Books
Whispers of the Ancients: Native Tales for Teaching and Healing in Our Time
co-authored with Moses (Amik) Beaver
(University of Michigan Press, April 2010)
It's easy to imagine yourself transported back to a time when an Elder might have told stories like those in Whispers of the Ancients around a glowing hearth. Thanks to Tamarack Song's storytelling skills, monsters, heroes, and shapeshifters come alive and open a doorway to the mysteries of life. Easily accessible to all ages, this is a book that speaks to each person at his or her own level of comprehension and need. It is as beautiful to read as it is to look at.
Stunning Aboriginal artwork by Moses (Amik) Beaver combines with provocative storytelling to renew, in all their traditional splendor, exceptional legends from around the world. Entertaining, profound, passionate, glorious---these are stories that illustrate and evoke themes common to everyone's life, with an ancient wisdom that helps the listener to cope with today's opportunities for tenderness, grief, passion, and irony.
Easily accessible to all ages, this is a book that speaks to each person at his or her own level of comprehension and need. It's as beautiful to read as it is to look at.
Listen to Tamarack tell the story of "Two Hungry Bears" from chapter 8 of Whispers
Listen to an interview with Tamarack about the book
The University of Michigan Press - Publisher's page
Moses (Amik) Beaver's homepage
(Station Hill Press, 1994)
In this day, few of us seem able to declare that we are truly and deeply happy. We find ourselves frustrated with life as we know it and on a quest for life as it could be. We thirst for a more intimate physical and spiritual relationship with The Earth, and yearn for the skills to do so. Our senses and intuitions are not as keen as we know they could be; our personal Lifepaths seem clouded and distorted. Somehow our search brings us to explore Native lifeways, for which this book is a timely guide. From its deep philosophy to its everyday yet vital sensitivities and awarenesses, the ways of our Ancestors are explored and experienced. We learn the skills for walking in Balance in the Wilderness, as well as in our daily lives. And we are given the tools to discover the purpose and contentment that is uniquely intended for each of us.
Contributions
Introduction, chapter, and endorsement for Forgiveness and Child Abuse, by Lois Einhorn, Ph.D., (Robert D. Reed Publishers, 2006).
Dr. Einhorn suffered extreme physical, emotional, and ritual sexual abuse as a child, at the hands of her parents. She brings that story to us and asks, "If you were me, would you forgive your parents?" The rest of the book is comprised of the responses of 53 well-known and respected people, such as Daniel Quinn, Pete Seeger, Hurricane Carter, Bernie Siegel, Patch Adams, and Arun Gandhi, along with Tamarack.
This book is an indispensable healing companion for anyone who has suffered abuse of any kind, as well as a potent healing guide for professionals who work with abuse victims. The author was awarded 2004 Heroine of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Peace by the World Forgiveness Alliance (past recipients include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu).
Chapter entitled "The Gifting Way, How Abundance Came to Me," in Cakes and Ale for the Pagan Soul: Spells, Recipes and Reflections from Neopagan Elders and Teachers, edited by Patricia Telesco, (The Crossing Press, 2005).
Edited by Patricia Telesco, and with contributors who represent a who's who of community leaders, including Margot Adler, Starhawk, Dorothy Morrison, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, and many more. Take a seat on the communal hearth and let these bards regale you with tales of hope, transformation, love, struggle, and victory. The bounty herein will fill you with warmth, sustenance, and inspiration that every spiritual seeker needs.
Forward for Lois Einhorn's The Native American Oral Tradition: Voices of the Spirit and Soul, (Praeger Publishers, 2000).
Einhorn, a rhetorical scholar, explores the rich history of the Native American oral tradition, focusing on stories, orations, prayers, and songs. Because American Indians existed without written language for many generations, their culture was strongly dependent on an oral tradition for continuity and preservation. Not surprisingly, they spent many hours perfecting the art of oral communication and learning methods for committing their messages to memory. Einhorn thoroughly examines the important aspects of this unique oral tradition from a rhetorical perspective, covering individual speakers, nations, and time periods. In the first half of the book, the author examines how the Native American oral tradition has affected their cultural assumptions, principles, values, beliefs, and experiences. These chapters focus primarily on characteristics of the Native American oral tradition that transcend individual nations. The second half of the book includes translated transcripts of representative speeches, stories, prayers, and songs. In accessible and compelling prose, Einhorn discusses the sanctity of the spoken word to Native Americans, concluding that their oral tradition helps to account for the survival of their people and their culture.
Articles
The following is a partial listing of my published articles. In addition to these, I have been a field editor for Wilderness Way magazine since 2005, and the magazine has carried my two regular columns, Wilderness Way Tips and Awareness Quiz, for the past eight years.
"Stage Foraging: How to Save Yourself from Starving," Wilderness Way, Vol. 13, Issue 2, 2007
"How to Learn Tracking From One of Our Greatest Predators," Wilderness Way, Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2006
"Our Ancestral Diet: A Way to Wellness," Conscious Choice, March 2001
"How to Chew the Fat," Wilderness Way, Summer, 2001
"Scent Tracking: You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog," Conscious Choice, September 2000
"Scent Tracking: You Ain't Nothing but a Hound Dog," Wilderness Way, MWinter 2000
"Wolves at my Door: The Saga of Three Wildlings on Their Troubled Way Home," Conscious Choice, August 2000
"Solo Survival Shelters," Wilderness Way, Summer 2000
"How to Cure a Stick," Wilderness Way, Summer 2000
"All Winter Snow Lodges: Two Easy, Safe Designs," Wilderness Way, Spring 2000
"Frogs: Princes Few, Yet They Can be a Royal Feast," Wilderness Way, Winter 1999
"Root Lashing: Time Saving Alternative to Cordage," Wilderness Way, Winter 1999
"The Landed and the Native: Why Have the Twain Ne’er Met," Conscious Choice, June 1999
"To Deet or not to Deet: Natural Mosquito Charms and Chasers," Conscious Choice, May 1999
"To Deet or not to Deet: Natural Mosquito Charms and Chasers," Illinois Times, May 17, 1999
"Music - The Voice," Maine Well-Being, June 1997
"Children: Our Guardianship," Lotus, Winter 1995
"The Empowerment of Prayer," Seeds of Unfolding, Vol. 1 1995
"Elders - Keepers of the Ancestral Voices," Sunrise, Theosophic Perspective, August/September 1995
"The Old Way Culture," Sunrise, Theosophic Perspective, October/November 1993
"The Old Way Culture," Source Book for the Community of Religions, 1993