Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
[Pause]
Phil Lane Jr. was born at Haskell Indian Residential School where his mother,
Lena Parker Vale and his father Philip Nathan Lane Sr. first met and later
married. Having tribal ancestors that made all of North America their home,
he is a citizen of both Canada and the United States. Although he considers
Canada his home, he is a true North American.
For forty years, Chief Deloria ministered to the spiritual and physical needs of
the Great Sioux Nation, as well as representing his Dakota people of the
Yankton Sioux Tribe in their on-going treaty negotiations with the U.S.
government. In 1936, in honor of his noble character, selfless service, and
dedication to uplifting his people, Chief Deloria’s image was included as one
of the 60 Saints of the Ages whose statues grace the High Altar of the
National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
At 85 years of age, Phil’s father still loves to ride and train quarter horses
and along with Phil’s mother, who is 82, is still very active at home and in
serving the community. Phil’s beloved Sister, Deloria and her husband Jacob
Big Horn have also, dedicated their lives in service to the people.
From his childhood, Phil’s father and mother never let Phil forget that he
inherited an important legacy of responsibilities for service and leadership
among his people from the lineage’s of both his father and his mother. As
well, Phil’s Chickasaw grandmother Ella Parker Vale and his Chickasaw aunt
Marlema Vale Dugan were particularly influential in instilling a sense of
destiny and a deep connection to his indigenous cultural roots. On his
Dakota side, Phil’s grandmother Ella Deloria and grandfather Vine Deloria Sr.
and his uncles Vine Deloria Sr. and Samuel Deloria also served as
inspirational role models. His father sometimes reminded him of an old
Dakota teaching that said,
When Phil was eighteen years old – having just graduated from Walla Walla
High School (in Walla Walla, Washington) as senior class president, an
award-winning football, wrestling and track champion, and all around wild
character – he decided to “see the world.” So he and a friend hitchhiked to
New York City and worked their way on a freighter across the Atlantic Ocean
to Europe. They then hitchhiked across Europe and eventually were drawn
to East Berlin. Phil felt led by a powerful curiosity to understand who the real
people were behind the “Iron Curtain,” and “the Soviet Menace” he had been
taught were the enemy for most of his life.
And so one day he went across “Checkpoint Charlie”, walked up the steps of
the Embassy of the USSR in East Berlin, and rang the bell beside the huge
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 4
double doors. His ringing echoed within hollow and long. He waited and
rang again. A voice spoke through the speaker beside the door, first in
Russian, then in German (presumably asking who he was and what he
wanted.) When the voice stopped, obviously expecting an answer, Phil gave
greetings in English. There was a long pause and then someone said very
loud in English, “Who is this?” Phil was so surprised he blurted out “Hello.
It’s Phil from Walla Walla. I would like to speak to someone.” After some
time, one of the big doors opened, and a Russian who spoke perfect English
invited Phil to come inside the Embassy. They talked for more than three
hours about why the United States and the Soviet Union saw each other as
enemies, the politics of Cuba, and how they all wanted the same things for
their children, and how perhaps one day the walls would be taken down.
They had tea and parted as friends. Phil learned from that experience that
every issue has many sides and that each perspective must be carefully and
respectfully considered. As his tribal Elders taught him, you should never
judge another human being until you have walked at least a mile in their
moccasins.
[Pause]
Remember the little mouse? The great blind wolf? The story says
the wolf lost his eyes because he was very selfish, arrogant, and
foolish (another story tells how he was tricked out of them by four
weasels and that they were able to trick him because he was
already blind in his heart).
Well, our story goes on to tell how the little mouse felt great
compassion for the wounded wolf, once so noble and proud and
strong. She marched right up to where he was laying with his
face on the ground and she stood before him. “Great Wolf, why
are you crying?” she said. “Because I lost my eyes and now I
cannot see,” answered the wolf. “Don’t cry,” she said “I will help
you.” “You?” he said, “What can you do? You’re just a little
mouse.” “My mother taught me always to give my very best,”
she said, “I will give you my eyes.” And before the wolf could
even respond, she popped out her eyes, and placed them gently
in the sockets where the wolf’s eyes had been. And suddenly, he
leapt into the air, and whooped and howled and danced for joy. “I
can see,” he said. “I can see.”
[Pause]
So, try to picture it. Here you have a boy of 18. He’s a young man, a Native
North American who grew up in a deeply prejudiced white America in the
1950’s and 60’s where Indians were considered second-class citizens, if
anything. Their tribal communities, in most cases, were almost completely
socially and economically devastated.
On the other hand, he has been told all of his life that he comes from a noble
lineage, and that one day, along with the rest of his extended family, he
must take up the mantle of leadership and service on behalf of his tribal
people. Well, maybe so, but right now its 1962. In order to survive, Phil has
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 6
become as tough as a sack of nails. He is an all-around champion athlete,
and he is angry. Angry at how he knows Native North Americans have been
treated; angry at the injustices of an America that was beating up and killing
black people for trying to exercise their right to vote in the South; angry at
the materialistic system that had so thoroughly crushed the spirit out of so
many Indigenous communities, leaving them in grinding poverty,
dependency and alcoholism.
And so after high school, Phil Lane, Jr. joined the ranks of other angry young
men of color in North America. He drank a lot of alcohol, he used drugs, he
fought at the drop of a hat, he had unhealthy relationships with women, and
he hated the materialistic system that surrounded his tribal people and
himself and was determined to find a way to weaken its strangle hold on
Indigenous people. In years to follow, Phil often commented on that “wild”
period of his life. “I am very thankful for my experiences with alcohol and
drugs,” he explains. “Those experiences have given me some humility not
to judge others, as well as a deep compassion and understanding for others
who suffer from the hurts of the past, because I have been there myself.”
[Pause]
Remember the little mouse who gave her eyes to the wolf? Well,
the story goes on that she just stood there, listening to the wolf
as he whooped and danced around the meadow. But now she
was blind, and it gradually dawned on her that she had done a
very, very foolish thing. She waited, her little brow furled in
worry and fear, fully expecting the wolf to discover her, and to
eat her like a kernel of popcorn. She had given her eyes because
her heart prompted her to do so. She had listened to the voice of
spirit. But now she was exposed, helpless, and vulnerable.
And then the wolf wept the weeping of regret, loss, and shame.
He wept a long time, and the little mouse could only wait and be
with him while he wept. And when his heart had been washed
clean of the anger, fear, pride, and selfishness that had for so
long covered up his true nature as a noble being, he stopped
weeping, and after a time he said, “Little Sister, do you
remember the old teaching about a Sacred Lake high up in the
mountains?” “Yes,” she said, suddenly filled with hope. My
grandmother told me that whoever prays on its shores and drinks
of its waters will be healed of any infirmity. But do you think it
really exists? Maybe it’s just an old story.”
The Great Wolf was quiet a moment, and then he said, “Little
Sister, if a tiny mouse can make a blind wolf see, maybe there is
such a thing as a Sacred Lake. We will look for it together.” And
so the Great Wolf lowered himself to the ground, and invited his
Little Mouse Sister to climb up on his back; and together they set
out on a long, long journey.
[Pause]
I was telling you that when Phil was a young man, he went through a period
of rather wild and self-destructive behavior. He was angry; he was hurt; and
by his own admission, he would sometimes hurt others. But all through this
time, he never really lost his connection to the Creator, and he never really
forgot (for very long) that he had a destiny to fulfill that was connected to his
lineage. The heat of the fire of search burning within him began to rise.
Increasingly, he found himself spending time with elders and spiritual
teachers, always searching for answers and a spiritual way out of the hurt
and pain of the past and present.
The laser searchlight of his soul began to seek out and explore spiritual
teachings from around the world. The more he searched, the more it
seemed to him that the spiritual foundations of all the diverse religions and
great traditions (including his own Dakota and Chickasaw traditions) are
really one.
And that is exactly what Phil Lane, Jr. began to do. For more than thirty
years Phil has worked unceasingly, often to the point of total exhaustion, for
the upliftment of the human family, and especially of Indigenous people. He
has continuously sacrificed personal comfort, income, professional
advancement, old age security and even the simple pleasures of spending
time with family and friends or taking a vacation. Following are a few
highlights of his early years of service.
Four Worlds
In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Indigenous communities in Canada and the
United States had sunk into a black pit of despair, poverty, alcoholism,
violence, abuse, and misery.
The fact that these distinguished leaders came at all (despite traditional
rivalries and pervading community despair) speaks eloquently of the impact
Phil had already made in “Indian Country,” and to the genius of his
leadership. It is important to bear in mind that when the human rights and
freedom of people are systematically violated for generation upon
generation, there is a tendency for those people to internalize that
oppression, and to turn against each other. This paralyzing phenomenon
routinely undermines the capacity of oppressed people to sustain their own
healing and development processes.
This historic four-day meeting took place in Lethbridge and at the Blood
Indian Reserve on the high plains of southern Alberta, Canada in the week
between Christmas 1982 and the 1983 New Year.
With the utmost skill and wisdom, Phil orchestrated a gathering, the like of
which had not occurred for hundreds of years, if ever. The importance of this
gathering was that forty of the wisest, most experienced and influential
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 10
people of many tribes of North America came together to deliberate about
problems and challenges that were destroying every one of their
communities, and required common effort to overcome.
Invitations were sent using high plains traditional protocol, which requires
that tobacco and cloth be sent, and if accepted, signifies that the process to
follow would take place on spiritual grounds (beyond politics and personal
interest). The meeting itself was held in traditional Council fashion. A
buffalo robe filled the center of the great circle around which participants
gathered. Sage was burned. Songs were sung. Prayers were offered, and
an eagle fan (i.e. wing of eagle) was passed from person to person, the
elders speaking first, each delegate speaking in turn, and everyone else
listening respectfully.
From that meeting, a bold project was conceived to build an instrument for
the healing and development of Indigenous communities. That instrument,
in the form of a research, technical assistance, and capacity building
program, became known as “Four Worlds.”
What the elders said at that meeting was basically the following.
Phil emerged from this meeting with the solid mandate of respected spiritual
leaders and elders from many tribes to build programs and eventually a
movement that would serve as a catalyst and support for healing and
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 11
development processes in indigenous communities. But moving from talk to
action is never easy. There is an old proverb that says “Whenever the cry of
truth is raised, so also is the cry of denial.”
Phil worked tirelessly and with great courage to build Four Worlds and to
serve communities in the face of tremendous criticism from many people,
including some native people. For example, when (in 1983) he articulated
the goal of “the elimination of alcohol and drug abuse in native communities
by the year 2000,” he was condemned and attacked by native leaders and
community members who were deeply addicted to alcohol and drugs, as well
as, by a number of people who were working in the treatment of native
alcoholism (of all groups!). Privately, they actually said, “If this goal is
realized, we’re all out of work.” He was criticized for involving non-natives as
members of his inner working group, even though the elders had clearly
advised that it was critical to work with people of “all four directions”
(symbolically, black, white, red and yellow) , and to bring together the gifts
of each of these peoples in the work of uplifting tribal communities. He was
attacked for seeking spiritual understanding and wisdom from teachers and
traditions around the world that seemed “strange” and “foreign” to his
attackers. He was, also, attacked (often by jealous program leaders) for his
insistence on integrating traditional cultural wisdom and modern science and
technology. But through it all, Phil kept his attention focused on working
toward the accomplishments of the positive goals of community healing and
empowerment. This he did despite the fact that the attacks (especially in
the early years) were so treacherous, mean spirited and hurtful, that he
would sometimes weep with pain and frustration when he thought nobody
was watching. The fact that the most painful attacks came from other native
people was perhaps the most difficult thing of all to bear.
5. Four Worlds was originally core funded by the Canadian government, but
since 1994, has received no government funding for it’s core funding,
choosing instead to survive on it’s own economic enterprises and
revenues received for services it provides to contracted partners. The
intent has been to model self-sufficiency to the communities being
served.
On the Canadian National front, the work of Phil and others to address the
issue of residential schools continues. The Canadian Government has
come forward with $350,000,000 (about $217,000,000 US) Residential
School Healing Fund to be spent over a five-year period. Although this
amount falls far short of the 2 billion per year called fair and needed by
the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal People in its final report
(1997) “Gathering Strength”, it is a beginning.
Currently, more than 8000 individual legal cases have been filed by
Residential School survivors, and more are being filed every week. It is
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 14
saddening to note that as the residential schools issue finally comes to
light, it is too late for many of the former victims of residential school
abuse who have already died of alcoholism, suicide or violent deaths.
Phil’s focus now is to find alternative ways that the legal issues can be
resolved in a manner that is just, as well as, healing for all concerned,
rather than being forced to use a legal system that is adversarial,
demeaning, and disunifying in nature.
7. In 1999-2000, Phil and Four Worlds became a catalyst and one of the
prime movers in the development and negotiation of inter-continental
Indigenous to Indigenous trade and social development agreements
between Indigenous nations of Canada and Indigenous nations of Latin
America and the Caribbean. This movement to reunite the Indigenous
peoples and First Nations of the Americas in a comprehensive trade and
socioeconomic development network is called “The Reunion of the Condor
and the Eagle.” Indigenous spiritual leaders and elders in both the North
and the South say this is the fulfillment of ancient prophesies that foretold
that after a “long wintertime” of oppression, suffering and decline at the
hands of other nations, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and
eventually around the world would unite and one day become strong and
healthy, and would eventually take their renewed spiritual wisdom and
strength to the whole world. This ancient prophecy is so strong that in
1970, the elders of the Otomi Nation in Central Mexico told their people to
build a sacred ceremonial center carved out of solid rock in the ancient
Toltec and Aztec tradition, and to dedicate this center to the “Reunion of
the Condor and the Eagle,” because, they said, in the future the actual
fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of the formal reunion of the Condor
(Indigenous people of the South) and the Eagle (Indigenous people of the
North) would begin at that sacred site. With the guidance of the Otomi
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 15
elders, and after seven years of careful planning, more than 100,000
Indigenous people of Mexico worked for three years to complete the
Center in 1980. It is located in the mountains just outside Mexico City.
While the governments of Canada, Mexico and Dominica have indicated their
support and enthusiasm for this bold undertaking, the animating vision, as
well as thousands of hours of negotiations and support building work and the
initial cost of that work has been carried by Phil Lane Jr. and Four Worlds.
On a more personal note, Phil has a wonderful wife (Suthida), four daughters,
an infant son, and two young grandsons. His three oldest daughters are all
professional health care providers and are happily married. His youngest
daughter, Deloria Lane Many Grey Horses has already emerged at the age of
eighteen as a future Indigenous leader following in her father’s footsteps.
She is a North American Indigenous Games track and field champion,
Captain of her cross country team and is currently featured in a new film, A
Place At The Table, about transcending racism and prejudice being produced
by the South East Poverty Law Center, a group well known in North America
for its constant battle against such organizations as the Ku Klux Klan, and for
its tireless defenses of oppressed peoples. As well as receiving her father’s
hereditary lineage of leadership, Deloria, through her mother is also a direct
descendant of spiritual leaders and hereditary chiefs of the Blackfoot
Confederacy, including Many Grey Horses, Black Bear, Long Time Squirrel,
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 16
Riding at the Door,Red Crow and the great Spiritual Visionary, Seen From A
Far.
[Pause]
She was blind and yet somehow there was greatness within her.
She had made the Great Wolf see, and she brought him to his
knees, with tears in his eyes, ready to dedicate himself to helping
her find the Sacred Lake.
The two of them traveled a long time, and met many interesting
characters along the way. There was owl, who thought their
search was a foolish waste of time. He was sure the idea of some
“sacred lake” that could bring healing and renewal was nothing
but superstition. There was coyote, who sensed something of
value in the little mouse, and hoping to gain something for
himself, tried to poison her relationship with the wolf with
mistrust and lies. There were the otters, for whom comfort and
enjoyment were reasons enough to look no further in life, and to
avoid difficult challenges. And all of these for their own reasons,
tried to persuade the travelers to change their goals or to give up
their journey all together. But the little mouse and the Great Wolf
were friends now, and they did not give up. They traveled on,
believing deep in their hearts that they would find what they were
looking for.
[Pause]
Looking ahead
Phil Lane has been a midwife to the birth of dreams. For more than three
decades, he has labored unceasingly toward the fulfillment of ancient
prophesies that say that Indigenous people would experience a long
wintertime of oppression, suffering and misery. It was foretold that this dark
period would eventually be followed by a beautiful springtime of healing and
renewal. The prophesies say that not only would indigenous people recover
the spiritual and material greatness of bygone ages, but also that they would
contribute to the healing of the whole world.
“What is now needed is the sustained resources that will allow us to actually
implement this approach in partnership with Indigenous nations and the
other members of the human family. It is as though we have been preparing
a sacred feast for 30 years. Now is the time to serve this spiritual food on a
worldwide basis.”
[Pause]
The Great Wolf and his Little Mouse Sister climbed high into the
mountains, and one day, quite unexpectedly, they came upon the
most beautiful lake they had ever seen burning brilliant turquoise
in the morning sun, and they knew they had found what they
were looking for.
The Wolf began to describe the beauty of the scene to his Sister,
but she interrupted him. “I can see it with my heart,” she said.
They fell silent. Then the wolf took out tobacco and prayed to the
Four Directions thanking the Creator for bringing them to their
goal, and asking the Creator to bless and protect the Little Mouse
whom he loved.
“Little Sister,” he said to her, “we have found the Sacred Lake.
What shall we do now?” “I cannot thank you enough, she said,
but now I must ask of you a difficult thing. Leave me. The rest I
must do myself.”
And so the wolf placed his Little Sister gently at the water’s edge,
kissed her good-bye, and set out down the mountain.
The little mouse felt strangely at peace, and yet she could not
imagine what to do next. Suddenly, a voice boomed from the
sky. “Little Mouse, jump and reach for the heavens.” So she
jumped. “Jump higher,” said the voice. So she jumped again.
“Jump still higher,” the voice commanded. And she jumped again
still higher. “Little Mouse, jump as if life depended on it. Jump as
you have never jumped before. Jump and touch the sky.” And
she jumped like she had never jumped before, and she felt
herself soaring, floating dizzily, flying and swooping, and she
could see a great distance. The sun poured yellow warmth upon
the land. The Sacred Lake below shone like a jewel. And she
Laudatory: Phil Lane, Jr. 19
could see her Wolf Brother far below, making his way down the
mountain. And she heard the voice again but now like a whisper
within her.
[Pause]
We are here today to honor an Eagle among us, not only for what he has
done, but also because of the future toward which he guides us. If honoring
Phil Lane Jr. is to mean anything beyond words, then our admiration and our
respect for him must be backed up with our deeds. Indigenous nations
everywhere are awakening, and Indigenous peoples in their millions are
ready to step out of the shadow of oppression, and the grinding burden of
poverty and powerlessness that has for so long held them back. It was for
this that Phil Lane Jr. was instructed by Indigenous elders and spiritual
leaders to reach out to the world. Phil is doing his part. It now falls to us to
do ours.