Wisdom from Jace

How to Wake Up in the Morning with Jace DeCory Every morning, I guess I greet the universe, like I've been taught from my grandparents, that each day is a blessing, so when you wake up in the morning, you acknowledge it as your relative. And so that's what I do every morning. That's my prayers and my meditation and my thankfulness for being here on Mother Earth.

The Gifts of Mitakuye Oyasin - Jace DeCory - Professional Development Many of our people have plants that are gifts that are given to them from the Creator. And so those plants, I think it's important for our young people to know which plants might help them and which can be used even in our daily life to make teas and so forth. So plants are medicine and plants are gifts. Now I mentioned before that we talk about nations, the Oyate nation. The plants are a nation as well, the plant nation. The plant that I use a lot, and a lot of the plants that we use in our ceremonies are all available in the Black Hills. They're all around us. And Grandpa Fools Crow back in 1980, he asked me if I would, he knows that, well, he knew lots of things, but he knew that one of the things that I have, I love plants and I'm still learning about them, but he asked me if I would pick up elk medicine for him, Pejuta Haka. I can only think of a lot of other words. A bergamot, bee balm. It's wild bergamot. It's like a purple flower on the top and it grows all over the Black Hills area. Well, Grandpa Fools Crow asked me back in 1980 to pick that plant. Would you bring me some Takoja, grandchild? And I said, sure, I'll get you some grandpa. And so when it comes out, then it usually comes, blossoms in June, July, around that time, depending on the water, how much water we've had, rainfall. Anyway, the first time that I got it for him was in 1980 and I brought it to him and, and I took it to him and to his house in Kyle. And I said, Grandpa, I brought you, I was all happy I brought his, his elk medicine. He called it elk medicine. That's how he used it. But I brought that to him and he was really thrilled. And so he said, this is going to be your job now, Takoja. You bring that every year to Sundance. You're going to bring that. I said, okay, I will. And then he said, this first year, what I want you to do is I want you to make tea for the singers at Sundance. You make them tea and you make it out of that. And he showed me how to do it. Took me in the kitchen and he said, this is how much you use. And he prayed with me on that. So I said, okay, I'll do that. So I did the first Sundance in Kyle there. And he said, every Sundance that you can every year, cause I know that you, this is your way. This is your belief that you do that. You make this medicine for the singers. So I've been making this tea, bergamot tea every year since 1980 for whatever Sundance I happen to go to that year. Grandpa taught us also that just to, we pick one Sundance to pray at, and that's the one that we go to every year. So I went to see him while he was still alive. And then when he passed away in the late 1980s, I went to one that my uncle, Jimmy DeBray ran for a while. And then I went to another one that his son, Steve DeBray ran for a while after his dad died, my uncle died. And then for some reason, my husband said, JC, we have to go back to your relatives at Standing Rock. He said, I feel that we have to go back there and pray with your relatives there. And so we did. We went to one of my uncles who has, it's referred to as a Sitting Bull Sundance. And so we went back to be with my Sitting Bull relatives. And we've been there since the early 90s. We've gone back to that Sundance. But I continue to make, and I told my uncles and my relatives what grandpa had me do with the Sundance. He said, you continue doing that here. So I've been making tea for the singers up there since I moved back there. But, you know, I take that as a big responsibility, but I also understand that, you know, the singers have to have strong voices and they have to, you know, so when you're making it, you're not just making tea, you know, you're praying about it and you're acknowledging that if they sing strong, then the dancers will sing, they'll dance strong. So everything is interconnected. Everything that we do is interconnected. From getting the plants in the Black Hills to taking them up to Standing Rock, you know, that's to that ceremony. Coming back after that ceremony and going to Bear Butte, giving thanks for a good Sundance. And later on, a month later, going up to acknowledge where we had our first Sundances at Mato Tpilala, Bear Lodge. That's where our great nation used to have one huge Sundance at Bear Lodge. Now there's Sundances at Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Rosebud, all over. But the idea is still there that we pray so that the people may live. The plants give their lives so that the people may live. Yeah, it is all interconnected and we are all related. You know, we use a term, miitakuyé oyasi. We are all related. We're all relatives. We are at one with one another because we're relatives, our two-leggeds and all those around us. Well, those two words are so powerful because they really embody the philosophy of the Lakota people, that we are all related.

Love is My Job on Earth with Jace DeCory That's I think that's part of my job on earth. I think Tukashula grandfather Grandfather God gave me that I guess charge to remind people to Love the land and love the earth and love the plants and all that grows on it all of us Because we're all related all of us are related.

Walking in WoLakota - Jace DeCory - Storytelling There's a Lakota word for being at peace, being in balance with the world around you, and it is Wolakota. And I think that well, anyway, that is the way that I try to live my life: Wolakota, in Wolakota, in peace, in harmony, in balance, and it's a philosophy, it's a way of life, it's a way of believing that everything that you do every day, when you walk on earth, you try to live in balance with whatever you have, whatever task you have at hand. When I was thinking about this today, the first thing I think of is smudging off with sage and sweetgrass. I think of putting out tobacco so that I say the right words. I think of the future generations that might see this, because it's going to be forever unless it gets burned up or whatever. But the idea is that being in Wolakota, being in balance. I think that really ties into being resilient as well, knowing that there are all kinds of things that are going to be put before you in your life. There's going to be all kinds of trials and tribulations, problems, issues, but if you keep in your mind that you're not alone and that there are resources to help you people, and then you're never alone because you have your spirit within you to help you, and so always think about maintaining wellness in your life. And I'm glad that we have people, we have wellness majors at Black Hills State. I think that's just cool that they major in being well, but they're talking about being physically fit and mentally. You know all these things. Oftentimes I'm asked to speak to the stress management class for the wellness majors, and so I will go in there and I will smudge them off. And first of all, they're saying this is stressful because I don't know what I'm doing, you know, but I explain the procedure. This is part of a way of thinking and believing and being well. And then, you know, talk about some of the things that help me to stay well: my prayers, certainly, but also in my interactions with people. My grandmother used to always say: try to affect one person every day of your life, whoever that is. It can be your children, it can be an associate, it can be somebody on the street, maybe somebody's having a hard time. They've fallen and they can't get up and you know you will affect that person that day. Do not walk past them if you, you know, help them. And so she said in your mind: keep that idea of consciously helping one person, do something good for one person every day of your life, and so that way you look outside of yourself, not just be selfish. And so I think our wellness majors and I think our native people, our Lakota people, I think they understand that we have to do certain things and stay away from certain things to be well. One is alcohol and drugs. We can't do those things and be well. And many of us realize that. I quit smoking after many years of killing myself with smoke in my lungs. But I did that with prayer and I did that with the help of a medicine woman who also was smoking. And we both made a pact to quit. And we did quit together. But through prayer and through that connection to the spirits and understanding that some things are more powerful than me, nicotine, that I had to seek help to help with that. Back in the day we had individuals who were specialists that dealt with certain kinds of issues. We had our medicine people that did our herbal medicines and even those they had specialists in there. We had our bear dreamers. They dreamed of the bear and they were astute healers, wonderful healers. They had a vast array of knowledge of herbs, herbal remedies. They had a whole bunch of medicines that they knew that they could call upon to help the people. And so we had those specialists. Well now we have other medicine people. We have people that heal and doctor. So we still have those today. We have Rick Two Dogs and Wilmer Mesteth and Steve DuBray and all different ones. And some of our spiritual leaders who are so humble that really don't want to be called spiritual leaders, but like a relative of Duane Hollow Horn Bear, Albert White Hat. He's a wonderful role model. And we have Marcella LeBeau. Do we have these people here today with us, but we need to talk to them and see how well you stay well? And try to get their feelings of how their philosophy essentially is what it is. And I made contact with those elders. I consciously do that to be well. That's what helps me be well, by staying close to the elders. But on the other hand, also what helps me be well is by going every now and again to an elementary classroom and talking to little kids. They help me be well as well. Because they ask the craziest questions and make me think. And I enjoy going and talking to them so that I can understand that. It really humbles me that you think you have all this knowledge, Jace, and those little kids ask me something. Oh dear, I don't know. I'll come back and if I find the answer, I'll come back and tell you. I'll share that with you. So the young and the old and all of us in between and some of us that are training to be elders, I think that the idea of a way of life and understanding that we're only on this earth for a limited amount of time. So use that time in a good way so that you can go on to the next life with a clean heart and also a clean name so that you don't tarnish it and you can be happy and look back. Like I know Fool's Crow is. I'm sure he's looking back on some of the people that he's helped. And he's happy, I think. And he still helps us. So... I go on. I hope so. I hope I will.