Peace offerings

In a three-day workshop, American Indian elders will discuss how to find harmony in a chaotic world.

By JEANNE MALMGREN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 30, 2002

Ted Williams

How do we make peace in an often less-than-peaceful world?

American Indian teachers Ted Williams and Sara Smith, along with healer Diana Osborne, will explore that question this weekend at a workshop in St. Petersburg titled "Mother Earth, Mother of Peace: Exploring the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Nations." A flier describes the three-day event as a "council of sharing, teaching and making peace with two of the most beloved and respected elders of our time."

Williams, 72, belongs to the Wolf clan of the Tuscarora nation. He grew up on a reservation near Niagara Falls, N.Y., and now lives in the mountain town of Hot Springs, N.C. His Indian name is Wa Ta Ha A'Yuk.

Smith, often called Grandmother Sara, is a member of the Turtle clan of the Mohawk nation. She lives at the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario, where she was born. She is 62.

Sara Smith

What follows is an edited version of separate phone interviews with Williams and Smith.

Question: How did you become an elder? What does that title mean?

Sara Smith: "Grandmother" is a term of respect or honor that you receive from the people. People simply begin calling you that at some point, and it grows.

Ted Williams: I'm afraid of attaching any name or title to myself. It's better to be an apprentice and never stop learning. But they say I'm an elder because I'm 72 years old.

Question: Gratitude seems to be a big part of native teachings -- expressing thanks to the Creator, feeling grateful for the beauty of the Earth. Is that right?

Sara Smith: Yes. We recognize our total connectedness to all of life. And it's not just humankind. That's the truth that our native people have always upheld, is our connectedness to all of life. We have never forgotten Mother Earth and Father Sky.

Ted Williams: All the Faith Keepers in the Long House of the Iroquois people, they say gratitude is the beginning of knowledge and understanding. And so for every significant occasion, every gathering, they always give something called the Thanksgiving Address. In the prelude to that address, it says, "We are all part of the great cycles of things." And so magnificent and harmonious is this universe, it's still a great mystery.

Question: Sept. 11 really disturbed a lot of people's vision of a harmonious universe. It shook many of us out of our complacency. What do native teachings say about this?

Sara Smith: You know, I was at the Pentagon a week after the terrorist attacks, and it was so somber there. People were just wandering around, looking sad, lighting candles, crying. We gathered in a circle, held hands, sang songs, had ceremony. People seemed grateful that we were doing that. So I believe that we can change this situation. And we have to. In order to fulfill our responsibility in this Earth walk, we have to contribute individually by affirming peace, praying for it. We have to do that for the coming faces, the ones that are not here yet. Because we are totally responsible for seven generations to come.

Ted Williams: Our elders say that it's impossible to make a mistake. There are no mistakes, only sacred lessons.

Question: This weekend you'll be at a place thought to be a temple mound for native Floridians hundreds of years ago. Florida has quite a few of these sacred places -- all surrounded by development. Is Florida squandering its past?

Sara Smith: Certainly the cement that we're walking on is not natural, but then again, neither are the taxes on the land we live on. The grandfathers always told me that because our people live in such harmony with nature, we could withstand any kind of trauma. We're survivors. We adapt. Look at the Hopi and the Navajo: They were driven up into the mountains, and they built thriving metropolises there. The same with the Seminoles. They were driven into the Everglades, and people thought they would perish there. But they thrived.

Ted Williams: My people never had this concept of ownership of the land. My mother remembers the first fence she saw, as a child. She couldn't understand what it was for, or why it would be needed. Florida has been commercialized, no doubt about it. But if you go into the swamp areas, they're still natural. Maybe some of that sacredness remains. And these sacred gathering places, like this mound, they have energy and power. The Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois talks about a place so powerful that anyone walking into it carrying a weapon, the weapon would fall from their hand.

Question: What will you be teaching this weekend?

Sara Smith: I'm not sure. It will be what my ancestors give me to say. I'll speak for the vibrations that are there, whatever I am guided to do.

Ted Williams: I'll be doing the Thanksgiving Address. And I'll be talking about healing using ceremony, with the theme around peace. I want to show some of the magic that comes from ceremony, some of the stories about things that happened. And how to those people long ago, it was not magic, but a way of life.

AT A GLANCE

The workshop "Mother Earth, Mother of Peace: Exploring the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Nations" begins with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at the Center for Conscious Living, 6152 126th Ave. N, Largo ($20 suggested donation). The Saturday and Sunday events take place at Sacred Lands Preservation and Education, 1620 Park St. N, St. Petersburg ($100 both days, $15 for Saturday night dinner and American Indian entertainment). Call (727) 347-0354 for more information or visit www.sacredlandspreservationandeducation.org.

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