This Earth is Precious - by Chief Seattle

In 1854 the "Great White Chief" in Washington mad an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a "reservation" for the Indian people. Chief Seattle's reply has been described as the most beautiful and profound statement on the environment ever made.

The Earth is Precious

How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. 

If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

All Sacred

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.

Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.

Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.

The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man - all belong to the same family.

Not Easy

So, when the Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us. The Great Chief sends word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves.

He will be our father and we will be his children. So we will consider your offer to buy our land.

But it will not be easy. For this land is sacred to us. 

This shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors.

If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred, and you must teach your children that it is sacred and that each ghostly reflection in the clear water of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. 

The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

Kindness

The rivers are our brothers; they quench our thirst. The rivers carry our canoes and feed our children. If we sell you our land, you must remember, and teach your children, that the rivers are our brothers, and yours, and you must henceforth give the rivers the kindness you would give any brother.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. I do not know. Our ways are different from your ways. 

The sight of your cities pains the eye of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand. 

There is not quiet place in white man's cities. No place to hear the unfurling of leaves in spring, or the rustle of an insect's wings. 

But perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand.

The clatter only seems to insult the ears. And what is there to life if a man cannot hear the lonely cry of the whippoorwill or the arguments of the frogs around a pond at night? I am a red man and do not understand.

The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of a pond, and the smell of the wind itself, cleaned by a midday rain, or scented with the pinion pine.

Precious

The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man. They all share the same breath.

But if we sell you our land, you must remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also receives his last sigh.

And if we sell you our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow's flowers.

One Condition

So we will consider your offer to buy our land. If we decide to accept, I will make on condition: The white man must treat the beasts of this land as his brothers. 

I am a savage and I do not understand any other way. I have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes on the prairie, left by the white man who shot them from a passing train. I am a savage and I do not understand how the smoking iron horse can be more important than the buffalo that we kill only to stay alive. 

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to the man. All things are connected.

The Ashes

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet are the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know: the earth does not belong to man; man belong
s to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life: he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

Even the white man, whose God walks and talks with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny.

We may be brothers after all.

A Deep Dive Into Heritage

As a Pagan who comes from a long line of Christians, I have always stayed away from ancestral work. Through my own lineage, the Christianity stems back further than I could actually see in my lineage. At some point, where family lines get muddy from lack of knowledge, Christianity is still there loud and proud. There are very few deviations from Christianity in my lineage: the loose connection with Sarah Good, and others from the Salem Witch Trials. I also know of Mary Ann (Hicks) Sparkman, who was an illegitimate child of a Creek (Muscogee) woman, and was then adopted by Luke Sparkman after being abandoned along the St. Mary River, not far from the Georgia-Florida border. 

I did a deep dive on the ties to the Salem Witch Trials here. But other than a brief mention, I never went deeper into Mary Ann. Recently an indigenous friend encouraged me to find out more about my Cherokee heritage, saying that every little bit counts, and that bloodline deserves to be acknowledged, despite what little there is at this point. 

There isn't too much know of Mary Ann and her Cherokee ties. Once she was adopted into the Sparkman family, she was raised as a sibling with no differences. Her father noted her only difference from the children was her eyes, describing her as "button eyed" in reference to their dark color. Being an infant when she was found, the cultural ties she had to the Muscogee tribe died there at the river she was found from. 

She married Eli Hicks around the age of 18. His own indigenous heritage is noted, with sources describing him as Cherokee-Irish. They had 11 children, one later died in an attack from local natives. At this point, Mary Ann had been raised white, and was so far removed from her own heritage, the sight of angry natives only frightened her. She also had a brother killed during the attack. Later, she lost two more children to violence, and a son who never returned from the Civil War. Unsurprisingly, she spent her last few years in a state of insanity. 

But that is not where the Cherokee bloodline ended for my ancestors. One of Mary Ann's granddaughters, of the same name, later married back into the Sparkman family at age 15, to Logan Sparkman. Together they had 9 children - Evaline, Harry Lee, Mousie, Della, Parrott, Sampson, Sarah, Ranie, and Havaugh. Follow Sampson down and you can get back to my grandfather from his paternal line.

But that isn't even where it's interesting....

The Family Line

I fell down a rabbit hole with trying to understand this bloodline. I was always told my great grandmother (5x great), on my maternal grandfather's side was full-blood Cherokee. With some google searching, I found Mary Ann, and articles specifically stating she was full Cherokee, so I always ran with that. But what if there was more than just her. 

Knowing Mary Ann was on my grandfather's paternal side, I looked into his maternal side as well. For the sake of my own sanity, I'm going to attempt to include everything I've found.

Lora Jane Allen 

• my grandfather's mother, making her my great grandmother
• born in 1905 to Guyles Allen and Emily Jane Stephens (first wife)
• Emily died in 1933, and Guyles married Ella J Howard sometime after that

Guyles Allen 

• my great x2 grandfather
• born in 1884 to William James Morgan Allen and Sarah "Sally" Hicks

Sarah "Sally" Hicks 

• my great x3 grandmother
• born in 1836 to Hiram Hicks Sr. and Frances "Fanny" Brown

Hiram Hicks Sr 

• my great X4 grandfather
• born in 1806 to Aulse "Preacher" Hicks and Sarah Robertson-Handshoe Hicks 

Aulse "Preacher" Hicks

• my great x5 grandfather
• born in 1780 to N.N. Hicks
• died in 1859 of typhoid fever
• there were suggested ties to Chief William Abraham Hicks and one of his wives, Chow-U-Ka "Lydia" Chisholm - but not much explanation into the relationship. 
• I did find an N.N. Hicks in relation to the chief, as his sister. Given the residential locations between Aulse and this N.N. Hicks being only a few days walk, I'm going down this path and assuming they are the same person

N.N. Hicks

• my great x6 grandmother
• born in 1762 to Nathan Hicks and Na-ye-hi Hicks
• member of the Cherokee Aniwaya Wolf Clan
• ended up having two husbands, Thomas Wilson and N.N. Douglas, and is unknown what children she may have had with either of them. Both men are also widely unknown other than marriages to N.N. Hicks.

Nathan Hicks

• my great x7 grandfather
• estimated to be born sometime between 1704 - 1746 in Scotland
• was known as a trader for the Cherokee people
• married Na-ye-hi Hicks, and had 5 children together

Na-ye-hi Hicks

• my great x7 grandmother
• estimated to be born sometimes between 1736 - 1738
• married to Nathan Hicks and had 5 children together
• also known as "Nan Ye Hi Nancy, maiden name Conrad/Taylor
• she is listed as being part of Cherokee Aniwaya Wolf Clan

Other Children of Nathan and Na-ye-hi:

• Go-sa-du-isga "Sarah" Hicks - born around 1758
• Nathan Hicks Jr - born around 1764
• Chief Charles Renatus Hicks - born in 1767, along the Hiwassee River
• was a missionary and second principal chief of the Cherokee Aniwaya Wolf Clan
• Chief William Abraham Hicks - born 1769 along Oothcaloga Creek
• was a principal chief of the Cherokee Aniwaya Wolf Clan
• had two wives - Chow-U-Ka "Lydia" Chisholm and Sarah Bathia Hicks
• 1 child with Chow-U-Ka
• George Augustus Hicks
• 13 children with Sarah Bathia Hicks
• Eli Hicks**
• Ga-da-gi-s-gi "Jay" Hicks
• Wiliam Hicks Jr
• Ruth Beck
• Carrington Wheeler Hicks
• Margaret Harriet Nicholson
• As-lu-ti-wi-s-gi Abijah Hicks
• Ella Spears
• Anna Rosina Susannah Walker
• Joseph Hicks
• Charles Hicks
• John J Hicks
• Nancy Ellen Reese

**Unknown if this Eli Hicks has any relation to the Eli Hicks that Mary Ann Sparkman married 

Other distant relatives:

• Sarah Bathia "Sallie" Hicks - born around 1788
• daughter of John Anthony Foreman and Kah-tah-yah "Susie" Foreman
• wife of Chief William Abraham Hicks
• had 13 children together (listed above)
• member of the Cherokee Aniwodi Paint Clan

• John Anthony Foreman - born around 1744
• was a trader from the Pennsylvania colony
• had 3 wives: Kah-tah-ya "Susie" Foreman, Nancy Augusta Field, and Wa-Tee "Elizabeth" Foreman (Kah-tah-ya's niece)

• Kah-ta-yah "Susie" Foreman - born around 1750
• also known as:
• Ti-ta-s-gi-s-gi
• Rattling Gourd
• Susie Tee Tar Skee Skee
• daughter of Teetarskeeskee - born between 1695-1745
• sibling of Gourdaygie Hair - born in 1760
• member of the Cherokee Aniwodi Paint Clan or more likely the Anigodagewi Blind Savannah Clan

• Chow-u-ka "Lydia" Chisholm - born around 1774
• also known as:
• Zauejuka
• Qua-la-yu-ga
• Lydia Halfbreed
• Qualiluka
• Zaueucka
• Chiuke
• Tocoeyeeka
• Chi-yu-ke or Gual-yu-ka
• Hicks or Hix McCoy
• daughter of Big Halfbreed "Will" and Gua-Li-Uka "Hannah" Halfbreed
• noted having 5 husbands, with 8 total children among 4 husbands
• had 8 siblings
• member of the Cheroke Anigodagewi Wild Potato Clan

*Most of this geneology comes from the works of Emmet Starr, a Cherokee historian.

Cherokee Clans 

The clan system originally helped people model personality traits after animals, which are teachers of the natural world. The system provided moral guidelines, informed members of the their system of governance, and provided guidelines for things like marriage. It drove how you saw the Cherokee world, because each clan had a different philosophy. There used to be as many as 21 clans, some say, but over time and because of genocide, the clans have been merged down into 7 clans. 

“Each clan has a specialty – a strong personality or philosophical approach to life. The ultimate goal is for each person to utilize these specialties, to learn from them and to employ them in their life.” 

- Crosslin Fields Smith in 'Original Teachings: Designed to Stand as One'

In the modern times, the clan systems are prevalent at ceremonial grounds, and in other means of the more traditional Cherokee culture. 

Wild Potato Clan (Anigodagewi) 

A subdivision of the Blind Savannah clan, it derived from the Small Prairie Animal clan. Clan traits were keepers of the land and gatherers.

Long Hair Clan (Anigilohi)

Deriving from the Panther clan, it is sometimes also referred through translation as the "Twister" and "Stranger" clans. Clan traits had the ablility to maneuver through things, with long hair being known as peaceful, and the "stranger" aspect coming from the various non-Cherokees, prisoners of war, and orphans being adopted into the clan.

Paint Clan (Aniwodi)

Deriving from the Hawk Clan, the name comes from the Cherokee word "uwodi" which refers to a medicinal red powder. This clan is historically known as medicine people.

Bird Clan (Anitsisqua)

This clan is regarded as exhibiting strong moral and relational values, with the ability to live hormoniously in close quarters. They are known as messengers, and are a subdivision of the Raven, Turtle Dove, and Eagle clans.

Deer Clan (Aniawi)

Clan traits include keen senses, powerful instinct, and great endurance and speed. They are known as the hunters, and earthly messengers who delivered communication between villages. 

Wolf Clan (Aniwaya)

Known as the largest clan, they teach family values and cooperation; and were known to provide the war chief during times of war.

Blue Clan (Anisahoni)

Considered the olest clan, it is a subdivision of Panther, Wildcat, and Bear clans. They are known to produce medicines for the youth, which was often blue in color. 

All Things Connected

"This we know: the earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. 

All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected. 

[...] We may be brothers after all."

- Chief Seattle in 'This Earth is Precious'

Would you believe me if I said the intention of this posting was not to take a 6 hour deep dive into my family lineage, but rather to talk about "chosen ancestors?" That topic will have to wait for another time. For now, I want to sit with this information, find acceptance that even though I may only be 1/128th Cherokee - a tiny fraction - it is still something I can be proud of, find comfort in, and maybe someday recognize as part of my identity. For now, I want to learn more about these roots, something I have always found a draw to, but weirdly felt like an imposter in. For now, I want to take time to acknowledge the answers to so many questions I've had over the course of my life. Dots are connecting, things are clicking into place, and in that, I find some small comfort. 

Eclecticism

Twelve years ago, I wrote about my encounter with another pagan who referred to Eclectic Paganism as a "salad bar religion." I then went on a tangent about how religions are formed, all of which stem from some form of eclecticism. If you are truly interested in the ramblings of a young and naive practitioner, I suppose you can go read it for yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you about the cringe.

I recently revisited the writing, and reflected on it some more. A lot of my path has evolved over 12 years, and I definitely have a different mindset and outlook on things now. Initially I was irked, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how true that was. It wasn't reducing my path to the part of the buffet that most people skip; it was acknowledging the beautifully colored assortment that could create a million different combinations! I decided at that point that I'd embrace the salad bar metaphor. Lean into it and even have fun with it. Which I did in creating an infographic for it.

Twelve years later I felt the need to refresh the original infographic, making it a bit more friendly for multiple platforms, and more aesthetically pleasing. The message of it stays the same though.

I feel many people struggle with "eclectic" because it is a fairly vague concept. It could be all encompassing, or not at all, and it is truly open for interpretation, with it's meaning entirely dependent on the individual using it. Eclectic describes drawing from diverse sources, styles, or ideas, creating a rich mix rather than sticking to one system. This vast definition could be used in almost every wake of life - music, decor, literature, and faith. When I went on my tangent of how all religions start out eclectic, I wasn't wrong - despite my naive youth.

"Each religion has broken off from another, for various reasons. Generally, one person did not agree with the teachings of one religion, so they set off and start their own religion, using foundations that they like from previous religions."

This is why you see overlaps in religion; Pagan traditions are often incorporated in Christian rituals (ie Christmas trees, Easter eggs, even the Christian mass). Initially, these traditions were adopted to make Christianity more familiar to promote conversion, and over time they just stuck. Personally, I feel that Christianity failed to remember the roots of its rituals lie in Paganism (something Christianity has literally fought to forget). As an Eclectic Pagan, I strive to remember where the roots of my practice come from. These things resonated with me for a reason, to forget that would be to lose connection with my own faith practices, losing meaning and becoming mundane. When our practice becomes mundane, and we start going through the motions simply out of habit and without intention, our personal growth in our practice becomes stagnant. In many set paths, remembering the roots of the practice can be simple, as it all stems from the same origins. Meanwhile, in eclecticism, there are different origins, which takes a certain level of conscious effort to remember; something not necessary in set paths. 

I know there is also fear of extra room for misunderstandings and false assumptions when talking about eclecticism. I argue that it does not matter how much room there is, if it is going to be misunderstood, it will be. We see this in Christianity all the time with cherry picking bible verses, meanings lost in translations, and omissions made to fit the narrative of the times. I would argue that the beliefs aren't what clears up misunderstandings, the words we use to describe a system of believes isn't what prevents false assumptions and provides clarity. How we put those beliefs into to practice does that. Your beliefs could be the most peaceful concepts known, but if you aren't putting it into practice, if you're acting like a bully, that is what creates the confusion. Explaining your beliefs and where they stem from will give me a general idea of where you're starting, but your actions, your practice, are going to tell me a lot more. 

In my opinion, something you didn't ask for but are getting anyway (my blog, my rules), eclecticism requires checking your assumptions at the door. Because it can so widely vary from one practitioner to another, it doesn't allow you to make assumptions immediately, it asks you to wait and see. It forces you to slow down, be patient. Don't tell - show. 

Which is something nature does every day.