Sacred Hoop


It was with deep sadness that I learnt of Ed McGaa’s passing. And of Chuck Derby Running Elk, leader of the Sisseton Dakota Sioux, who passed several years ago now, but he is only a breath of sage away. They were good friends. And they both, with great wisdom and limitless compassion, held a pivotal role in my life. I was, and am, a washichu, a white woman learning Native American spirituality and walking that Red Road, the best way I can. And I have been so blessed in being gifted the best teachers, wise men, who taught with true humility and with ancient wisdom within their hearts. I met Ed McGaa Eagle Man first, here in Britain. He called us all - all the people who worked with him, wherever we met him - ‘the rainbow tribe,’ and he welcomed us and taught us. I owe so much to Eagle Man. He gave me my Lakota name in ceremony, and I had lucid dreams about him before we ever met physically. He honoured those dreams in circle, with drum and chant, and that is an enduring memory. Ed had a dry, gentle sense of humour, which would leave us in stitches. He loved our, sometimes crazy, British place names, and because he thought them so weird, he would indulge in wordplay that got crazier by the minute. He was also half-Scottish and would sometimes spend lunch breaks with his head inside books about Celtic traditions. We got on well, as I am half Scots too, from the Harper clan in Stirlingshire.

Ed met with some resistance from some traditional Oglala, because he clearly saw, and believed utterly in the vision of the Oglala holy man Nicholas Black Elk, of ‘Black Elk Speaks’ fame. Nicholas Black Elk saw the great ‘Flowering Tree’ - the ‘rainbow tree’ - the resurgence of his people’s spirituality, which was so under attack by the ‘men in blue’ at that time. He saw further than anyone, visioning that people of all colours, all races, would meet under that Flowering Tree to learn the old wisdom again.


I was an art teacher in a Middle School on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England. Both of those facts were pivotal, as art - being a Cinderella subject - did not get inspected very much; and being a middle school, the children were young enough to not be under exam pressure. When Native American culture came into the National Curriculum, it was my green light. We got together with a wilderness skills expert and started a project we called ‘Little Turtle Island.’ It began with just a few children, but eventually built to 33 children, each of whom learned ancient wilderness skills and spirituality together. We held a camp each year for the four years; and in the fourth year, we held a ‘rites of passage’ ceremony with four of the children. Chuck Derby came over from Pipestone to Britain to teach them. Chuck came from the town of Pipestone, Minnesota, home to the quarry where the red stone for sacred pipe bowls comes from. He was a wonderful man, and he will always be remembered. Sweat lodges and vision quests happened during that forth year, and I think, all in all, it changed the lives of many of the children who participated. We are still friends, many of those children and I, we are still in touch, although they are parents with children of their own now. As a sign of the lasting legacy of those times, the Isle of Wight is known as ‘Little Turtle Island’ with some of the Sisseton Dakota Sioux!

Chuck and his wife Gloria were always at the end of the phone, and his first ever journey away from his reservation was to visit the Isle of Wight, to marry Gloria, at The Longstone - an ancient monument on the island. It was a marriage ‘under the blanket’ [a traditional Native American marriage], mixed with a Celtic handfasting.

I don’t think I have ever witnessed more people gathered in one huge circle, as we did that sunny day. Chuck made a precious gift to me, for organising it all, a stunning piece of pipestone. That, and the making of my sacred pipe, my Channupa, changed my life in so many ways.

A TRIBUTE TO CHUCK DERBY RUNNING ELK

& ED McGAA EAGLE MAN