooms, by Carla Messinger
#71 – On Mother’s Lap, by Ann Herbert Scott
#72 – The Captive Princess: A Story Based on the Life of Young Pocahontas
#73 – Powwow’s Coming, by Linda Boyden
#74 – The Gift of the Sacred Dog, by Paul Goble
#75 – Streams to the River, River to the Sea, by Scott O’Dell
#76 – Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets, Massachusetts – Rhode Island, 1653 (Royal Diaries) by Patricia Clark Smith
#77 – Indian Trail (Choose Your Own Adventure) , by R. A. Montgomery
#78 – Arrow Over the Door, by Joseph Bruchac
#79 – At Seneca Castle, by William W. Canfield
#81 – Pocahontas, by Joseph Bruchac
#82 – Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, by Joseph Bruchac
#83 – Christmas Moccsains, by Ray Buckley
#84 – The Game of Silence, by Louise Erdrich
#85 – Encounter, by Jane Yolen
#86 – Beyond the Ridge, by Paul Goble
#87 – Death of the Iron Horse, by Paul Goble
#88 – The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
#89 – Island of the Blue Dolphins (illustrated) by Scott O’Dell
#90 – Frozen Fire: A Tale of Courage by James Houston
#92 – Blood on the River: James Town 1607, by Elisa Carbone
#92 – The Give-Away: A Christmas Story in the American Tradition, by Ray Buckley
#93 – Mystic Horse, by Paul Goble
#94 – Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners, by Lucilee Recht Penner
#95 – Mysteries in Our National Parks: Cliff Hanger, by Gloria Skurzynski
#96 – Jim Thorpe, Olympic Champion, by Guernsey Van Riper Jr
#97 – Good Hunting, Blue Sky (I Can Read Book) by Peggy Parish
#98 – Guests, by Michael Dorris
#99 – Hiawatha and Megissogwon by Henry W. Longfellow
#100 – Sing Down the Moon, by Scott O’Dell

Observations? Books by four Native authors are on the list: Sherman Alexie, Joseph Bruchac, Louise Erdrich, and Michael Dorris.  I’ll return to this list later to share analyses and observations. Right now, I gotta head to class. The class? American Indian Studies 101, where, over the course of the semester, students gain insight and skills in recognizing problematic depictions of Native peoples. It is encouraging to see that development in them. I wish everyone in the US could take an Intro to American Indian Studies course. Then maybe there’d be some CHANGE in what they buy.

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For example, the police chase across the Ohio-Indiana state line resembled real police incidents in that general region.

And interestingly, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is also located near the Ohio-Indiana border. That base is home to an Air Force foreign technology research center and closely associated with the alleged Roswell incident and subsequent research.

In “Close Encounters” a mysterious red-suited team of 12 Americans is covertly sent to Devils Tower, a U.S. National Monument. That element parallels claims about a secret mission called “Project SERPO.”

According to reports about this allegedly real operation, 12 carefully selected and trained U.S. military personnel went on an exchange program in the 1960s with an extraterrestrial race aboard their spacecraft, staying on a faraway planet for more than a decade.

In “Close Encounters” the clandestine logistics and security operation at Devils Tower was largely facilitated by U.S. Army Special Forces.

In real life, some of their specialties are covert and unconventional operations. Army Special Forces also works in roles to establish rapport with indigenous populations and provide training.

But is there more about Devils Tower that we can learn?

Image: Bear’s Lodge, also known as Devils Tower, Wyoming

BEAR’S LODGE

Native American Indians had a very different name for this unusual geological formation. To the Lakota and Cheyenne, it was “Bear Lodge,” “Grizzly Bear Lodge,” or “Bear Lodge Butte.” The Cheyenne and Crow also referred to it as “Bear’s House” or “Bear’s Lair.” It was also called “Bear’s Tipi” by the Cheyenne and Arapaho. To the Kiowa, it was “Tree Rock.”

How did an Indian identity associated with a bear lodge become “Devils Tower?” It is believed that an interpreter in an 1875 expedition in the area misunderstood the Indian words and translated them as “Bad God’s Tower” which was later changed to “Devil’s Tower,” and eventually to “Devils Tower” (no apostrophe).

President Theodore Roosevelt declared the huge rock formation a U.S. National Monument in 1906. Today, the entire monument are includes 1,347 acres.

Interesting legends and folklore about the site may also hold clues about more subtle connections at Devils Tower or Bear Lodge.

A Lakota tale reportedly describes six Lakota girls picking flowers there when they were chased by bears. The Great Spirit helped the girls by raising the ground under them. The distinctive vertical striations of the rock were made when the bears tried to climb it but slid down, leaving huge scratch marks, according to this legend.

A Kiowa story is similar. Seven girls playing were chased by large bears. To escape, the girls climbed a rock and prayed to the Great Spirit for help. Answering the girls’ prayers, the Great Spirit caused the rock to rise to the heavens, saving the girls as the bears tried to climb the rock, leaving their claw marks.

As the girls reached the uppermost realms of the sky, they became the star constellation the Pleiades. This star system is sometimes associated with extraterrestrial visitors in more modern cases.

There is another legend about several boys escaping a bear, praying to the Creator for help, being raised up on the rock and escaping back to their village with the help of an eagle.

ALIEN VISITORS

When Army Special Forces, scientists, technicians, defense and intelligence officials, and the mysterious 12-person team infiltrate the Devils Tower or Bear Lodge region in “Close Encounters,” can we make any connections to this Native American Indian lore or other possible factors?

Many Indian tribes have oral histories about unusual visitors or beings of many kinds. In some legends, the visitors come from far away in the skies. In others, certain beings are native to Earth, or live nearby, and are part of the mysteries of Nature and reality.

Even now, there are many reports of mysterious phenomena in Indian Country. And, Indian perspectives about Nature, the Great Spirit and other matters can be unique and helpful to learn about.

Another different type of link is the rich history in the U.S. Army of establishing connections to Native American tribes and traditions. Unit patches, words and concepts related to the identity and honor of a warrior can be found throughout the U.S. Army.

For example, the Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division uses the Cherokee word “currahee” as a touchstone concept. Currahee means “we stand alone together.”

The Army Special Forces motto, though not in American Indian language, is the Latin “de Oppresso Liber” meaning “Liberate the Oppressed.”

Of course, these two U.S. Army examples are paradoxical, to put it mildly, regarding the history of conflicts with Native American Indians over centuries as Europeans landed, conquered, took land, enslaved and destroyed or nearly destroyed native societies and cultures.

When some Europeans became “Americans,” regional militias and federal army troops often did the same.

In the case of the Cherokee, their ancient homeland in the Appalachian Mountain region stretched from Tennessee and North Carolina to Georgia and Alabama. Staring in the 1700s, there was a large degree of intermarriage with Scottish, Scots-Irish and English explorers and settlers, resulting in the millions of Americans today who have Cherokee DNA within them.

But this did not help them when in 1838 men, women, children and the elderly were forced at gunpoint and bayonet point from their homes and farms into prison camps, their land stolen, and marched to Oklahoma on the terrible and deadly “Trail of Tears.” Many mixed-ethnicity Cherokee were reportedly able to avoid this removal.

Their experience parallels the history of many other tribes.

Today, some researchers advise us to consider the experience of Native American Indians who faced a visitation or invasion of technologically superior “aliens” from England, France, Spain and elsewhere in Europe.

Could humans dealing with advanced beings from elsewhere experience a fate similar to that of American Indians?

Maybe we can take another look at “Close Encounters” in light of the history of Bear’s Lodge or Devils Tower. That location may serve as a way to explore the many lessons about connections between American history, humanity, nature and the mysteries of the universe.

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The winners of the 12th Annual Native American Music Awards were announced on Friday, November 12, 2010. The event took place at the Seneca Niagara Hotel & Casino, in Niagara Falls, New York.

The Native American Music Awards, also known as Nammys, celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the American Indian nations.

Artist of the Year
Joseph FireCrow – Face The Music

Record of the Year
Breakin’ Free by Jan Michael Looking Wolf Band

Best Traditional Recording
Rebuilding The Fire by Bo Taylor

Best Pow Wow Recording
Boys Will Be Boyz by The Boyz

Best Waila Recording
Get’n Down by Native Thunder

Best World Music Recording
Remembrance by Gabriel Ayala

Debut Artist of the Year
Victoria Blackie – Wanted Man

Debut Duo or Group of the Year
Dark Water Rising – Dark Water Rising

Best Female Artist
Tinesha Begaye – Horses Are Our Journey

Best Folk Recording
Michael Bucher – Believe

Flutist of the Year
Joseph FireCrow – Face the Music

Group of the Year
Bluedog – Get Up & Get Out

Best Instrumental Recording
Hitchin’ A Ride by Nokie Edwards

Best Male Artist
Jay Begaye – Horses Are Our Journey

Best Native American Church Recording
Dakota Lakota Traditional Church Songs – Sacred Harmonies

Best New Age Recording
Sheila Applegate & Joanne Shenandoah – Enchanted Garden

Best Blues Recording
If That’s All Right With You by Twice As Good

Best Compilation Recording
Walking With the Spirits by Randy McGinnis

Best Pop Recording
We Are by Digging Roots

Best Producer
Frank Waln for Always Ready

Best Rock Recording
Segweh by Segweh

Song/Single Of The Year
“Grandfather” by Windwalker/Wind Spirit Drum

Songwriter Of The Year
Brad Clonch & Jeff Carpenter – Fight For Survival

Best Spoken Word Recording
Stories From The Social Fire by The Story Tellers

Best Music Video
Sacred Warrior by Tom Bee

Native Heart
Tribal Vision by Big City Indians

Best Country Recording
It’s About Time by Shane Yellowbird

Best Gospel/Inspirational Recording
Sacred Fire by Sayani

Best Rap / Hip Hop Recording
Tribal Tribulations by Chase Monchamp/Chase Manhattan

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Homeland tells the engaging story of some of the Lakota Indian families from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota – a place where 30 per cent of the people are homeless, 80 per cent unemployed and 60 per cent live in substandard housing.

The film weaves a portrait of a spiritual leader, a grandmother, a community activist and an artist over the course of three years, following them as they face the harsh realities common to most American Indian reservations – alcoholism, unemployment and scarce housing. With family loyalty, spiritual devotion and a keen sense of humour, they work to build a better life for their children and future generations.

The interviews and footage reveal a palpable yearning for self-reliance and personal freedom – from tribal corruption and governmental binds. For some families this freedom is a return to family land outside of town, far from government-built housing projects. For others, freedom means looking off the reservation for educational and employment opportunities.

In the film we meet Michael Little Boy, a spiritual leader who helps lift his community with Lakota prayer. Living with his wife and seven children in a falling-apart shack, Michael – spurred on by a dream – looks to sources outside the expected. As a result, the Little Boys became the first family to receive a relocated military home.

Marian White Mouse believes that freedom is living in harmony with the earth, on land of one’s own. But archaic laws mean those on the reservation are unable to own their land outright. Yearning for her children to run free in the fields, she and her husband hope to build a house in the country.

Thurman Horse, a young artist and father of four, struggles to raise his children in ghetto-styled cluster housing. He moves off the reservation to establish himself and find a better education for his children.

Filmmakers Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson say: “We wanted to encourage viewers to look at current realities of reservation life, which are virtually unknown and often very disturbing – severe poverty, homelessness, poor health, alcoholism. But within the harsh conditions of reservation life, you will always find an inspiring and incredible group of people striving to create a better future for their children.”

In Homeland we hear voices from the reservation – native voices, seldom heard, that speak to commonalties and differences, and bridge the gap between American Indians and the rest of the world.

Filmmakers: Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson. Homeland aired on Al Jazeera from Sunday, November 7, 2010.

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Traveling through the heartland of America and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of “the Injun” has influenced the world’s understanding – and misunderstanding – of Natives. “Reel Injun” traces the evolution of cinema’s depiction of Native people from the silent film era to today, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native film celebrities, activists, film critics and historians.

In the documentary, Diamond tells his own story about growing up on a reserve in the James Bay community of Waskaganish in Northern Quebec. Diamond recalls watching old movies as a kid in a church basement, cheering for the cowboys; he did not identify with the Indians he saw on screen.

“I headed south to make my own movie, on a journey to explore my Hollywood roots and make sense of how that influenced us all.”

Throughout the film, Diamond meets with Clint Eastwood (“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” “A Fistful of Dollars,” “Unforgiven”) at his studios in Burbank, Calif., where the film legend discusses the evolution of the image of Indians in Westerns and what cowboy-and-Indian myths mean to America. “Reel Injun” also hears from legendary Native American activists John Trudell, Russell Means and Marlon Brando’s notorious Oscar-night proxy Sacheen Littlefeather.

“Reel Injun” also features Robbie Robertson, the half-Jewish, half-Mohawk musician and soundtrack composer (“Raging Bull,” “Casino,” “Gangs of New York”), Cherokee actor Wes Studi (“Last of the Mohicans,” “Geronimo”), filmmakers Jim Jarmusch (“Dead Man”) and Chris Eyre (“Smoke Signals”) and acclaimed Native actors Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves,” “Thunderheart”) and Adam Beach (“Smoke Signals,” Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers”). Diamond also traveled north to the remote Nunavut town of Igloolik (population – 1,500) to interview Zacharias Kunuk, director of the Camera d’Or-winning “The Fast Runner.”

“Reel Injun’s” humour and star power is balanced with commentary from film critics and historians, including Canadian Broadcasting Corporation film critic Jesse Wente, author and scholar of American Indian Studies Angela Aleiss, and associate professor of ethnic studies at Mills College, California, Melinda Micco.

“Reel Injun” highlights some of the real Indian actors who were able to move beyond the Hollywood stereotype – from Coast Salish Chief Dan George in “Little Big Man” to Oneida actor Graham Greene in Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves.”

One of Canada’s foremost aboriginal filmmakers and photographers, Diamond’s recent credits include “The Last Explorer,” a feature-length docu-drama retracing the steps of his great uncle, aboriginal guide George Elson, on an ill-fated voyage into the heart of uncharted Labrador. Diamond also directed the award-winning documentaries “One More River” and “Heavy Metal: A Mining Disaster in Northern Quebec.”

“Reel Injun” takes the audience on a journey from the first silent films which featured Natives to today’s Native cinema where indigenous filmmakers are beginning to tell their stories in their own way.

Diamond’s documentary leaves the audience excited about the emerging Native film movement. “A new age of Native cinema is born,” Diamond said. “These films revolutionize the Native image for the world.”

Independent Lens is an Emmy Award-winning weekly series airing Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. on PBS. For more information visit www.pbs.org/independentlens.

The blues are considered to be rooted in the traditions of gospel singing and African-American folk music.

But Elaine Bomberry, host of “Rez Bluez,” a show on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in Canada, explained to an audience at the National Museum of the American Indian that the roots of this American form of music also extend deep into Native American musical traditions.

“The whole heartbeat of the blues is very much like our drum,” Bomberry said, during a discussion called “The Blues: Roots, Branches and Beyond.”

Ron Welburn, a Native poet and scholar of jazz, said he can hear the influences of music from many Native nations on early blues recordings.

“There are things that say to me that someone knows something about stomp dancing, a part of Southeastern Native American music from before European contact,” he said. “It’s the call-and-response phrasing, and the length of the statement, which may be longer than the response.”

The Aug. 22 conversation was followed by a concert in the museum’s Indian Summer Showcase series. Performances featured blues artists George Leach, of the Sta’atl’imx Nation in British Columbia; the Rez Bluez All-Starz with Murray Porter, Mohawk, and Beaver Thomas, who is Cowesseness First Nation; plus special guests Corey Harris, recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” and string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

The blues were birthed in a unique moment of history when the slave trade and colonization of the American South forced people and their musical traditions to come together, explained Welburn, an English professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Plantations brought together Irish indentured servants, African slaves and also Native slaves. “All lived together, all procreated together,” said Justin Robinson of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Later escaped slaves found refuge in Native communities from the South and, in time, up the Underground Railroad to the Six Nations in Canada.

“The Underground Railroad was Tuscarora Indian trails to the Niagara River and across. Tuscaroras would bring the escaped slaves across to Six Nations, where I’m from,” Bomberry said. Watch a clip from Bomberry’s television show online.

When the blues began to be recorded in the early 20th century, many artists self-identified as Native American. Welburn said Charley Patton, who is called the father of Mississippi Delta blues, was Choctaw. Scrapper Blackwell was Eastern Band Cherokee. Listen to Blackwell online.

But ancestry isn’t as important to musicologists as what can be documented in the music, said Welburn, who is Gingaskin/Assateague, Cherokee and African American.

“They want to know what a person picked up from another musical source, like four beats to the measure,” he said. “Powwow drumming is four beats to a measure.”

Welburn counts: boom, boom, boom, boom. He hears this beat in the earliest blues recordings, though later it would be expanded upon.

“‘Chika, ching, chika, ching, chika, ching’ was started by a drummer – a Mohawk and African American guy, Jesse Price,” he said. Price lived in Kansas City and toured with the likes of Count Basie on a circuit that included Oklahoma. His peers said they believe his drumming style came from Native music.

“Because of that location you can associate certain dances,” Welburn said. “In round dancing, there is a ‘chika, ching’ syncopation. Even guys who have bells or deer toes on garters make a similar sound walking around.”

The blues’ call-and-response song structure, which has been attributed to African-American folk music, may also have older roots in Native American music. “It’s not a matter of someone trying to take credit,” Welburn said. “It’s about finding the roots.”

Blues and jazz artists have made similar observations.

Oscar Pettiford, the late Cherokee, Choctaw and African-American bandleader, gave an interview in 1960 to the magazine Jazz Times, in which he stated that jazz attempts to render an American Indian beat.

In the 1970s, Welburn remembers Lewis McMillan, a drummer with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra who was mixed-race Cherokee, telling him, “Ronny, don’t ever let anyone tell you that our people didn’t have anything to do with jazz.”

Recently, singer and percussionist Cyril Neville, the youngest of the famed New Orleans’ group the Neville Brothers, told Bomberry, “Sister, we both own the blues.”

Murray Porter, who first heard B.B. King as a teenager at the Six Nations in Ontario while listening late into the night to radio from Chicago, said the genre has always been about cross-pollination.

“It’s not an African thing; it’s not a Native thing,” he said. Later, in concert before more than 1,000 people at the museum, he improvised a sort of musical invocation, singing, “Everybody get together. Everybody get together. Everybody get together and let the good times roll.”

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For the second year in a row, the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center has received statewide recognition for excellence from the Oklahoma Museums Association. CNMCC is the recipient of a 2010 OMA Award for “Best Website” for www.comanchemuseum.com. The museum is the only tribal museum in the state of Oklahoma to be honored by OMA this year. In 2009, the museum took top honor for “Best Promotional Piece” for the television commercial “Celebrating Josephine Wapp.”

The OMA Awards will be presented during a luncheon Sept. 24 at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City as part of the Oklahoma Museums Association’s Annual Fall Conference.

“Hours of research and preparation went into the creation and design of our website. It’s humbling to know our hard work is not going unnoticed,” said CNMCC Executive Director Phyllis Wahahrockah-Tasi.

CNMCC’s website blends history and culture with today’s technology. The concept for the award-winning site was a collaborative effort between museum management and Intertribal Software Consultants, Inc., [intertribalsoftware.com] an American Indian-owned company based out of Durant, Okla. The site offers a number of features unique to the online museum world including a Comanche language component, an online art gallery, and a multimedia section for educational videos.

The website’s most distinctive feature is a three-dimensional component that allows visitors the chance to examine Comanche artifacts as if the items were being held in their hands. CNMCC is currently the only museum in Oklahoma using the 3D technology.

In 2010 alone, CNMCC’s website has been viewed by people in 53 countries including Japan, New Zealand and Kuwait. “It’s important that our website is educational and cutting-edge,” Wahahrockah-Tasi said. “Our site provides us with an opportunity to teach Comanche history and culture to people all over the world. It’s our chance to tell our story.”

Presented annually, the OMA Awards recognize outstanding achievement by museums and individuals throughout the state during the past year. Award categories include exhibitions, promotional piece, publication, website, newsletters, conservation projects and education programs. The competition is divided into four budget categories. In addition, certificates of recognition honor the contributions of an individual, group, or business to Oklahoma museums or a specific museum or community.

With more than 500 members, the Oklahoma Museums Association supports Oklahoma museums in their efforts to educate, inform and entertain. OMA is headquartered in Oklahoma City. For more information on OMA and its programs, visit www.okmuseums.org or call (405) 424-7757.

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SEATTLE – For the past two decades, Litefoot’s talent for writing lyrics then turning it into rap and scratch masterpieces has propelled him to the top of the Native hip hop genre. He began rapping during a time when there were few Native hip hop artists on the scene. He quickly gained popularity among Native youth, and snagged multiple Native American Music Awards along the way.

His career has taken him from the studio and stage to multiple business ventures under Litefoot Enterprises, LLC, delving into real estate development, gaming, hospitality and wealth management. His entrepreneurial skills were first put to task when he opened Red Vinyl Records 20 years ago.

In 2001, he launched Native Style clothing Web site, and is in the process of expanding the line by collaborating with Native resort casinos, organizations and events.

Not one to stay in a comfort zone, he has four big release dates starting on his birthday, Sept. 11, with the release of his first, self-published memoir, “The Medicine of Prayer.” It chronicles his childhood, music and acting career, family life, and his all-encompassing entrepreneurial spirit. “There has always been a very strong spiritual understanding that has gone hand and hand on my journey.”

An understanding that he attributes to the many hours he spent as a child listening to his grandfather tell stories that were both inspirational and spiritual in nature.

It was a combination of life experiences, however, that persuaded him to explore his creativity and business acumen without limitation – even if it meant designing a pair of sneakers.

While attending the Reservation Economic Summit in Las Vegas this past February, he met with the owner of Sole Nation Health, a Native-owned footwear company, and agreed to design a hip looking, functional shoe for diabetics and the public at large.

This October, the abORIGINALFOOT wear line, will be released for sale on Litefoot’s Web site and at retailers nationwide. “I am very optimistic that this may be one of the greatest things that I will ever be associated with.”

He said this business venture seemed like a natural transition, given his name, Litefoot. Born Gary Davis on Sept. 11, 1969 in Ontario, Calif., and raised in Tulsa, Okla., he got the idea for the name Litefoot from the last name of a powwow dancer, changing the spelling out of respect. He found the name reflected his persona – light on his feet, yet with a drive to succeed.

The Cherokee rapper merges Native vocals and musical stylings with his brand of hip hop. His 11th album “The Testament,” slated for release Nov. 11, features 11 new tracks and 20 previously released, re-mastered “Conscious Cutz.”

“I think this album is more personal and specific then any album since ‘The Messenger,’” he said. “Although it will be a reflection of what I am in my life right now, it will be kind of a state of the nation address, very personal, yet universal album.”

Dec. 11 marks the release of his first box set, “The Lite Years,” a library of all 11 albums. The number 11 is not a lucky number, it’s a day connecting him to the people in his life on any given month – he, his mother, and son Quannah were all born on that day. And it was the day of the month he married his wife, Carmen.

He calls it a message from Creator, a sign that he is traversing along the right path in life. “Sometimes we get to those points in life that we need confirmation from Creator and need a real world example.”

In retrospect, that path wasn’t always clearly laid out. Litefoot recalled writing rhymes to coincide with instrumental music in his youth, but felt more like an avid fan of music rather than a potential musician. Naturally athletic, football was his No. 1 passion. His younger sister, Angelique, seemed to possess the raw talent crucial to success in the industry.

Writing was cathartic, he said, his escape from the pain of an unstable home life brought on by financial instability. His father lost his businesses, and in turn, the family lost their home, forcing them to move in with his grandparents in Claremore, Okla. But shortly after the move, tragedy struck when both of his grandparents passed away within months of each other.

The insurmountable stress and grief led to his parents divorce. His mother worked as a maid to make ends meet, and sent Litefoot to a private school on a scholarship. As a condition of the scholarship, he spent his weekends serving as a handy man to an elderly woman. “I think it’s all a perfect chain of events that formed me into who I am today. It taught me to be self-sufficient.”

Despite the hardships, he was accepted into the University of Tulsa and played football his first year. Unfortunately, he sustained an injury. While recuperating, his sister called him to come to a recording studio and write some rap lyrics for a song she was working on.

The recording engineer took it one step further by talking him into rapping and scratching the freshly written rhymes. He reluctantly agreed, and after two takes it was a wrap and the beginning of a successful career. “I was definitely bitten.”

Even with a hectic schedule, he still finds time to give back to Indian country. In 2005, he kicked off the Reach the Rez Tour outreach program to inspire youth to make positive life choices, and has traveled to nearly 400 reservations. He has also lectured at colleges across the country on topics relevant to minorities.

He has taken on roles in several notable Hollywood films, best known for his role as “Little Bear” in “The Indian in the Cupboard,” in addition to appearing on several television series. One of his current, favorite roles is serving as the coach on his son’s football team.

Litefoot, Carmen and Quannah reside in Seattle. Carmen serves as the vice president of Litefoot Enterprises, and recently appeared in the video, “My Chick,” which has received about 300,000 hits on YouTube since its debut.

“We had a lot of fun doing it,” she said. “Of course, being this is the first video we have done together, it was comfortable, even though it was uncomfortable at first.”

The couple is expecting their second child in late September.

For more information on Litefoot and for upcoming tour dates visit his Web site at www.litefoot.com.

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HighWater Press has just published “Stone,” the first comic book in the graphic novel series “7 Generations,” by author David Robertson and artist Scott Henderson. The ongoing “7 Generations” is a four-part graphic novel series that spans three centuries of an aboriginal family.

It tells the story of Edwin, an aboriginal teenager who attempts suicide. His mother realizes he must learn his family’s past if he is to have any future. She tells him about his ancestor Stone, a young Plains Cree man who came of age at the beginning of the 19th century. Following a vision quest, Stone aspires to be like his older brother, Bear, a member of the Warrior Society. But when Bear is killed, Stone must overcome his grief and avenge his brother’s death; only then can he begin a new life. It is Stone’s story that drives Edwin to embark on his own quest.

Book 2, “Scars,” features the orphan White Cloud, set against the smallpox epidemic of 1870-71, Book 3, “Ends/Begins,” features Edwin’s father and his residential school experience, and Book 4, “The Pact,” is a story of redemption, as father and son reconcile their past.

Robertson, Swampy Cree, was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His realization that education could combat racism and sexism inspired him to write his non-fiction graphic novel “The Life of Helen Betty Osborne,” published in 2008. Osborne was a Cree woman who was brutally raped and murdered by four white men in 1971, but only one was convicted, and it took 16 years to bring him to trial.

“I wrote that book for the foundation in her name and it was picked up by HighWater Press. They approached me and asked if I had ever thought of doing anything else and I already had this concept of “7 Generations” in my head, so I gave them a proposal and they gave me the book deal to do this. HighWater Press did a request for proposals for an artist, and Scott Henderson was the best one.”

Henderson has worked as a colorist and illustrator for comics, portraiture, advertising art, and most recently two World War II web comics for the Canadian Air Force’s For Valour series. He is also the author and illustrator of the sci-fi fantasy comic “The Books of Era.”

“He was one of the first submissions and he just happened to be a Winnipeg guy, in town, so it worked out well while we were putting a storyboard together,” Robertson said. “We could just meet up for coffee and go over it.”

Like most people who end up in the comic book industry, Robertson has been a fan since his childhood. “I was a comic book geek when I was growing up. I loved Spider-Man and the whole Marvel universe, and Superman and Elfquest. But then I started getting into bigger graphic novels. I’ve always read comics so this was the logical thing for me to start doing. Windy and Richard Pini [Elfquest] were an inspiration as well as Todd McFarlane [Spawn].”

The current hit comic “Scalped” by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guera deals with the ugliest truths in Native culture today, including drug addiction and alcoholism. While “Stone” isn’t as gritty, it does deal in Native teenage suicide, and the harsh realities of the past.

“There are more difficult things that we are dealing with in the future books,” Robertson said. “The first book was an opportunity to present how an encampment would have looked, a daily life sort of thing, back before it was touched by colonization.

We could show justice, governance, how marriage worked, what they had for subsistence, and framing all of that around the character Stone and his ascension into the Warrior Society. The suicide attempt is our way of showing how history affects our youth today in terms of getting in touch with our history, like the residential school system, all that stuff that has affected us in a multi-generational way. We don’t shy away from the difficult stuff. Book 2 deals with the smallpox epidemic. It’s a difficult story, and obviously Book 3 with the residential school system is a very strong story. It’s also a very difficult story to tell.”

HighWater Press traditionally deals with educational material; this is its first comic book. “Although it is going into school, this is one of the first things they have done that also has a mass market appeal,” Robertson said. “Up here it’s doing really well in bookstores. Book 3 is set to come out in September, and Book 4 will come out in January, then all four will be combined into a graphic novel/trade paperback. We’re going to put in some additional scenes and some ‘making of’ stuff.”

Robertson is currently working on another comic about the residential school system and a science fiction/mystery title. For more information, visit HighWaterPress.com.

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The controversy Essiac inspires raged in Canada since the 1920′s every few years in the public glare of the press, involving the highest medical, legal and political circles in Canada. But always that controversy centered on this one woman in the tiny village of Bracebridge, pop 9,000 or so. Rene Caisse was an unlikely public figure. She was a skilled nurse who didn’t crave attention or money. “I never had $100 I could call my own” she used to laugh. She didn’t charge a fee. She accepted only voluntary contributions – fruits, vegetables or eggs as often as not – from those who could afford them, and she didn’t turn away people who couldn’t make any payment at all.

The mayor of Bracebridge, Jim Lang, gave me a friendly greeting, said he was happy that someone was looking into the story of Rene Caisse, and got right to the point: She cured people that were given up on by doctors – totally given up on. They said, “You’re going to die and there is nothing we can do about it. And then they went to Rene and 20 years later they were still walking. I know that for a fact because I knew Rene for probably 25 years.”

She refused to reveal the formula to the Canadian government, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York – the world’s largest private cancer research centre – and the National Cancer Institute, just to name some of the institutions that wanted the formula at one time or another. She wouldn’t give them the formula until they would admit that Essiac had merit as a treatment for cancer. They refused to admit any merit until she gave them the formula. There were legitimate arguments made on both sides. The result was a tragic standoff.

This book tells the incredible story of Rene Caisse and her lifetime battle to bring forth Essiac, and reveals for the first time publicly how to acquire the formula to prepare Essiac in the privacy of your own home.

“The results we obtained with thousands of patients of various races, sexes and ages, with all types of cancer, definitely prove Essiac to be a cure for cancer. All studies done in four laboratories in the United States and one more in Canada fortify this claim.”

Dr. Charles Brusch M.D. personal physician to the late President John F Kennedy
Calling of an Angel
233pp ISBN 0-9620364-0-4
$35.00
Silent Walker Publishing
PO Box 92856
Los Angeles, CA 90009 2130271-9931

INTRODUCTION

Rene Caisse was a nurse living in Canada who for a period of almost sixty years treated hundreds of people with an herbal remedy she called Essiac. She discovered this remedy through a patient in the hospital where she worked who had been cured of cancer. The patient had used an herbal remedy given her by an Ojibway herbalist.

Rene left the hospital in 1922 at age 33, and went to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada where she began administering Essiac to all who came to her. The majority of those whom she treated came on referral with letters from their physicians certifying they had incurable or terminal forms of cancer and that they had been given up by the medical profession as untreatable.

Rene began gathering the plants and preparing the herbal remedy herself in her own kitchen, in a building lent her for her patients. She administered Essiac both orally and by injection. In cases where there was severe damage to life support organs, her patients died — but they lived far longer than the medical profession had predicted, and, more significantly, they lived free of pain. Still others, listed as hopeless and terminal, but without severe damage to life support organs, were cured and lived 35-45 years (many are still living).

So startling was the effectiveness of this simple herbal remedy, it could not be ignored, and the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Parliament became involved. Friends, former patients, and grateful families petitioned Canadian officialdom for Rene Caisse’s right to administer the remedy to anyone who asked for it without the threat of interference from authorities. Fifty-five thousand signatures were collected on the petition. In 1938, Essiac came within three votes of being legalized by the Ontario government as a remedy for terminal cancer patients.

The story of Rene Caisse, her life, her work, and the effectiveness of the remedy she named Essiac, is told in a book Sun Bear received Calling of an Angel by Dr Gary L. Glum of Los Angeles. After reading the book and finding it to be informative, well documented and moving, I decided to interview Dr Glum. I verified the basic information in this book through Canadian sources, one an herbalist who knows of Rene Caisse and her work and who has personally made and successfully used Essiac.

As I completed my second conversation with Dr Glum, he said, “You’re opening a Pandora’s Box here, publishing this interview about Essiac.” I disagreed, but began thinking about Pandora’s “box”. In the story of Pandora most well-known today, she is sent to the gods to curse humanity for offending them.

Pandora is given a “box” or container with instructions not to open it, which the gods know she will disobey. When Pandora does open the box, famine, war, plague, disease, pestilence — all the ills of humanity — are released. Then at the last comes hope, an antidote to despair.

But according to Barbara Walker’s Encyclopedia, Pandora — whose name means “all giving” was originally an image for Mother Earth. She had, not a box, but a honey vase like the Cornucopia from which flowed all life and creativity, as well as death and rebirth — Earth’s gifts to her children. Because we are natural beings in a natural world, it seems appropriate that a simple remedy composed of four common herbs, gifts of Earth, would suggest so much promise for us today.

INTERVIEW WITH DR GLUM

Elisabeth Robinson: To begin with, Dr Glum, can you tell us a little about how you became interested in the story you tell in Calling of an Angel, and how you learned about Rene Caisse and her work?

Dr Gary Glum: A personal friend of mine knew this woman, whose name I have promised not to reveal, who was living in Detroit, Michigan. Twenty years ago she had been diagnosed with cervical cancer in a Detroit hospital; where she was eventually given up as incurable and terminal. She was given about ten days to live.

She convinced her husband to make a trip to Bracebridge, Canada where she went to see Rene Caisse. She was treated with the herbal remedy developed by Rene — Essiac — and in a short time she didn’t have a cancer cell in her body. So after that time this woman began dedicating her life to disseminating information about Essiac in the United States. When I met her, she was the only person in possession of the original herbal formula who would relinquish it. I got the formula for Essiac from her.

That’s how it began. When I started, all I had was a piece of paper. I thought, what am I going to do with this? I decided, the best way to go would be to find the information behind Essiac and put it in book form and bring it to the world.

I learned about Rene Caisse from Mary McPherson who was a very close personal friend of Rene’s, not only a friend but also a patient. Mary’s mother and her husband were also patients. They were all treated for cancer and cured by Rene.

Mary worked with Rene beginning in the 1930′s and she had in her possession all the documents that had to do with Essiac over the 40 years Rene administered it. All the documents Rene had were destroyed by the Canadian Ministry of Health & Welfare at the time of her death in 1978. They burned all that information in fifty five gallon drums behind her home.

ER: Why?

GG: Because they don’t want this information in the hands of the public or the press or anybody else. They indeed found out what Essiac was in 1937. The Royal Cancer Commission hearings had then come to the same conclusions that Rene had – that Essiac was a cure for cancer.

ER: What is Essiac exactly?

GG: Essiac is a non-toxic herbal cure for cancer that’s been in use with us since 1922. It’s a formula made from four very common herbs.

ER: I would guess that virtually every person in the U.S. today has been touched by cancer, either personally or through a loved one. If this information is true, and the effectiveness of this remedy is actually medically documented, many lives could be saved. Why do you think the information on Essiac is not more widely known?

GG: The information is withheld because cancer is the second largest revenue producing business in the world, next to the petrochemical business. Money and power suppress this truth.

No-one has ever sought to cure cancer – only control it. I mean, the research institutes, federal governments, pharmaceutical companies, anybody that has a vested interest in the health care of cancer, including the American Cancer Society, any of these stalled benefactors to those who have contracted the disease – all of these institutes are involved in the money and power around cancer.

These institutions have influence over government and regulatory agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration.. The FDA recommends only allopathic treatments for cancer and other life threatening diseases. It does not approve nor make legal alternative treatments of any kind.

ER: You’re saying the Essiac is in a position similar to, for example, laetril.

GG: Yes, the only reason laetril was stopped – and it couldn’t be stopped any other way – was through the insurance companies. The insurance companies sent down a directive to all allopathic physicians stating that they could not cover them in any malpractice suit in the event they were treating people with any substance not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

ER: In your book you mention that the Brusch Clinic in Massachusetts worked with Rene Caisse and with Essiac, during the 1960s. Is this clinic still doing research with Essiac?

GG: Dr Charles A Brusch is not practicing at this time. He was a personal physician to the late President John F Kennedy. Dr. Brusch worked with Rene Caisse from 1959 to 1962. He worked with thousands of cancer patients. He also worked with the Presidential Cancer Commission, with others like Dr Armand Hammer, the American Cancer Society, and the National Cancer Institute.

Dr Brusch presented his findings after ten years of research. He had come to the conclusion that “Essiac is a cure for cancer, period.” All studies done at laboratories in the United States and Canada support this conclusion.

Whereupon the Federal Government issued a gag order and said, “You’ve got one of two choices, either you keep quiet about this or we’ll haul you off to military prison and you’ll never be heard of again,” so we never heard another word out of him.

Brusch’s Essiac patients included Ted Kennedy’s son who had a sarcoma in his leg, and who had his leg amputated. He was being treated at the time by the Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Farber didn’t know how to save him, because no-one had ever lived with this type of sarcoma. So what he did was go to Dr. Brusch and say, how are we going to save Ted Kennedy’s son? And Dr. Brusch made the suggestion to put him on Essiac, and after they did, he didn’t have a cancer cell in his body. But all this information has been hidden from the public.

ER: Why?

GG: As I said, money and power.

ER: Do you know whether the remedy is being used or tested anywhere today in the U.S. or Canada?

GG: Right now Essiac is being used in every state in the United States, it’s throughout Canada and into Mexico, its in Australia, Europe, Asia, and, recently, also in Africa. And the message of Essiac is beginning to make it’s way worldwide. But it’s still known on a very limited basis.

Of course now you also have the problem of herbal distributing companies throughout the world that are substituting …low dock and curly dock for sheep’s sorrel, which is one of the crucial ingredients in Essiac.

The sheep’s sorrel is the herbal ingredient in Essiac that was found to be responsible for the destruction of cancer cells in the body, or their amalgamation where …astasized cancer cells actually return to the original tumor site.

That research was done by Dr Chester ….ck at Sloan-Kettering in New York for over a three year period. But when they gathered that information, they withheld it from the general public – yet they gave it to the Canadian Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Canadian government then immediately banned the herb for sale and distribution.

ER: Banned a common weed like sheep’s sorrel?

GG: Yes, sheep’s sorrel is just a common weed that grows in abundance throughout North America. Just a common weed. (Note: After this interview was completed, Wildfire learned from an herbalist in Canada that the Canadian government has recently banned St John’s Wort, also a common weed frequently used by herbalists.)

ER: Well, it seems banning sheep’s sorrel would not be very effective if you could identify it for yourself.

GG: Yes, it’s just a question of identifying the plant and then harvesting it correctly and drying it properly and then putting it together with the other herbs.

Rene would harvest the sheep’s sorrel -Rumex acetosella- when it was four to six inches high. She cut it back and would let it grow up again, and she’d cut it back again. She would do that about three times and then she would let it go to seed. It will grow to about 14 or 18 inches.

She would take the herb cuttings home and lay them out at room temperature to dry them. She let the cuttings sit there for three or four days before she’d begin turning the herbs. Then she’d turn them every two days until they were properly dry, which took about ten days to two weeks. It takes about a bushel of harvested sheep’s sorrel to produce one pound of the dried powdered herb which is used in the formula.

ER: Do you have the formula? It’s not in your book. You do mention a video in the book.

GG: Yes I have it. Anyone can get it from me, free of charge. We don’t sell the video anymore. We simply mail the formula to anyone who asks for it.

ER: Sun Bear told me you had problems getting the book published and distributed. What kind of problems?

GG: There wasn’t a publishing company that would publish it. No one wanted to run the risk of a wrongful death suit. So I published the book myself. And as soon as I did, the IRS came in and slapped about a half a million dollars in tax liens against me and said, “You know this has got nothing to do with taxes. It’s all about cancer.” They actually started hauling the pallets of books out of my medical practice offices and confiscating them. I also had thousands of books that were confiscated by the Canadian government at customs. I have never received any of those books back. The only ones I have now are hidden in storage facilities.

ER: That’s incredible – why do you think they are so interested in keeping this book out of circulation?

GG: Money and power, as I’ve said. Cancer is the largest revenue producing business in the world next to the petrochemical business. In Canada the book is being held up by the Ministry of Health & Welfare because they say it is “advertising.”

ER: Advertising what? The video you don’t sell any more?

GG: No, a cure for cancer.

ER: Can you explain what you mean by the publishers fearing a wrongful death suit?

GG: What you’re dealing with is giving people a formula that they can make and use in the privacy of their own homes without the approval of the AMA or FDA or anybody else. If an attorney or any family member should decide, for whatever reason, that the reason someone expired was from the use of Essiac, then you are putting yourself up for a wrongful death suit. The contention is that if it isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration, there’s no legality in using it when you’re dealing with a life threatening disease.

When Rene Caisse set up her clinical trials in Canada to test Essiac, she was given government permission to treat terminally ill cancer patients who had been given up for hopeless by the medical profession. That was one criteria. Secondly, this was all to be certified by a pathology report. And third, she could not charge anything for her services. She agreed to all these criteria and proceeded to treat people with Essiac. Many she treated were still here 35 years later to bury her when she died at age 90.

The best that anyone can do is try to disseminate this information to the public and let people make their own choices. That’s all you can do. And just say, look, if you feel that Essiac has value in your life and the lives of your loved ones, you have the right to use it in the privacy of your own home and without anyone’s approval.

You know, in 1937 Essiac came within three votes of being legalized as a treatment for cancer. People had garnered over fiftyfive thousand signatures on a petition to allow Rene to continue to use Essiac. The only reason the vote fell short, she found out years later, was that the College of Physicians and Surgeons met and said to the Parliament, if you don’t respond to the political pressure and legalize Essiac, then we’ll take a sincere look and give this woman a fair hearing. So Parliament didn’t legalize Essiac.

So following the Royal Cancer Commission hearings Rene was allowed to continue her practice but only within the criteria I mentioned before, which allowed the Ministry of Health & Welfare to restrict peoples access to Essiac treatments.

I know this because I have a copy of the hearing transcripts which I got from Mary McPherson, which is some of the information that didn’t get burned when Rene died.

ER: You mentioned earlier. What exactly was burned?

GG: All her research for that 40 year period of time. All the names, all her clinical data that she had collected. All her files.

ER: What about the records of the Brusch Clinic? It seems these would be convincing evidence.

GG: As far as I know all that material has been destroyed also. I knew that Rene had worked with Dr Brusch from 1959 to 1962, so I went to Dr Brusch’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts whereupon he delivered me the only materials he had left in his files on Essiac. One of those files was his own personal file where he had treated and cured his own cancer with Essiac. I have his personal records.

All the information in my book is verified by a sheet of paper with a signature and date on it, and those sheets and signatures are all originals. They are not copies.

ER: Have you had any personal experiences with Essiac?

GG: Yes, I can give you an example. He was a twelve year old boy named Toby Wood. He had acute lymphoblastic, which is one of the most virulent of all leukemias.

He had been on chemotherapy for four years and radiation for three. His mother’s only hope in life was to find a cure for him. She went everywhere. She tried every alternative treatment.

Her last stop was Dr Alvados in Athens, Greece where her son’s white blood cell count was 186,000. He had no red blood cells or platelets. He was hemorrhaging to death. So they transfused Toby in Greece, and put him on a plane to Alaska where he was given five days to live.

I met his mother’s sister in Los Angeles while I was putting the book together and she asked if there was any credibility here. We sat down and talked. She then borrowed the money for a flight to Anchorage, and delivered a bottle of Essiac. By the time she got there Toby had three days to live. He was in a state of complete deterioration. He was given the Essiac and all the hemorrhaging stopped within 24 hours. Within three months all his blood tests were normal. I arrived in Alaska later that year and met him.

Toby Wood did die, and we finally found a pathologist who would do an exhaustive autopsy. We knew that he didn’t have leukemia anymore. We wanted to find out the cause of death. It took four months to get the report back. The pathologist autopsied the brain, testicles, and all life support organs, including the bone marrow. No blast cells were found in any life support organ. There were a few stray cells in the testicles and the brain. Cause of death was damage to the myocardial sac of the heart, a result of the chemotherapy.

This was the first report anywhere in medical history of anyone surviving lymphoblastic leukemia. That information was taken to AP and UPI but they said it was not newsworthy.

Our information on Essiac has been sent around the world twice through Publishers Weekly magazine in a huge two page ad. We received no responses at all from any publishing company worldwide, no producers, no directors throughout the United States, no talk show programs, none of that. We can’t access the media. In fact we talked to Philip Scheffler, producer of 60 Minutes. He read the book and we called him to ask him what he was going to do about it. He said, nothing. I said all the information in the book is verifiable. In other words it’s the truth. I said if you’re 60 minutes why don’t you expose me and Essiac as a fraud. He said. nope, can’t do it.

We took it to Joe Donally who is the executive news producer for ABC in New York. We said why not give it to Peter Jennings, Geraldo Rivera, Ted Koppel, one of those? He said, nope. We asked why not? He said because his phone lines would be invaded with 65,000 phone calls. We said, how sympathetic do you think a parent whose child is dying from leukemia would be to your 65,000 phone calls. He went on to say he’s got a mortgage on his house and he’s looking forward to retirement.

So that’s the problem. No one wants this information disseminated. And it’s not just the media, either. It includes the herbal companies who are now substituting curly dock for sheep’s sorrel. So people are getting the wrong ingredients for Essiac, not to mention the five or six other formulas that are circulating which are different from the one I send out. These false formulas are being disseminated. There is a disinformation campaign going on here, somehow.

ER: Has this disinformation campaign started just since your book has been out?

GG: Previous to my book, none of this information was available to the general public at all. The public had no information outside a few assorted articles. Certainly the Essiac formula was not available to the general public at all. All that information was held by the Resperin Corporation in Toronto, Canada, which supposedly is a private institution.

However, they work hand in glove with the Canadian Ministry of Health & Welfare, who works directly with the American Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. The Essiac formula was never given to anyone by Resperin.

ER: Did the Resperin Corporation do any research on Essiac?

GG: They’ve done research since 1978 when the formula was relinquished to them by Rene for the purchase price of one dollar. As soon as they got the formula, they told Rene they had no further use for her. She had been under the distinct impression from the Ministry of Health & Welfare and the Resperin Corporation that she was to lead research activities that they so desperately wanted to put together.

But Rene had already done clinical trials. She had names and records. She thought the Resperin Corporation was politically powerful and had money enough to get Essiac into the public sector without compromising her values. Then she found out the Corporation was working closely with the government and administration and the Ministry of Health & Welfare.

So now people who were terminally ill given up as hopeless had to go through a federal bureaucratic maze to get the remedy. By then, for most of these people, it was too late. But even when people were cured, that information was not released to the public.

Resperin ran research tests on Essiac. One test was done in Northern Canada and the documents were falsified. For example, one man was listed as dead who a few months later knocked on Rene’s door and said, “You know I want to thank you for the Essiac and for being part of this experimental program. Yet he was listed as dead in the research findings.

ER: It’s beginning to seem amazing to me that any information at all about this remedy has survived the “conspiracy of silence” or outright destruction of records and so on.

GG: The only reason Essiac is known to the public is by word of mouth and because Essiac is what it is. What will keep Essiac known is it’s effectiveness. Rene said it years ago. She said, look, if Essiac doesn’t have any merit let me put it out there. If it doesn’t have any merit it will kill itself. Of course she knew full well if people had the correct herbs, the remedy would stand on its own.. And that is exactly what Essiac has done over this period of time that we’ve been disseminating the information.

Rene also found that Essiac was a strong preventative. These findings were substantiated by Dr Albert Schatz at Temple University who discovered the cure for tuberculosis.

Rene also found that Essiac would normalise the thyroid gland. My wife was on two grains of thyroid since the sixth grade. After I met her, she started taking Essiac, and she hasn’t taken a grain of thyroid since.

Rene also found that Essiac would heal stomach ulcers within three to four weeks. She felt that ulcers were a precursor to cancer.

Sir Frederick Banting, the co-discoverer of insulin, wanted to work with Rene. She had clinical cases where a person on insulin discontinued it with the Essiac, since no one knew how Essiac interacted with the insulin. Apparently Essiac regulated the pancreas in cases of diabetes mellitus. So these people then came insulin free.

Another thing I’ve found with Essiac is that I’ve experienced almost perfect health. As you get older you think, well, I’m forty now, these things happen. Well, these things don’t have to happen. Since I’ve taken Essiac, I’ve experienced almost perfect health. It’s amazing. I sleep like a baby, have all kinds of energy, and no sickness, not even a cold or the flu.

I also worked with the AIDS Project Los Angeles through their Long Beach and San Pedro districts. They had sent 179 patients home to die. They all had pneumocystis carinii and histoplasmosis. Their weight was down to about 100 pounds. Their T-4 cell counts were less that ten. The Project gave me five of these patients. I took them off the AZT and the DDI and put them on Essiac three times a day. Those are the only ones alive today. The other 174 are dead.

ER: That is incredible – but what kind of lives are they leading today?

GG: They’re exercising three times a day, eating three meals a day. Their weight is back to normal. For all intents and purposes you wouldn’t know they had a sick day in their lives. But this information is not being disseminated either, because AIDS is on the horizon as another big moneymaker. The chairman of the AIDS Project in Los Angeles makes over $100,000 a year.

Even the alternative health care professionals are out there to control, not to cure. Alternative medical practice is just as mercenary and deceptive as the allopathic. No one wants a cure for cancer or AIDS.

The alternative people are also in it for the money. What you’re finding with Essiac is that it is not even allowed into the arenas of the alternative health care. So really what you’ve got out here is people continually perpetrating these lies against mankind. For money. For money and power. It’s that simple.

Really once you think about it, the only reason we don’t have solar power is that no one’s figured out a way to sell Exxon the sun. It’s true. If they could, you’d have solar power. You know you’d have it.

ER: So, in your own personal experience, this herbal remedy works to “cure” cancer, thyroid conditions, diabetes, AIDS, ulcers…

GG: It also cures the common cold. Essiac elevates the immune system. I’ve been taking one ounce a day for seven years, and in seven years I haven’t had a cold, flu or virus.

ER: And all of this from a simple Native herbal remedy?

GG: Yes. Although Rene did alter it. She altered it with Turkish Rhubarb root -rheum palmatum . Turkish rhubarb root has a 5,000 year history. It actually came up from India into China and then was taken by the British.

ER: Turkish rhubarb root is not native to this country, nor available here. Herbs from foreign countries are fumigated and irradiated, so is it a good idea to use the Turkish rhubarb root?

GG: You can substitute ordinary rhubarb root. The other two ingredients are burdock root -arctium lappa – and the inner bark of the slippery elm -ulmus fulva . They are easy to obtain, usually. Sheep’s sorrel -rumex acetosella is what destroys the cancer cells. The other three herbs are blood purifiers.

Essiac elevates the enzyme system and gives all cancer patients and all AIDS patients the enzymes that have been destroyed. Essiac elevates the enzyme system; it elevates the hormone system, which elevates the immune system, so the body can cure it’s own disease.

ER: What about quantities?

GG: Even its worst enemy could never lay claim that Essiac had any deleterious side effects whatever. You can take Essiac safely, through all the clinical trials that have been done, up to six ounces a day. That’s two ounces in the evening, two at midday and two in the morning. That’s a high dosage. Rene had the correct herbs and she used as little as one ounce a week.

But look at the difference between then and now. The food didn’t have carcinogens in it, and neither did the water, nor the air. So what have we done? We’ve killed the air, killed the water, killed the food. So what’s left?

Nationwide, in the water we drink, over 2,100 organic and inorganic chemicals have been identified, and 156 of them are pure carcinogens. Of those, if you have a tumor, 26 are tumor promoting , so they make the tumor larger. But of course this information is not available to the public either. Those figures are from tests conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency which have never been distributed to the public.

ER: How did you get the information?

GG: From a Ralph Nader organization out of Washington DC. The media has not disseminated this information. Another problem is that very few people read books any more. We can only hope they’ll read Calling of an Angel . Of course the problem right now is people getting the right herbs.

ER: Anything you’d like to add before we close this interview?

GG: I would like to say that I didn’t do all this research because I feel I have a responsibility to other people. I did it because I have a responsibility to myself. I know that I’ve done all I can do to disseminate this information to the people.

I was the first person to release this information to the public and say, here it is, here’s the formula, here’s the story. So now the story is out there and look what is happening – its getting killed through a disinformation campaign. I mean Harvard, Temple, Tufts, Northwestern University, Chicago – all these institutions have tested Essiac with the right stuff, and they all came to the same conclusions as Rene Caisse. But all that information has been buried.

ER: Gary, it’s been very interesting to speak with you.

GG: It’s been a pleasure. You’re opening a Pandora’s Box, you know, publishing this interview.

ER: I think you’re the one who’s done that.

Dr Gary L. Glum, until some years ago, was a chiropractor with offices in Los Angeles California. His clients included well known professional athletic teams and Olympic teams.

In 1988 Dr Glum published Calling of an Angel, the story of Rene Caisse and Essiac. Some years ago he closed his practice and now devotes his time to investigative writing.

The official formula is provided below. Please note that Essiac is not distributed or sold through this site or through East West Network. For distributors, please check Essiac in Search Engines and verify correct ingredients.

Subject: Essiac Ingredients

MESSAGE: The Essiac ingredients are available in proper quantities.

1 lb 5oz – Burdock Root c/s (6 1/2 cups)

1 lb – Sheep Sorrel Lvs., Pwd

4 oz – Slippery Elm Bark, Pwd

1 oz – Turkish Rhubarb Root, Pwd

Makes 10 -two gallon batches

Also available 12 x 16 Amber Glass bottles with caps  – They hold first 2 gall batch

DIRECTIONS TO PREPARE ESSIAC

FIRST READ DIRECTIONS THOROUGHLY

SUPPLIES NEEDED
2-3 gallon stainless steel pots with lids
1 – strainer
1 – stainless or wooden spatula
1 – funnel
1 – timer (optional) New amber glass bottles with caps.

You will need:
8 oz Measuring cup of Essiac from mixed materials
2 gallons distilled water

Bring to a hard boil (Takes about 30 minutes) The lid is on all the time (Except while stirring). Put in Essiac Herbs – Stir – Boil. Boil hard for 10 mins (Adjust flame as needed). Turn off stove – let sit for 6 hours. After 6 hours stir thoroughly, let sit for 6 more hours. After the last 6 hours, turn heat on and bring to boil. At boiling point turn off the heat, strain into pot #2 – Clean pot #1 – strain back into pot #1. Immediately pour into bottles and put the caps on (12 x 16 oz bottles). Must be bottled hot. Store in a dark cabinet.

DIRECTIONS FOR USE OF ESSIAC

Take Four Tablespoons of distilled water. Heat the water. To the heated water add Four Tablespoons (2 oz) ESSIAC. Mix and drink. To be taken at bedtime on an empty stomach. At least 2 hours after eating. Can be taken in the morning on an empty stomach. If taken in the morning do not eat for at least 2 hours after taking.

ONCE OPENED KEEP REFRIGERATED

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