William Wallshleger
RCI-174123
!8701 Roxbury Road
Hagestown, Md, 21746
The Popping Trees Moon Jan. 9, 2008
Wolakota Peg,
I send you greetings in the name of the Great Spirit and send smoke sky wards that you Lodge and Council Fires are burning Strong and Bright.
To share a little bit about myself. I started down the Red Road, back in the late 1980s. Prior to that I had always been heavily involved in the Episcopal Church. But I never learned how to live in harmony within the Web of Life. It is sad to say I had an "us vs. them" attitude about everything. In fact I was working as the chaplain's clerk at the Maryland Penitentiary in 88, when a friend asked me to help him get a Native American Religious Group started. I did all the paper work and after a 6-month plus battle with DOC, he finally got approval. I was invited to the service, and found it interesting. About a month after that they got in a Medicine Man and Sun Dancer, Grandfather Henry Niese. Now I learned about the Sacred Pipe and Mitakuye Oyasin. Grandfather follows and teaches a Lakota spiritual way. He has also written a book that was published about 6 or 7 years ago. Since that lesson was driven home to me with a 2 by 4 so to speak, I have been faithful to following this way of liFe. Mitakuye Oyasin.
In 1996 I became the Pipe Keeper for the Redstone Buffalo Society at MCI-J, and Grandfather Henry gave me my own Sacred Working Pipe two years later.
In January 2002 I was transferred to RCI, up here in Hagerstown. About that time DOC outlawed tobacco within their prison system, but we could keep our Pipes and still use tobacco, but only in the Pipe Ceremony. About 2 years later RCI made us send home all of our Personal Sacred Pipes, I cried when I had to send mine out, it was like loosing a child. In fact it still bothers me today.
Two years ago our 'Rainbow Hoop' split up and we now have two groups with the other being a Lakota (Redstone Society). Grandfather Henry gave us a wonderful "T" Sacred Pipe and it is a blessing. It never wants to go out. © This past fall when our Pipe Carrier went home, the Pipe was passed on to me to care for it.
I don't know what it is like up in your woods, but over here on the East Coast it is either really cold in the high 20s, that is cold for us, but when ever it rains we seem to get it in the mid 30s or 40s. So even though we have had a lot of rain around here and the grass is a lush green even though it isn't growing we have had NO snow.
Since I don't have to shovel it or drive in it, I miss it. This week is a good example, for 5 days it was 32 or below with a good Northwest wind blowing, today we will get about an inch of rain, been raining steadily since o'dark hundred this morning, and it is 34° outside. The local news claims that it will stop raining late this afternoon, and then it will get down to freezing again. I want my snow.
What we did for the Winter Solstice and Christmas in here was sew Popcorn on a thread and then string it on a Cedar Tree by the chapel on the Winter Solstice (Dec. 22), as a gift for the winged ones. I have sock with Al, my cell buddy, and my names on it and they siie nung from the bedposts. As the days marched on I keep adding things to his, small packs of cookies, hard candy, Debbie's, oranges, etc.). I also made a chocker for Two Dog and did some bead work for the other brothers.
Since I work as the Housing Unit Clerk, I have access to a computer (Dell with Window's 2000) and a HP laser jet printer (no color) and the only thing my computer is hooked to, is my desk and the electrical plug. In other words no Internet access or e-mails. I do have 4 card games (FreeCell, Spider, Solitaire, & Harts) and Pinball. I play the first 2 card games all the time.
Well that is about all the news from our side of the fire, so be good and take care of yourself and may Wakan Tanka bless you, and yours.
