Wampanoag Morning: Stories from the Land of the People of the First Light Before the English Invasion

Description

Manitonquat told stories in my daughter’s school years ago, and I took the day off, to hear what he had to say. I had heard him speak at a National Storytelling Association event, also. Manitonquat makes me feel like a kid again, in a good way, where the world is full of wonderful lessons to learn, still magical, still beautiful. Western culture worships the material, for it has forgotten the spiritual. In most indigenous cultures, the old teach the young, for the old are close to returning to the Great Mystery, as the young have only recently come from it. There are few true elders in WhiteManCulture. Elders like him put tons of meaning into a single sentence, at times so much that it takes a while to unravel it all. He told me once that we all have the same job on the planet- helping each other out. I do some charity work, helping people no-one else helps, as a direct result of this epiphany. About a month later, an epiphany hit me, that yes, that really is true, the truth of that unfolded for me, all at once. Manitonquat reminds us that the search for light and truth is never-ending, there is always more growth. The Children of the Morning Light: Wampanoag Tales as Told By Manitonquat is worth reading only for the story of Moshaup and the Dolphins. This guy is very humble, you’d never know, speaking to him, that he has spent over 30 years creating Medicine Circle healing groups in Europe, or that he, like a fair number of native elders, has run programs in prisons for almost 40 years, for people forgotten by everyone else. You would never know of the incredible frustrations he’s run into, for doing the simplest of service for others.