New Year’s Peace Vigil in Crestone, Colorado by Pam Williams

Crestone is a spiritually diverse population. This year’s fire vigil was organized by Hanne Strong of the Manitou Institute. Many of the area spiritual groups offered prayers, songs, poetry and dance around the sacred fire. Paul Tohlakai of Sacred Mountains Foundation, Inc. lead the Native American portion of the evening with contributions from Marvin Clifford, Dave Braveheart and Lorraine Fox Davis. Sacred medicines were offered to the fire, Native songs for peace and gratitude were sung. Each participant offered individual prayers and shared hopes for the coming year and gratitude for the year just passed.

Recent Travels Abroad by Paul Tohlakai

During September and October 2003, founder Paul Tohlakai traveled to Europe. First stop, Switzerland to be the key speaker and master of ceremonies for a Pow Wow sponsored by Four Winds Association of Switzerland. Many tribes from the Americas participated. There was a rich diversity in the ceremonies and talks. A five day affair that included native crafts people, musicians and dancers that entertained the European attendants.

I attended and participated in bovine decention from the Alps. The cows have a cellular memory to come down the mountain at a certain time of the year to have their heads decorated with an inverted milking stool decorated with flowers. They come off the high alpine grazing to the valley for this legendary ritual. There is the playing of the alp horns, fox hunt horns, cow bells, cheese making, chocolate tasting extravaganza. This was an experience of cultural diversity which included a cheese and fry bread exchange.

Following Switzerland, I traveled to Belgium where I stayed in a place called Eau Blanche or coincidentally “white water”. As some of you may know, Tohlakai means “white water” and I am a member of the Whitewater Clan. Then I conducted a Stone People lodge for the locals at a place called Blanche Fontaine, “white spring”. After this cultural exchange, a strong connection was made with Jacques Fafchamps and Philippe Looze. These men have translated our web site to French, which will be available soon on line. We are grateful to Jacques and Philippe for there generous time contributions and interest in the Foundation.

First Advisory Board Meeting Held January 18, 2004 by Pam Williams

In attendance were Paul, Caroline, Lukah, Matthew Crowley, Kelly Hart, Trilite and Pam Williams. We discussed the background and definitions of the foundation and its parts. We discussed the implementation of a Board of Advisors, who are voluteers helping SMF reorganization. Part of the time was spent on timelines and future projects. We are considering having these meetings available either on-line or by phone conference. If you are interested in attending these meetings electronically, please send an email to sacredmountainsfoundation@yahoo.com with Advisory Board in the subject line. The summary can be viewed on-line

photos by Caroline Romedenne and Matthew Crowley

Site Visit to Pinon by Matthew Crowley

Following the first official meeting of the Sacred Mountains advisory board, Paul, Trilite, Kelly Hart and myself got up long before dawn and headed South through Wolf Creek Pass by the light of a waning sliver crescent moon. Our destination was the community of Pinon which the Foundation serves. It was a generous commitment and donation of time for Kelly Hart of Green Builders to make this trip in order to make a preliminary assessment of the site for the proposed Black Mountains Sustainable Community Building Project.

I thoroughly the enjoyed the drive getting to know my Crestone neighbor Kelly Hart. Kelly is a wealth of knowledge and experience in sustainable building methods such as strawbale, papercrete, cord wood and earthbag techniques. His presence is a good example of how Crestone and the people who populate it can offer guidance and leadership training to the people of Pinon. We arrived just before some winter weather left a beautiful blanket of fresh snow in the area. We surveyed the building site and gave Kelly a tour of the immediate surroundings. Kelly took soil samples to determine the amount of clay in order to assess its use in various building techniques.

In the evening Paul counseled with his family on the latest developments with the foundation and the building project. Later, many ideas were discussed regarding the orientation of the structure and how to take maximal advantage of local environmental conditions. Kelly sketched out some of these ideas while Paul shared the traditional layout of the Hogan. On our return we agreed to meet soon in order to establish the most practical design and building method. Check in with us and the website to see how you can help.

photos by Matthew Crowley

Copyright Sacred Mountains Foundation, Inc. 2004. All rights reserved.

Sacred Mountains Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 1107
Crestone, CO 81131
EMail Us
(719)256-5113

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