September ’19 Update on Native American Programs: Lakhota Educators Visit NYC School & ZP Colleagues for Cultural Exchange & Professional Development
The following post is Eve’s reflection on a recent event held at Staten Island, New York’s Integration Charter school where two Lakota Elders- Manny & Renee- discuss a way of preserving their culture’s language through the support of the educational institute.
To Sit with an Elder: Australian Participant Reflects on the 2019 Native American Bearing Witness Plunge
Struck by a people’s history of trauma alongside great resilience, Sam reflects on the tears and laughter shared among the elders from the Lakota-speaking culture in South Dakota, USA during the Zen Peacemakers 2019 Native American Plunge.
Summary Report: 2019 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge
SOUTH DAKOTA, USA. The 2019 Zen Peacemakers Native American Plunge was held July 14-19. This year brought together thirty-six participants from Australia, Switzerland, Israel, France and across Turtle Island- as the United States of America is referred to by the indigenous Native Americans. It is the fourth Native American Program held by Zen Peacemakers International […]
Native Americans Appeal to US Senate to Honor Wounded Knee Massacre Victims and Descendants
WASHINGTON DC, USA. On the 2019 anniversary of the battle of Little Bighorn, Manny and Renee Iron Hawk (two of the Lakota hosts and organizers of the 2019 Zen Peacemakers Bearing Witness Plunge) joined US Rep. Congresswoman Deb Haaland (D-NM1) and a delegation from Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservations to petition a […]
Summary of the 2018 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge
The 2018 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge was completed this past month, July 15-19 2018. The event, which lasted 5 days and spanned South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska, brought together participants from across the United States and Europe with elders and their families from Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation.
We Bring Ourselves: Eve Marko Reflects on the 2018 Native American Bearing Witness Plunge
FORT LARAMIE, WYOMING, USA. “We must come together to lose our fear and illusions of superiority, see into the one big heart that includes all differences and commonality. Be the fragments coming together with other fragments, revealing the unimaginable mystery of the whole.”
Planning This Summer’s Native American Bearing Witness Plunge: Report from Rapid City South Dakota
RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA, USA. This past weekend Roshi Genro Gauntt and ZPI Executive Director Rami Efal met with Manny Iron Hawk, Renee Fast Horse Iron Hawk and Violet Catches, the three main hosts for the Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge, July 15-19, 2018.
Prayers on the Plum Tree: Sensei Engu Dobbs’s Reflection on the Zen Peacemakers Native American Plunge August 2017
SOUTH DAKOTA, USA. Each day we sat in a large circle and began and ended our meetings by smudging with sage smoke, offering tobacco, and listening to Lakota songs and prayers. Listening deeply and bearing witness to the grief of others tends to be hard, hard practice…But if we’re able, more or less, to stay with the grief…The result is often a powerful and surprising feeling of joy.
Summary Report on the 2017 Zen Peacemakers Native American Summer Programs
SOUTH DAKOTA, USA. In August of 2017, thirty non-native American Zen Peacemakers conducted two weeks of programs as another step in an years-long-arc of developing relationship and appreciation with the Lakota of South Dakota. Both weeks were based on and held by the Three-Tenets of Not Knowing, Bearing Witness and Taking Action…
I Was Once Very Angry: Reflection from the 2017 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge
CROW AGENCY, MONTANA, USA. Following the 2017 Zen Peacemakers Native American Bearing Witness Plunge, Roshi Eve Marko reflects on her time at the Little Bighorn battlefield, hosted by Lakota elders and their families.
