Transcription of Brandy Tuttle’s talk at the Astoria Park Groundbreaking:
I want to shout out to Francine, who owns Medicine Wheel Wellness. She was our connection in meeting Paige. You know, in life, it feels like we are just, you know, all walking each other home, after all, and we interweave with one another. And it is that interweaving, that we connect and we help, and we strengthen and fortify our surroundings, our connection to all of these things, and that is a very holistic, natural approach to life. And I think the more that we lean into that the more that we are in alignment with what truly matters and what is really real.
And when Francine brought up to me, meeting Paige, as she said, about a year ago, and the idea that they wanted to have something that could connect them to the earth and the land and the Native American people. And I’m happy to be in a place where at this juncture in my life, I do a lot of ceremonies. I do a lot of healing work. I travel far and wide with that around the world, doing clearings and blessings, so on and so forth. And I take who I am, what we would call our ho chunka, that center within us, with me, as I go. And my background, my mom was four different tribes from the northwest, the Flathead, the Umatilla, the Yakiman, the Colvill tribes, but my dad raised us culturally and traditionally, Lakota/Sioux. And the Lakota were nomadic people back in the day, and now don’t travel nearly as far and wide, but that nomadic way of being is innate in this land.
And my partner, Wade LeBeau, there he is of the Shoshone people. And so last year, we started gathering some stones, some lava rocks, because that lava, it is all of those elements all into one. You know, it is a rock. It is solid now, but at one point in time it flowed. It is an aspect that brings together all of the elements that we utilize in our ceremony, so on and so forth, and our sweat lodges, you know, they come together with the power of that strength of Mahayana, Mother Earth.
And so we started gathering these stones, and we decided to create a medicine wheel right here on this property. And a year ago, when we walked around, we just felt through and allowed Spirit to guide us as to where it was going to be. And we walked the whole perimeter and thought about what this place was going to eventually be, and what we chose actually – what chose us – was a space over here, up against that, that mountain. And when we all stood there, it was very, very clear that that was where that medicine wheel would find a home.
And as we started gathering those lava rocks again, those stones, they chose us because in our cultural way of being, we believe that, you know Paige, she’s a steward of this land. We are all here just to visit. But the things that are steady, that are stable, are those elements. And so those stones chose us, and we did a few trips here and there to gather them up, and a couple weeks back, Wade and I put together, you know that medicine wheel as it stands, and we’re going to have a write up to help you understand how to utilize that space.
And we wanted it to be a cultural exchange, so that we could help you to understand our Native perspective. And maybe that would resonate somewhere inside of you as well when we stand over there and you think about where the sun rises, and especially on this very special Solstice day, the longest day of the year, where the sun rises is documented, you know, to the power of the South, where that mountain is, is documented. Over there with that medicine wheel. And over here, the Wakian Taka, to the west, is beautiful in the sunsets. And of course, over here to the north, Wajir. Waji is a spirit that brings about the purification of our lodges we oftentimes will pray to. Wajia brings that blanket of snow every year to make everything new again. It’s how you can see that the medicine wheel reaches far and wide, and the colors that represent that wheel are black to the west, red to the north, yellow to the east and white to the south.
Raised spirit above is blue, and the Mahayana Mother Earth is green. So these are the colors that represent how we think about that medicine wheel, you can kind of take that with you and think about your everyday journey.
Anytime I’m feeling drawn to a certain color, I wonder what spirit, what element is calling to me on that day, who do I serve on this day? So I was really honored that we got to gather up this morning and got to pray a little bit. We’ll have a write up to help everybody understand the best way to navigate through and be able to enjoy that space and come here and have a spot that you can connect with the people who have always been here, the ways that have always been here, help you to think a little bit deeper and stronger, and also hold the space for such a sacred area.
Because this canyon carries a lot of power. There’s no mistake how the waterways interject to one another and then flow down. No mistake. The fact that this water that is heated from Mahayana herself right here, and the way that it gathers up and her water runs to both sides of this continent from here, so the prayers, the intentions, the things that you bring forth here, be mindful of, because they’re going to come into this this waterway, come into this land, it’s going to amplify out. So to be more mindful is really the most powerful thing that we can be in our everyday life.
–Brandy Tuttle
