A permanent council comprised of elders from many different tribes has been established. This council will guide daily life and share their wisdom with people from all backgrounds.
The Native people who have come together to enrich Nanish Shontie with their traditions come from many varied tribes. By bringing together many tribes we focus not on one tradition but rather on the underlying way of life, the way of the Mother Earth.
We will be working with organizations like Shundahai, Poo-Ha-Bah, and Radio for Peace Intl; saving songs, stories, seeds, crafts, and ways of understanding, in order that they may help save our Mother Earth.
Besides establishing a council of elders, Nanish Shontie has gained 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, and has moved onto a piece of property in Western Oregon.
Mala Spotted Eagle and Sky Pope
your help
Up until now, Nanish Shontie has gotten by on an Eagle Feather and a prayer. Yet, even with a minimal operating budget, no salaries, and no permanent staff, a dedicated group of board members and volunteers have managed to accomplish many amazing things. When we work together from a heart level, real healing begins to happen.
Getting there takes, time, sweat, faith and money. We have plenty of the first three.
Nanish Shontie is currently focused on the building of the needed infrastructure. The vision is now an attainable reality, but we need donations, support, resources, volunteers, and grants.
Nanish Shontie is a Western Shoshone phrase that means "Asking the creator for a blessing".
In the ancestral tradition of many tribal people all over the Mother earth, respect for all creation was one of the most important teachings handed down from elders.
Today some of their leaders and elders are working together to recreate a place where traditional ways and healing methods may be lived and shared with all who seek to help the Mother Earth.
Their efforts have become the vision of Nanish Shontie, a native phrase meaning "to ask the creator for a blessing." It is an inter-tribal, inter-racial community and healing center led by a council of Native American elders. We are learning to use earth-friendly technologies combined with ancestral wisdom to bring things back in balance.
Nanish Shontie is building bridges between
- Traditional wisdom and modern Knowledge
- People of different cultures and backgrounds, helping to further understanding and openness.
Between people and the Mother Earth.
The community will combine new methods with traditional teachings of hunting gathering and agriculture involving respect, offerings & ceremony.
- Native Values will guide the use of earth friendly technologies.
- Native ceremonies will happen on ground where the latest in - clean technologies will be used to build.
- Native Healers will guide a free holistic clinic working with everyone from dentists to acupuncturists.
- There will be - no charge for healing
- Workshops & gatherings will be held on topics such as permaculture, activism, crafts, & herbal healing methods.
- Spirituality will be taught only by daily life, as it has always traditionally been.
It is a model to show how things could have been and still could be, by combining wisdom and knowledge of both cultures. At Nanish Shontie, healing opportunities will occur on both an individual and a community level.
Corbin Harney
the Western Shoshone
spiritual leader and
Katherine Blossom
guide sunrise ceremony
Imagine a place where every morning the people gather together to pray for the healing of the earth at sunrise. A place where, from the moment a seed is planted in the ground, until it is served -- at every point-- it is prayed over. Our thoughts are prayers and become energy put into the food.
By the time food is served on the table it has been transformed into medicine.
In such a place, people gather together to decide what needs to be done in the community that day. Building wickiups or wooden hogans with earth-friendly technology, we pray over the area to ask for the Mother Earth's approval of the site.
In this place, the little people's education involves interaction with the elders and the community as they grow up. On a daily basis, they learn from all the people, understanding that tending the animals, or chopping wood has as much to teach as a sweat lodge, or a healing session at the free clinic.