Environment | National

Native Sun News: Grandmothers convene Gathering of Eagles

Monday, June 20, 2016

Pictured is lunch at the 2011 Gathering of Eagles. An afternoon meal will be served daily at the 2016 Spiritual Unity of Tribes event June 21-25 at Pe’ Sla. Photo courtesy SUT-Gathering of Eagles

Grandmothers invite community to Gathering of Eagles
Event to be held at Pe’ Sla, the ‘Heart of Everything’
By Talli Nauman
Native Sun News
Health & Environment Editor
www.nsweekly.com

STURGIS –– The international congregation of Spiritual Unity of the Tribes has prepared a Gathering of Eagles event in the Black Hills, June 21-25, to recognize the wisdom of elder women, one of the four grandmothers who issued the public invitation told the Native Sun News.

“The theme of this gathering is about the voices of the grandmothers, honoring the wisdom of the elder woman and having her voice heard,” Judi Palmer, a Romini from Australia, said June 9. The gathering will emphasize “bringing the two energies” of the grandmothers and grandfathers “together in harmony and in balance,” she said.

Palmer and her husband have organized several Spiritual Unity gatherings in Australia since the group formed at its first one in Saskatchewan, in 1989. Gatherings have been held around the globe, ranging from Patagonia to Siberia. The most recent one held in the Black Hills was in 2008.

She said the purpose of the gatherings has always been for the joining of the hoop – as envisioned by Lakota spiritual leader Black Elk, who told author John Neihardt: “And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”

The gatherings are meant to attract people from all cultures and races to come together to learn from the elders and one another about living in unity, according to the invitation. Hosts are expecting about 150 people, according to Palmer.

For more information or to inquire about the organizers’ Sponsor an Elder Program, call Mary Ellen or Clay Uptain at (605) 341-0724 or email uptainclay@gmail.com. Additional information can be found at sut-gatheringofeagles.org.