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FROM: INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY NEWSPAPER

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410922

Nevada Blessing Ceremony Carries Traditions Forward

Posted: May 17, 2005
by: Mark Fogarty / Today correspondent

Click to Enlarge

Photo by Mark Fogarty -- Paiute elder Freida Brown gave the traditional
blessing in the pinon pine ceremony held recently in the Mason Valley of
Nevada, south of Yerington. Brown, granddaughter of the renowned Paiute medicine man
and Ghost Dance prophet Wovoka, told Paiute tribal members from several local
bands that her grandfather was born near the blessing site at Desert Creek,
and that he had conducted similar ceremonies nearby. Paiute will gather again
in the fall, when the pine nuts mature.

DESERT CREEK, Nev. - In an ancient rite of spring that may date back
thousands of years, tribal members from Nevada and California gathered on a
mountainside in Nevada to bless this year's growth of pinon pines to bring in a good
harvest of pine nuts this fall.

I was honored to be invited to attend the blessing ceremony, which this year
had the added distinction of seeing the granddaughter of Wovoka, the Paiute
medicine man and prophet of the Ghost Dance movement, say the blessing in her
native dialect.

Spring comes late this far north in Nevada, so a soft spring snow was
beginning to fall as Marlin Thompson of the Yerington Paiute Tribe and I arrived at
the traditional blessing ground, located south of Yerington in what is now the
Toiyabe National Forest.

Thompson, who is the tribe's NAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection and
Repatriation Act) coordinator and is in charge of a regional commodities
distribution operation, was worried that the cold weather would keep elders away from
the ceremony and produce a repetition of the previous year's small
attendance.

But despite the snow, hail and occasional wind at the Desert Creek site, and
despite a snowstorm visible high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains that was
making its inexorable way toward the blessing ground, a mix of adults, elders and
children from several of the local bands of Paiute arrived to continue this
traditional rite of spring.

Elder Freida Brown, granddaughter of Wovoka, spoke to the assembled people in
English about her grandfather, who she knew when she was a small girl before
his death in 1932. She explained that his Indian name, Wovoka, meant wood
cutter (his English name was Jack Wilson). She also said that he was born nearby
in Desert Creek and spent much time in these mountains, where he organized
gatherings much like the one we were participating in now, carrying on in his
tradition.

Wovoka, a tribal doctor or medicine man, is remembered by the Yerington
Paiute as a rainmaker and a good doctor. A vision he experienced at a mining camp
high in the mountains, at Pine Grove, led to the Ghost Dance movement, which
swept through Indian country in 1890.

Brown switched to her own dialect of Paiute to give the blessing in a
resonant, powerful voice, after Thompson rubbed his hands in wild tobacco (which
grows nearby) and then placed a garland of sage and pine cones in a rushing
snowmelt rivulet, weighing the package down with a stone.

Thompson then asked group members to do a Round Dance to ensure the growth of
the pine nuts, which will be gathered in the fall engendering a harvest
ceremony. As he started to beat on a hand drum, the snow began to fall again,
prompting Brown to jokingly exclaim, ''My grandfather called the rain, not the
snow!''

I felt it was a special honor to be asked to join in the Round Dance. I felt
an unusual closeness to the spirit and tradition of Wovoka, as I am keenly
aware that the Ghost Dance was also a Round Dance. Thompson played the drum and
sang songs in Paiute. One was an Eagle Song, which he said he learned from
Brown, who learned it from Wovoka.

Afterwards, lunch was served, to the elders first, and I asked Brown
permission to take her photograph. She readily agreed and I sat next to her and asked
her about her recollections of the prophet. She told me he was a kindly man
who always referred to her as ''granddaughter.''

Brown, like her grandfather, has an aura of power and spirituality about her,
and when she mentioned the wind it kicked up suddenly, causing both of us to
smile. We both enjoyed sitting in the immensity of the mountainside, which
rolled away toward the valley and more spectacular mountains on the other side,
also being carpeted with clouds that would sometimes break to bring sudden sun.


On our return, just ahead of the snowstorm, we passed through Wilson Canyon,
where Thompson said Wovoka's powers are said to reside; and visited the Wilson
ranch, where he grew up as Jack Wilson. The narrow canyon, with its rushing
branch of the Walker River, is stark and beautiful. The current owner of the
ranch said there was a serenity about the place, which she attributed to Wovoka'
s residence there.

Although the ranch house is new since Wovoka's time, outside there is a stone
corral where tradition says the prophet called the Ghost Dance. I walked out
into its empty expanse and I could imagine, or feel, the presence of the Round
dancers there, just as I had been in the presence of their descendants, who
had just danced a different Round Dance on the mountain to help the pine nuts
grow.





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