Beaver Chief, a Northwest Native American Indian of the Lummi, Coast Salish and West Sannish tribes, recently passed away. He was a wise man, teacher, healer, singer, storyteller and my friend and mentor. I give thanks for the many things this wonderful man taught me and I will miss him! Rest easy my friend, and I'll see you in time.
To Beaver Chief and his passing, we have excerpted the interview below from the full text, which ran in Widdershins Mabon 1996 Volume 2, Issue 4.
Amanda: Beaver Chief, tell us who you are, where you come from, what you're up to.
B: I am a Native American Indian person indigenous to the Seattle area and up and down the West Coast. We're known to a lot of the different tribes because our family were the Indian doctors. We also have the Women Warrior Chief Society inside of our tradition.
Also I come from the Clown Tradition. That's who I am, and this is the work that my family has done, and people have recognized us. We don't ever recognize ourselves too much, but people recognize us.
A:Did you find yourself called to be a teacher?
B:I always knew, because I came in through my other life knowing. I came from a place of being really holy to a place of being really spiritual, and what that means is that I get to "do the dance." Before, I just enjoyed the dance, and I had to pray a lot like one of those monks or priests that don't do nothing except to pray and do the ceremonies and that's it. You don't get to dance with the beautiful goddess. You don't get to experience them in the hot tub. You don't get to do all those things because you're the priest or you're that holy, and that's where I came from.
Now I'm into the place of being spiritual, so I get to do the dance. I get to touch and get to be touched. I get to experience because it's a sign of the times.
A:Do you consider yourself a shaman?
B:We don't actually use that word. They're called Indian doctors, and that's what my family has been called. It's like when somebody comes to us and says, "Should we call you an Indian or a Native American, or what do you want to be called?" I say, just call me Beaver Chief, okay?
A:A lot of white people are doing sweat lodges. Anybody can build a lodge and build a fire inside it and invite people to come in, but does that make it a sweat lodge?
B:No. More and more, people have to look at where a person is coming from who's saying that they're a teacher. I'm not saying that they're not, but look -- where did they come from, how did they get here? Because when you go into a person's circle of energy and they're bringing out something, you've given your power to them, so to speak.
Especially sweat lodges; people are always doing sweat lodges. Find out where the sweat lodge teacher is in their life, where they've been, where they come from and how they're doing.
A:When a white person does a sweat lodge, is he or she doing an Indian ceremony?
B:You have to be guided to know the ceremony, to know it correctly so that you don't hurt somebody. I believe that's what's happening nowadays is that it's available. You can get the things, but you still don't know how to do the ceremony. So you need your teachers, you need your guides, your gurus.
If they're building their sweat lodge in the Northwest, depending on where they are going to build it, they need to talk to somebody that's indigenous to that area and find out how to build the sweat lodge that connects to that part of the area, how to bend the wood that goes on it. There's a certain way everything's set, even the hole where the fire goes. It depends on what area you're coming from, because every area has its strong energy.
And if they say that they're doing a sweat lodge from Scotland or Ireland, they need to go there and really learn the teachings of that sweat lodge, because there are sweat lodges back there and old-time things. You can still do it here, but you have to really study it and understand where your power comes from.
A:Do you think there's any cross-influence of spiritual practices among the Northwest tribes, the Plains tribes and the Eastern tribes? For instance, the Sioux -- the Lakota -- do different things than the Northwest people.
B:Yes, it's just like the sun and the moon. The sun gives of this light that the moon reflects and absorbs and reflects to us. So we get the sun energy, but it's actually the moon. It's the same -- but it's different. (The interaction between tribes) is the same way.
Without the Lakota, we could never be; they saved us with their teachings by being massacred, being exploited and by being first.
There's a lot of Indians here that are feeling really hurt by what's been happening, but the thing is that there is a solution to it, and it's working together. Also acknowledging the hurt that our people have had, so we can get on with it, because we're not asking for our lands back. We're asking for acknowledgment of our hurt and to take care of our land, to take care of the trees. These are sacred beings to us; it has always been like that.
A:One of the things I have noticed is when white people try to get together in communities, often fights and factions start, and then the community splits. This seems to be human nature for whites. Can white people learn from the indigenous people here how to come together in a tribe or community?
B:The only way that we can learn from one another is first to know that we are all brainwashed into thinking that we all need to be individuals, and not with one another as a whole.
This is what I have been working on, helping people to realize that we have all been brainwashed and when you tell someone something long enough, they start believing it. This is what's been happening here in the U.S., and that's why (whites) split and they hurt. In order to live together, you have to work on that.
You know, to like, respect and love each other and then to live with each other, tell each other what's sacred to one another. It's an ongoing thing; it's not something that you do and you have, you know, and then you're complete and that's it (laughs). That's what everybody tries to do. They go to a workshop -- I paid my 10 dollars, now I want it to work. They decide, "I still feel unresolved." Well, of course, `cause it is an ongoing thing in your life, and you have to know that it is ongoing.
A:I've heard you talk about your philosophy about money. You don't go to a job every day. How do you live, and how do you get what you need and want?
B:I live on donations for what I do. Lately, I have been going through businesses to do drumming circles. Sometimes I suggest a donation, and if the people at the business need to have some kind of money come in, usually I have a suggested donation. But usually it's just on donation. It usually will come. And sometimes people just will feed me, give me dinner or give me something, cars or something like that to get me along.
A lot of times you can't send these things that people give you because you don't have no money. What I've been explaining to everybody, money is just energy. It's a current of energy that somebody has already earned. They want you, or what you do, in their presence, so they give you money or something. So it's energy, it's an energy exchange.
That's what I've been bringing out. And I say, you make a house, you give them some energy, some money, and it makes you a house. You're the greatest alchemist here. You make it into a car, wham! There's a car. How did you do that? You just exchanged this funny little paper that you got called money, and you got this car. If you think about how deep that is, we're all so powerful here on this planet right now, but we don't know it. That's what's really strange.
A:If you had to choose one thing as the most important issue right now, what would it be?
B:It would be overpopulation on the planet. Understanding how we are very sacred and how we need to treat ourselves as being sacred and that the overpopulation on the planet is creating disharmony for us and is not working for us. And I don't mean not to have children, I mean to be mindful and to have the spirits brought here that need to be here to help this planet, and not just going out creating children without thought or no ceremony.
Babies are great, but we have been making them without our minds, our intentions or anything. A lot of spirit beings, they don't belong here; they just came though because they thought it would be fun.
We've been taught to not touch each other. But as soon as we touch, as soon as we hold hands and become one in a circle, we start feeling this power, and you know that it belongs to everyone and it's one power.
Sexual energy needs to be coming up inside of each person. Like this food that we have here. We have strawberries, grapes, cheese, crackers, donut holes; we got chips; we got all these things. And everything is very sensuous and very sexual, but people wouldn't admit to that. They'd just say it's food. But to me it's like beautiful, all these flavors are dancing, and they want you to eat them. But it's important to work this energy up and to use it in a good way.
A:What can people do to better honor the the traditions of indigenous peoples?
B:To be respectful of the land that you're living on. To take care of it, as it is your own, like you take care of yourself, or ever better than you take care of yourself. To respect the place that you're at, wherever you are. To respect the trees, to respect the rocks, to respect everything that's in your life.
Because by doing that, then everything will be brighter, everything will start coming together in a good way, working together for a higher consciousness.
If more people would do that, they would start realizing just what they have here. They don't need nothing else; they have everything. And to realize that you're just really happy. You're happy with the ceremonies you can create within and around your own home.
The thing that I feel is really most important is to realize that wherever you are, that it's safe here. I think that's how we would say it.
A:Is there any information we have not covered that you would like to share with our readers?
B:That if it serves you, keep on. If it doesn't serve you, let it go, don't become attached to it. So many people are attached to certain teachings, and they don't realize that they need to let them go in order to receive other teachings. And not just to let it go, but to give it to somebody, as a teaching, and it turns into wisdom for them.
Not one person has all the answers, but they have a piece of it, and it's very important to respect and honor all the different pieces so that you can see it in your own life. Not to burn out anything. Not to take it and completely destroy it, just because you're not going to use it no more. No, let it flutter away.
If you don't understand something, let it be, and it will come back to you, too, in the time for you to understand. And the only reason why you don't understand it anyway is because you're too headstrong into what you're doing, and so you're not open to that teaching at that moment. But that teaching is always open to you.
A:Any parting words of wisdom?
B:Yes. It's true: Native American Indians do make better lovers.