============================================================
Create an unforgettable personal or business image with 250
FREE business cards - an $85.00 value! Dazzle your business
clients or impress your friends. Pay only for shipping!
Claim this unique FREE gift now.
http://click.topica.com/caaad68b1ddNBb2HgmNa/Vistaprint
============================================================


Minneapolis, MN      November 14, 2001

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Rosy Simas nnic.com
612/721-6631ext 219
612/385-6631
Further information available at http://www.nativeview.com
Photo available upon request or online at http://www.nativeview.com

REVERED AMERICAN INDIAN SPIRITUAL LEADER PORKY WHITE DIES

Walter White, known to thousands by his Ojibwe names Gay gway da
kamigishkang (Prancing Horse) and Gahgoonse (Porky or Little Porcupine)
died peacefully on November 13, 2001.
He was born at Federal Dam, Minnesota on October 18, 1919, the youngest son
of Jenny and George White. As a boy of five, he accompanied his mother to
her sugar bush stand at Sugar Point on the Leech Lake Reservation in
Minnesota. He learned the complex process of making sugar from the sap of
maple trees, and he practiced this skill in an annual camp located at Lake
Independence, Minnesota from 1976 to 2001. His wife Deb ably assisted him
in these camps as did his camp co-director, the late Madeline Moose of East
Lake, Mille Lacs, Minnesota.
His keen sense of timing and solid understanding of the sugaring process is
documented in the book Ininatig�s Gift of Sugar, Traditional Native
Sugarmaking (Lerner, 1993). (The book is available from Amazon.)
Porky won several Golden Gloves titles including 1937 Lightweight, 1938 and
1939 Junior Welterweight and the 1943 National Championship while in the
U.S. Army. He joined in 1941 and served in the famous Tenth Mountain
Division Ski troops and Engineers. Although highly trained, he was not
shipped overseas for combat duty.
His abilities extended to traditional pow wow dancing and even film roles.
He sang and danced in pow wows across the United States and in Canada. His
film credits include �Roanoke,� 1986 for PBS and other video and audio
productions.
For many years, Porky guided hunting and fishing parties who came to the
north Minnesota woods for its rich game reserves. His expertise, unfailing
hunting eye and knowledge of the backwoods helped spread his fame far and
wide as an outstanding expert of the outdoors.
In 1975 he left for St. Paul, Minnesota and a brand new school called the
Red School House, an alternative program for American Indian students. The
multi-talented Porky taught language, culture, instituted his famous sugar
bush as well as rice, fish, and berry camps to teach his young students the
traditional life of the Anishinabe people. From that point on, as he moved
from Red School House out into a greater teaching circle, Porky�s life was
willingly given over to his people.
As word of his spiritual counseling and cultural knowledge grew, thousands
came from all over the country to learn or gain insight. He married
couples, named children and adults, and conducted sweat lodges, funerals,
and pipe ceremonies, all while continuing to teach safe hunting, crafts,
and how to prepare natural foods for preservation and use animal hides for
clothing and implements.
His genius for all things connected to the outdoors and his broad smile
endeared him to all those in his proximity. To many, he was perhaps best
known for his lectures on Anishinabe life. In a quiet and determined manner
he laid out the form and substance that has held the Anishinabe people
together so strongly over the centuries that have included wars,
starvation, and violent contact with Europeans.
He had struggled with the effects of diabetes for several years. At age 82,
he could look back on a full life, fully lived. Only last Saturday, he
traveled north for a day of hunting.
Porky directed that he have a handcrafted coffin when he was ready for his
journey. He asked that his bed be turned west, the direction to which he
would go when his journey time came. Friends and family were at his side.
A funeral ceremony will be held at Cass Lake Veteran�s Hall on Saturday,
November 17th, 2001 at 9:00 am with burial at the Battle Point Cemetery,
Sugar Point, Leech Lake Reservation.




--




Best wishes,

Laura Waterman Wittstock
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Minneapolis, MN


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Links to Community Technology Consortium member sites and information:


http://migizi.org

http://somalicmn.org

http://naes.edu

http://www.aapress.com

http://www.aioic.org

http://www.voamn.org

http://centerschool.org

============================================================
Upgrade your server! Get VeriSign's FREE guide, "Securing 
Your Web Site for Business" for everything you need to know 
about using 128-bit SSL to encrypt your e-commerce 
transactions online security. Click here!  
http://click.topica.com/caaad8eb1ddNBb2HgmNf/VeriSign
============================================================

Visit and show your support for the Grass Roots Oyate
http://members.tripod.com/GrassRootsOyate

Clemency for Leonard Peltier. Sign the Petition.
http://petitiononline.com/Release/petition.html

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: [email protected]

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1ddNB.b2HgmN
Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================

Reply via email to