Church of the Earth

06/09/2026

People ask sometimes why Native Americans receive "benefits" that would be considered discriminatory if offered to any other group. Healthcare, housing, education. On the surface, if you don't know the history, it can look like a racial preference...the kind of thing the law prohibits everywhere else. I get why it looks that way. But that framing is missing something REALLY fundamental.

These aren't programs some sympathetic Congress dreamed up to give one group a leg up. They are NOT diversity initiatives. They are obligations...legal debts the United States government owes to sovereign nations who signed treaties. We were Nations who sat across a table from U.S. representatives and negotiated. We gave up millions of acres of land in exchange for specific, written promises. Healthcare. Education. Housing. These things were agreed to.

I already hear the rebuttal (Those who will say, "Don't ask the US government for anything else outside of your tribal nation, then")...so...you know what was FORCED much later with sinister intentions by the government? Dual American citizenship for all Native Americans. One day, we can go down that rabbit hole. But back to the point...All of these "benefits" were, in the most literal sense, PURCHASED...with the land this entire country was built on. Land that non-natives profit from and get to live on under the laws of their own country that they essentially run.

The Supreme Court actually clarified this back in 1974 in a case called Morton v. Mancari. The Court ruled that benefits tied to Native people aren't racial classifications. They're POLITICAL ones. They come from citizenship in a sovereign tribal nation...not from ancestry or ethnicity. A white person who is an enrolled citizen of a tribal nation has the same access to those treaty-based resources as anyone else. A Native person who isn't enrolled doesn't. That's not how race works. That's how citizenship works. And yes, what I just said about fully white (AND FULLY BLACK!) people being tribal citizens actually does happen.

Tribal nations are governments. They were here before the United States existed. They negotiated with the U.S. and in many cases had their sovereignty and terms guaranteed explicitly in writing. So the resources that flow from those agreements aren't handouts...they're the terms of a contract. One the U.S. has broken repeatedly, yet is still, trying to honor.

The debt doesn't disappear because people forgot how it was made.

What gets left out of this conversation is that the resources the US government has built the wealithest country in the world on, that you benefit from better than you would in any other country, came from Native Nations begrudgingly signing ALMOST ALL of it over. You expect no price? This isn't charity. It isn't racial preference. It's a contract...and the least we can ask is that people understand what they're looking at before they call it discrimination or racial preference.

06/09/2026

From Lyla June :

I just want people to know that any success you may perceive that I have, was always proceeded by great bouts of bewilderment and confusion.

Sometimes being lost in the forest is exactly the journey we need so we can memorize the trails and trees of life, which are the lessons and understandings we wouldn't have found otherwise.

And once you finally honor this life by becoming sufficiently lost and confused and in finding your way out, you will come upon the forest's edge and behold with beautiful clarity the vast expanse of understanding illuminated by the sun in front of you.

You will look back at the darkened trail behind you, the one you had to memorize and fumble on, and even in that moment you will be grateful for that period of deep bewilderment.

Something almost more sweet than finding our path and finding truth, is the journey of getting lost, and being amazed by the maze that life is and life offers.

So if you are lost, keep praying, keep looking for answers, keep asking for guidance, and never give up the search for your truth, purpose, and path in this life, in this chapter, in this moment.

It is through the very act and journey of getting lost, that we are sharpened and refined to learn everything we came to earth to learn.

It is difficult and sometimes extraordinarliy painful, but trust it is not forever, and will lead you to the lighted path that only you can find for yourself.

This is how and where we learn to love ourselves and others.

**thank you for your kind attention to my unsolicited blabberings**

05/18/2026

Earlier last month, the Department of the Interior rushed a seven‑day public scoping period to consider fully revoking the Greater Chaco Region mineral withdrawal, a protection that safeguards 336,400 acres around Chaco Culture National Historical Park from oil and gas drilling and mining.

This accelerated, woefully inadequate process disregards meaningful tribal consultation and threatens communities whose lives, cultures, and traditions are inseparable from this sacred, living landscape.

Revoking the withdrawal would open the door to new drilling and mining near Chaco, endangering sacred sites, threatening clean air and water, and robbing future generations of the freedom to experience this ancestral place as Tribal Nations have since time immemorial.

There will be more opportunities to make your voice heard. Stay tuned.

04/23/2026

"It’s disgusting," said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. "We ought to be able to end hunger in this country. It's a political condition. We have the money."

04/21/2026

With Bioneers – I just made it onto their weekly engagement list by being one of their top engagers! 🎉

04/17/2026

"We must avoid this collapse at all costs," said a leading expert on the collapsing AMOC current.

04/16/2026

With all that's happening in the world now, its more important than ever to be a Leader in your community. Learn how to step forward, create and facilitate sacred space, hold talking circles, discussion groups, grief circles, restorative justice and ho'oponopono rituals, and ceremonies for the elements and seasons.

I know money is tight. If you have a financial hardship, please contact me anyway. We'll find a way.

Church and Community of the Earth welcomes you to our home! We evolve together through teachings, ceremonies and events.

04/14/2026

07/15/2025

I signed. I hope you will, too.

Everglades National Park is in a High-Velocity Hurricane Zone—meaning buildings should be constructed to withstand winds of 180 miles per hour. But the Everglades Detention Camp is made up of flimsy tents, bunk beds, and chain fences—it’s blatantly unsafe for those being held there. The facili...