Greetings! This week's article topic is about the suffering of our Native sisters. I have an early memory that never left me. I must have been ten or eleven, coming out of a grocery store with my grandmother when in the parking lot I saw a Native sister, staggering drunk, alone. She gave up trying to walk and in slow motion made her way to the ground and then urinated. I watched in shock as her pants became wet and then the urine started to make the ground wet around her. Grandma grabbed my arm and we rushed to our car and left. It was early afternoon on a hot summer's day with many people about. We all left her there. I felt so sad for the woman and I never forgot that.

Forty years later, just last week in fact, at a Prayer Circle for Idle No More in Seattle I saw another Native sister staggering drunk, alone. She was angry and started clumsily swinging at anyone trying to help her. She settled onto a bench and cried during the prayers. I cried with her. I prayed with her. Awhile later, paramedics were called as it was announced someone had fallen over by the pier. It was her. She was lucky that hundreds were around to give her aide. I know that in too many cases where our sisters are alone and in this condition the unimaginable happens. Now I have the power to help.

Here's the latest article from the Native American site at BellaOnline.com.

VAWA - Republicans Fail the Daughters of the Earth
Native American women suffer some of the highest rates of emotional turmoil and are among the least cared for in this nation. Congressional failure can be seen as the beginning of a spiritual battle for the first American women.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art47984.asp

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Pass this message along to family and friends, because we all can pray for a better world!

Love & Light

Jacqueline Olivia Pina, Native American Editor
http://nativeamerican.bellaonline.com

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