Right Relationships
By Jack Seileman
In July of 1981 I traveled to Montana with my friend Ellie Rapp. In Helena I met a friend of hers named Ron West. We had
some strong common interests and quickly became friends. He invited me to travel with him to Northwestern Montana to see
the land and to meet his adopted father, Floyd Riden, a Blackfeet Elder. Ron and I drove north from Helena along the eastern
edge of the Rocky Mountains where the mountains meet the prairie. This is known locally as the Front Range. I found myself
quickly and completely in love with that land. The strength of the mountains and the spaciousness of the prairie
touched me deeply.
We met the Ridens at their summer home south of Browning and north of East Glacier. It was just a little east of Glacier
National Park, close to Two Medicine River. Their primary residence was in Browning where the Blackfeet have their tribal
headquarters. Floyd and his extended family were friendly and gracious. The people were preparing for a traditional form of
celebration that they would host on their land. The men were constructing a large wooden arbor-type structure for the
gathering. There was a strong sense of anticipation in the clear Montana air.
I realized, soon after arriving in this land we call Montana, that summers are a very dynamic time. After winters that are often
long, cold and snowy, and the seasonal round brings warming weather again, everyone (plants, animals, humans) “goes for the
gusto.” It is a time of intense growth and activity throughout nature.
We camped out in Floyd’s yard for a couple of days and had a fine time. I walked the land and slowed down so that I could
become more intimate with the interface of mountains and prairie. We also took a drive through spectacular country on the
“Going to the Sun” highway in Glacier Park. Ron needed to return to Helena to take care of some business. He offered me the
opportunity to stay in his tepee on Floyd’s land for a week or so. I pondered the situation for a couple of seconds before saying
OK! We chose a spot near the western bank of Two Medicine River. The eastern boundary of Glacier National Park was about
½ mile west of my camp. The time that I spent in that round structure, with that immensely beautiful and powerful land is one
of the most magical and empowering experiences of my life.
In nature the movement of energy is often in circles and spirals. From the human body with its Chakra system of circular
energy vortexes that are connected by spirals of electromagnetic energy, to the awesome circular and spiraling body of a tornado
or a hurricane; from the seasonal round, to the path of our parent/planet around our sun. My Tepee time, circle time, this living
in roundness was a catalyst for bringing me into a more spacious posture. I was more connected and congruent with the circle
of myself. Each of us humans has our own resonance, our own song that is sung by our body, mind, heart, and soul. For all of
us there are places on the earth that we resonate harmoniously with and that can bring us home to the spacious and permeable
membraned beings that we really are. In these personal places of power our songlines extend to the center of the earth and to
the farthest star.
Living in a tepee, about 200 yards from me, were John and Mary Mayrbat, friends of Ron’s. John and Mary had been camped
there since the previous fall living in a tepee through a Montana winter. I was duly impressed. My life became blessedly simple
including my diet, which was almost exclusively peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Most afternoons I would walk up into the
woods leaving reservation land, following an old fire trail into Glacier Park.
Often during these walks the fact that I was in grizzly bear country came more prominently into my consciousness. I had long
been aware that Montana was one of the few places in the lower forty-eight states where grizzly bears still roam. It was one of
the primary reasons that I was drawn to Montana. The great bear has lived in my psyche for a long time - life times if the truth
were known. Down where the tepee stood the land was fairly open and I would likely see a large animal at a fair distance. In
the woods the trees and undergrowth afforded many places of concealment and also fuel for my imagination. There were times
while walking when I became fearful of the bears but these were usually short-lived.
I was starting to become aware of the “medicine” that the grizzly was offering me. The fact that I was in the home of a large
fellow animal that was capable of killing and eating me was affecting me deeply. During my time at Two Medicine in general,
and during my walks in particular, I was more connected with my animal self. My brain was sending my sense organs a clear
message “be alert!” My eyes saw more movement; my ears heard more sounds. A Jay moving in a bush quickly had my
complete attention. I was more present in my body and felt more deeply alive. What a wonderful gift the great bear was giving
me.
I believe that one of the primary delusions of civilized people is that we “can get away with” not being present. It seems that the
consequences for humans of not being present have always been basically the same - it kills us! Ten thousand years ago it was
most often a quick physical death, predominately now it is a slow spiritual death.
Ron returned from Helena toward the end of the week. We stayed together in the tepee for several days, and had good times
with John and Mary. Early one morning Ron walked up to John and me and told us that he had just seen some fresh grizzly
signs about 100 yards down stream. He felt that it was probably from a large male. Needless to say, this was exciting news.
That afternoon, having had a few hours to contemplate the possibility of being in close proximity to a 600 or 700 pound
carnivore, I thought about taking my walk along the fire trail. I was feeling more fearful about the bears. I found myself
asking Ron if I could barrow his 12 gauge, double barrel, sawed off shotgun. I had been a hunter until I was 26 and
knew how to handle guns. Within a few minutes of being out on the trail I knew that I was feeling more fearful and
vulnerable with a gun then without it. The experience of carrying a gun again for the first time in 10 years had proven to be an
important watershed where a strong current had carried me into a deepening, more intimate experience of right relationships. I
was carrying the gun to protect myself from the grizzly or maybe more accurately from my own fears and the plan was
backfiring. I realized clearly that the only way I could receive – take in – the “strong medicine” of this animal was to be with the
great bear on a “level playing field,” this meant being empty handed – no gun. When I carried the gun it changed my whole
relationship with the bear. The weapon cast a cloud of self-doubt over my integrity with my real-self and with the real-bear. As
long as I held the gun I would be separated from my center and from a clear clean experience of the foundational relationship
between the grizzly and me.
On the same little “jaunt in the woods,” I realized for probably the first time, the difference between being fearful and being
afraid. Every time that I experienced fear, I was either in the past or the future. When I would breathe and center myself and
be present, I was fine, fear could not join me there. When I am in the moment, I can be afraid but not fearful. Reintroducing
grizzlies across our country and taking away our weapons could be extraordinary “medicine.” It would have the potential to
reconnect us with respect and humility in our relationship with nature, an ancient ancestral posture that we have allowed to
atrophy at our great peril.
In August of 1991, a decade after the Montana trip, I spent three weeks in Alaska. I traveled there at the invitation of my
friend Jim Hunter who lived in Fairbanks with his wife Marilyn. What had drawn Jim and I together was our mutual interest in
minerals and quartz in particular. He had a mining claim near Wiseman Alaska, an old (and still thriving) gold mining town. It is
located about 300 miles north of Fairbanks and 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It is in the southern foothills of the Brooks
Mountain Range. Jim’s claim bordered the Gates of the Arctic National Park.
My spiritual path through the 80s had taken me into the life-ways of traditional native peoples around the world and those of
North America in particular. I had begun to incorporate into my life some of these ways, postures, and practices that human
beings have been doing for millennia all over the earth. They are universal and foundational and work well in helping people to
experience “right relationships” with themselves and others (human and non-human).
Our hosts in Wiseman were Roy and Ellen Philpot; friends of Jim’s who lived most of the year in Fairbanks and spent summers
in the north. Their home had been originally built to house workers on the
Alaska Pipeline, about 10-15 miles to the east. Shortly after our evening arrival, I went outside (it was 10:30 at night and still
light) and walked off into the bushes to “make medicine” with the grizzly. I put on a pendant/talisman a medicine piece
consisting of a grizzly bear claw (from a bear that was road-killed in Montana in 1930) and a Montana Agate cabochon set in
silver and gold. Having part of a grizzly’s body on my body would help me to both honor and connect with the bear on a
foundational level of being. I sat down on the earth and got comfortable. I began to center myself by focusing on my breath.
When I felt present and relaxed I said (out loud) an invocation/evocation/affirmation that I use to start ritual:
I sit at the center of the world circle
And I make my medicine
And I know that it is strong medicine
Gentle medicine, humble medicine,
heart medicine
Because I dance with you my world
To you, from you, with you, for you
To all beings, from all beings,
with all beings
For all beings
Do I make my medicine
I then began to talk (out loud) to the bear(s). I spoke from a place of love and respect, of heart, of deep feeling. I told the
grizzly, this brother/sister animal, that I was very grateful to be there with it in it’s home. I said that my posture was one of love
and respect and my intention was to learn from the bear more and more of how to be in this world. I told the grizzly that I
wanted to be with and mirror some of its attributes in myself: strength, intelligence, and wisdom. I wanted to always know my
connection with the earth and to have much knowledge of herbs and other plants. I wanted to be still, to go within myself and
give birth to good things like baby bears. I brought the medicine back around by reiterating my love and respect for the
bear and sent out a prayer for the health and well being of all grizzlies.
Shortly after rejoining my new friends, Roy shared with us a recent experience of one of their neighbors. The previous morning
the man heard a commotion in the woods about two hundred yards away. A female moose ran into the open followed by a
young moose which was being very closely pursued by an adult grizzly who was in turn being followed by a young grizzly. The
four animals raced across the meadow and then back into the woods. It must have been a riveting sight! Jim and I planned to
get up at 4 AM and hike the five miles to his mining claim. Roy told Jim that he had a 44 Magnum pistol if he wanted to borrow
it.
Jim said that he would sleep on the offer. I knew that while he had never carried a firearm in his 20 years in Alaska he had been
a bit unsettled by the moose and bear story.
4 AM arrived much too soon. Jim surprised me by accepting Roy’s offer of the gun. We stepped out into just enough light to
see where we were walking. Our path to the claim took us through the edge of the woods and then out onto the open tundra.
Here the largest trees were an occasional blue spruce about 6-8 feet tall and up to 150 years old. Their growth is stunted by the
perma frost which is only 2-3 feet below the surface. As we walked by one of these trees we noticed some long, coarse brown
hairs on it at a height of about 5 feet. The diameter of the tree was 2-3 inches and we decided it was probably the world’s
smallest grizzly bear back-scratching tree.
As we proceeded toward the mine, the day fully dawned and the beauty, immensity and utter wildness of the land came into me.
The realization also floated in that if we did encounter an aggressive bear there were no trees to climb. This thought came and
went quickly without any fear attached to it. The “medicine” that I made with the bear was serving me well. “Making
medicine” for me is communicating with the bear on a foundational level of being, on a soul level. I know that human beings
have innate access to clear, clean lines of communication with other species. We ”hook up to Indra’s Net” with our love and
respect and intention. Indra’s Net is a foundational spiritual truth that comes to us from Hindu cosmology. This “net” is like a
spiritual spider web woven by God and connects all her children.
The essence of “medicine” is coming home into a whole, present, and foundational posture of love and respect for ourselves and
for other-as-self. In this place, all hearts are one. This knowing radiates out from our center and can dispel any negativity,
including fear.
My time in Alaska was a rich kaleidoscope of experience; the ethereal beauty of blue glaciers and the electrical aliveness of red
salmon are indelible memories. On the out skirts of Anchorage I stood still in the bushes while a thousand pound moose
browsed fifty feet away. The grand finale occurred in Denali National Park. Cresting a ridge, my attention was drawn as if by a
magnet to three brown shapes about 200 yards away. A jolt of adrenaline born of a bear shot through my body as I watched a
mother grizzly and her two cubs forage on a colorful, vibrant hillside. I knew viscerally the power with which this animal
walks the human body and psyche.