So the invitation was before me to attend my first Inipi Ceremony (sweat lodge). "What am I supposed to bring?" I live in Wisconsin and it's the dead of winter, 20 degrees below 0 windchill. "Bring your swimming suit and a towel." OK? At that time Sandy and CJ Doxtater lived in a farm house outside of Black Creek, Wisconsin. The beginning gatherings were very small. Sometimes it was just me, Sandy and CJ. Sometimes we were joined by CJ's brother and later others would join the hearty Wisconsin band.
CJ couldn't keep a beat on the drum and couldn't carry a tune. Sandy was a classically trained European descendent who sang like an opera singer. I knew nothing. BUT, the songs were belted out with the gusto of a drunk polka band from Polaski. The words were in the Lakota language and our pronunciation would have made any Souix roll over in his respective Teepee. What the little group had was heart and spirit. "Wiyokpayata Kaya!" we would sing, inviting the spirits from the various directions to join us. I'm sure the Lakota spirits woke from their respective directional abodes wondering what the hell the sound was. But they must have come because these were some of the best lodges that I remember.
CJ was under the tutelage of Basil Braveheart from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He would traverse to the Black Hills region often to bring back the new (ancient) teachings to the rest of us newbes gathered in the circle.
Dedication: CJ Doxtater, BJ Blackwolf Jones, Mildred Tinker Schuman, Vern American Horse, Richie Plass, John Cappert, Nikki Cappert.
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