Category: native american

• November and Remembrance

  November is a month of Remembrance. Last weekend we honored the Ancestors and other departed loved ones. This week we remember the veterans who have served our country in peacetime and war. Later in the month Thanksgiving arrives with its complex patina of memory, culture and meaning. November in Vermont brings dark gray skies and…

  Michael Watson PhD

  November 9, 2014

  native american, Shamanism, Stories

  ancestors, Native American, Remembrance, Shamanism, spirits

• Humor: When Cultures Go Bump In the Night

  Humor is at the heart of many shamanic traditions around the world. Indeed, Indigenous people, contrary to popular perception, are very funny.  We like to laugh; at the same time, our humor often has teeth. A splendid example of this is the writing of Sherman Alexi. Another, more recent set of poignant, heartbreaking, often hilarious…

  Michael Watson PhD

  October 30, 2014

  native american, Shamanism

  Humor, Native American, Shamanism

• In Good Faith

  The other evening I received a distressing phone call. It was one of those calls that stuns: confusing, painful, and shaming; it was also a misunderstanding, a misreading of an action I had taken in good faith. The caller’s response was understandable given what I now know, although their approach to addressing the problem was…

  Michael Watson PhD

  October 15, 2014

  native american, Shamanism, Teaching

  Alternative Medicine, cultural conflict, healing, Indigenous, Shamanism

• Silence, Story, and Healing

  The woods are increasingly silent. Now and then a blue jay or a nuthatch calls, or a squirrel scolds. The wind in the trees is low-pitched as it moves through the bare upper branches of the golden-yellow birches and beech trees. As the world grows quiet, our voices fill the evenings with story; it is…

  Michael Watson PhD

  October 13, 2014

  Healing, native american, Shamanism, Stories

  columbus day, healing, Native American, Shamanism, silence, stories