Native American

So, where’s all the Indians?” asked Yaynicut Franco, one of the Wukchumni adults. The whiteness of the conference was a bit shocking to us, given the title: “Quakers, First Nations, and American Indians.”

“Imagine what would happen,” said one of the Quaker teens, “if a Quaker group held a conference called ‘Quakers and LGBTQ People’ with no LGBTQ people!”

To Friends Everywhere: Our Meeting strongly supports the Standing Rock Sioux in opposing construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and in insisting that their legal and treaty rights be fully honored and not be violated.

Looking out across the dance floor at the audience seated on aluminum bleachers and standing along the prison gymnasium walls, the incongruity was glaringly obvious. Me, with my Irish complexion, taking the microphone to make a statement to scores of Native Americans during their powwow. I could not even guess how many different tribal backgrounds were present.

As I write this in late November 2013, Americans across the country are gathering together in their homes to give thanks. In southeastern Colorado, Cheyenne and Arapaho people are gathering together, too, but for a different reason. This week marks the 149th anniversary of the massacre at Sand Creek, where on November 29, 1864, the U.S.

Manifest Destiny Revisited

by Laurie Childers

The high plains summer day had ended – long and hot, heavy with spiritual ceremony, with talk of intergenerational trauma, with concern for the earth and for human societies. It was dark, and thirty of us were gathered under the a canopy of branches, introducing ourselves in a talking circle. 

The week of July 29 – August 3, 2013, will see PYM Friends returning to Mount Madonna near Watsonville for the sixth annual gathering we will hold there. Many Friends view the Mt.