Many ask us why we do what we do?
MORING STAR
OUTREACH
Question/Answer page
02/21/99
This page we dedicate to Buddy Redbow who has traveled to the other side camp.
Many questions are being asked and this is where we hope we can answer some if not all of those questions that come in.
Many ask us why we do what we do?
Because we want to and because we need to. It is our intent to help bring about a better
balance here on the earth that we all share.
Why do you work without pay for what you do?
This question usually always makes us chuckle if not laugh, depending upon our immediate mood, we answer always with these words, it is because we answer to a greater God than ourselves and we do not believe God called us to do what we do and receive pay at the same time. We add because we got tired of giving our money to office workers when we wanted it to go for the humanitarian needs of the people.
We are asked what can we do to help right now?
We ask you to read the contacts and goals pages and start
their by doing. Please do something, share
this information with your friends on the inter net. Share this with your neighbors
next door and with your family. Pray that this continues and does not die.
How did you start doing what it is that you are
doing?
We started with our own closets and drawers and we used our money to ship the extra things we had that we did not use or need to use. We had more than we needed. WE SHARED. We took our money that was otherwise being sent to charities and we used it for the shipment expenses. We searched the cost of the postal service compared to the UPS service and we chose UPS, it was cheaper and gave us more cash flow to buy new items with. 200 pounds or more shipped same day same address gives all of us the savings of 30 cents per pound when we combine together our individual offerings which sometimes one person has ten pounds the other 15 pounds and so forth. We went to garage sales and received what was good that was not sold. We sent flyers to retailers in our area for their help. Twice a year a woman's retail clothing store owner gives to us her brand new inventory that she does not sell for the families to have.
We are asked how did you get going so big?
We say what is big? We have goals, and we hope they will be reached. How are we at the level that we are at we say? We prayed and we prayed for divine guidance to do what we do. We were led to start taking out newspaper advertisement while we lived in New York, and we mean a small town in good country near the Tonawanda Reserve New York, not a city. We asked people to help us with what we were doing. Many wanted to help so they called us and asked us to come and get what they had to offer. We found that many wanted to help with their extras but few wanted to part with their money to help ship. So we rented a storage unit and while we collected things we also shipped what we could each paycheck. We needed to raise money. So we went to some art shows held with Native Artist as the vendors and invited them to sell at our art shows if we had them, we were then given full use of the space of one of our malls back home plus the use of a country club without rental cost back home (home to us has been NY) and we held three art shows with the Native artist from our area and also to our surprise, word began to spread and other artist came in from out of state. Our vendor application asked each vendor to share only a 10% of their sales with us and pay no table space rent. Each vendor knew we were raising money to ship clothing and blankets to the Pine Ridge and the Rose Bud. Many elders in the NY region did not know that their brothers and sisters of the Lakota were still suffering. Many do not know this and we are here to tell you this is going on.
What else did you do to raise fundings to ship the
provisions?
Dawn went public with her spiritual teaching skills and she raised funding and awareness too in that method.
We arranged a Comedy Night Out Fund raiser which was also held at the country club. Several local comedians joined us with no charge to entertain the audience and we had belly dancers perform. Dawn got to hostess this event and finally got to show her heyoka side to the public. We charged $5.00 at the door and a request for winter clothing or blanket for us to ship. Food was sold, local retailers donated door prices we raffled off and all proceeds went to the shipment funding we needed.
We have always kept our jobs and our income coming in and more and more people were learning of what we were doing and were helping because of the method we used to do this.
We are asked how did you decide to start doing
this?
How did you know about the reservations in South and North Dakota if you are from New York?
Well the story could be long or it could be short, but the story is true and sacred to us, for that is when we began. We had been given a motel management job in Rapid City, South Dakota in 1992. We were not on sight only three weeks, when in came through the door a great great grandchild of Red Cloud, he wanted a room for an indefinite period of time he said. Dawn chose the best suitable room available for one who was staying for this long. It is Dawn's custom to roll out the carpet when she can. When he paid his room for one month in advance, he stated to Dawn, "We heard you were coming, are you ready to learn?" Dawn was the more spiritual knowledgeable one of the two of us at the time. Well she darn near fainted on the floor.
And indeed told him to go to his room until she could gain her stance without shaking.. she still laughs about this. Blow me over with a feather is her comment. And the gull of ordering someone to go to their room who had just checked in. Six rooms were rented by the Oglala man and his friends for the eight months we managed the motel. We believe they learned more about us than we did of them. But what we learned was the conditions that the children and elders were living in. It can not be ignored and something, big or small had to be done. For indeed when children and elders have no mattresses to sleep on and are sleeping on the floors, tears are readily falling from your eyes. We learned that help was needed for the flesh for the people. The spiritual needs are not what help is needed for. It is the flesh we are focusing on here with our work we ask you to help with. The people we meet and know have a greater spiritual aspect than anyone we have met yet. We do what we do because we love our teachers who taught us to see what is going on in the USA.
Dawn has been called Earth Woman ever since she can remember, it was a tag given to her from childhood. We are not of tribal inheritance. We have Seneca great great grandparents, but we were raised in the white culture world. Dawn had a vision in 1986 and this is what the vision was about, at least a part of that vision is.
We do what we do, because we were there with one of our teachers when he passed to the other side and we offered him this work before he left. He watches us and visits us often in the spirit. Many know him. We were honored to know him too. Buddy Redbow was his earth name.
We hope we have answered some of your questions and if you have more, an e-mail with your question will give you our answer. Please feel free to contact us for this or any other directive questions you may have.