Book #3

Go-La'-ka_Wa-Wal-sh__Cover_for_Kindle

SYNOPSIS OF RAVEN SPEAKS

This is my third book about the culture and history of the Colville Confederated Tribes. The intent of this book is to continue publishing stories about the tribes. However, it is unique because it isn’t merely dates and a list of major events; instead it offers more of an in-depth discussion of the Indian Way. It applies the basic Indian philosophy to today’s fast moving events with an eye on how to cope with our problems. These subjects are all tied together with a summary of what Indian culture has become over many generations. It is the accumulation of thoughtful considerations on how life has evolved. Since most tribes didn’t have a written language these thoughts were handed down orally through animal stories of which the mythical Coyote was the most popular. Many Indian stories used animals to demonstrate the various concepts. Certain animals personified unique traits such as Group Spirit for the Eagle. The Eagle has become a powerful spiritual symbol for everyone in the United States.

Included are such topics as the effect of the loss of salmon on our tribal members; how Indian people are invisible but not vanishing; the forced movement to the Reservation; what it means to be the First American; Indian Self-Determination; the mysteries of the Medicine Wheel; special respect Indians have for grave sites; and various philosophical topics such as balancing your Ego; Spirit Chief and the Mind; the concept of Indian time; how to perceive the world; real meaningful education using the Indian Way; Green, the healing color; our tie to nature through the Animal World and the Indian ten commandments.

The material is presented in more of a random manner rather than in a logical text book approach. In fact, that issue is addressed in the July 15, 2014 article “Little Joe Learns another way to perceive the world”. The stories about Little Joe are the way I wound up presenting various aspects of the Indian Way. Little Joe is an Indian boy who was adopted out because his parents passed away and he had no other family. This is a typical story of many Indian families. Little Joe found out he was Indian and wanted to learn more about tribal history and culture so he came under the wing of a tribal elder he called Uncle or Twasen in the Salish language. Respected Elders in his tribe were called Aunt or Uncle. It is a continuing story with no conceivable end.

The book concludes with a little background of the author and his family.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

examples of native Americans deep respect for mother Earth and the brotherhood between all living things

Five Star rating

By ReikiFlow.net on March 11, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition

Being half Cherokee and wanting to learn the old ways of my people was difficult. I was half white and that part was not trusted. My grandmother was a healer. She brought me down from Ohio and began teaching me in spite of distrust. Two summers later when my grandmother was ill I led a healing ceremony for one of the elders. We cleared her home with sage. Turned up the heat in the potbelly stove and I bathed the old woman. While the other women sang. This was my second year of nursing school. After the ceremony the old woman continued to vomit and moan with pain. I went to my grandmother and told her the elder would die unless she went to the hospital. My grandmother explained to her people that the coyote had tricked the elder sister into eating a turtle and although the turtle was moving through easily, the shell was stuck. The white man doctor could save her. They sent an ambulance. She had pancreatitis. She lived. My training continues since 1959.
Raven Speaks Review – Five Star rating
By Yes on April 2, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
Wendell George is a Wenatchee Indian who has done the world and the future a great favor in publishing Go-La’-ka Wa-Wa-Wal-Sh (Raven Speaks). Rarely have readers been treated to such unusual and intimate insights into modern and historical American Indian issues. This work was written by a man who has lived many of the massive changes that have take place in post World War II Indian country. His insights and observations are valuable to all, especially to any non-Indian who wishes to understand a few of the many concerns that Natives are all to well aware of. His approach in using his traditional Wenatchee cultural stories in the form of a narrative dialogue is extremely effective, and the book makes compelling reading. I am a teacher and I am a non-Indian, and I found Mr. George’s work valuable to the extreme, and I highly recommend it to anyone who desire to understand som of the more significant concerns facing modern American Indians.
George is the genuine article. – Five Star rating
By Joseph L. Kunkel on April 10, 2015
format: Paperback
Raven Speaks eloquently of the strong spirit of the Native American culture. Much of the sense of the world which Natives cherish is captured in these reflections. While Native pride is evident in these vignettes on values and the complex traditions imbued within that cultural legacy, the soft and humble style with which these values are discussed and conveyed underscores the perceptive attitudes and intuition of the Native mind. Go-la’-ka Wa-Wal-sh offers a practical as well as a metaphysical perspective (predating Euro-American culture on this continent) which powerfully continues to influence contemporary society. The author whets the appetite for more works of this quality.

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