Tree and Red Bed Rock Captured by Xiaosongs Photo

Here at Jeffers Petroglyph site is a lone tree that captures the mood and energy of this powerful site. Thanks for Xiaosong's open eyes to look at the red earth of the heartland of Turtle Island and Ina Maka, Mother East. It has been fun to me to notice the enthusiasm he has shown for learning the history of this continenet with the eyes of a man from across the Pacific.

Petroglyph - The Chief Who Lost his Arm Story

The light later in the day was quite wonderful for capturing the details of the rock carvings here. The traditional story of how a selfish chief lost his arm when he refused to participate in the Spring rituals and the thunderbeings stole it and hid it. As the story is told here, a wise young man won the love of the chief by getting the help of the spirits and tricking the thunderbeings.
To me, the level of astrological understanding by these ancient peoples for story telling is very inspiring. Thanks to Creator, tunkashila for illuminating these stories on the rocks in a good way. Thanks for the participation of the elders in supporting the Minnesota History Center people in creating this wonderful portal to visit this spiritual connection to the Inyan, tunka oyate.
Pidamiyayedo. I am in the condition of deep gratitude.

Jeffers Petroglyphs Xiaosong Welcome

Here is my new friend, Kola - Koda from China, Xiaosong, who was most open and willing to join Blaine, Coby and I on our trip to the Rosebud for a tree inipi ceremony. I liked the ease with which we traveled and shared stories on the way west.
For me, this site is the ancient backbone of Minnesota where the exposed Sioux Quarzite is exposed on this wind blown ridge, and peoples from as far back as 15,000 years ago, created a story on this stone. We arrived late in the afternoon and the place was empty. On the rocks: The atlatl is featured that was used to hunt by locals who likely hunted large elephant like creatures during the glacial times, prior to the warm up and the beginning of the prairie ecosystem later dominated by the buffalo. I find this place very grounding to the heartland of Turtle Island, named America by some cultures after some Italian I think, Americus Vespucci.

Schmidts Meat Market Nicollet MN Coby, Steve X, Blaine

Each month, there is a traditional Lakota tree ceremony sponsored by my friends on the Rosebud Reservation some 9 hours to the west of the Twin Cities, to honor the tree relative that will be standing in the center of the altar for life at the annual Hollow Horn Bear Sundance. I have attended this recreation of the world ceremony since 1990, the second year of the vision shared by medicine people, such as Joe Eagle Elk and Rudy Runs Above who have sense passed over into the spirit world. For those who know my soul and have shared in my journey of rebirth and recovery and re-memberment in this world, they know how much learning the D/Lakota way of life has influenced me and those I love. Pidamiya yedo...thanks a lot for all those who have been and continue to be my teachers. Long ago, as I traveled to and from Rosebud, I learned to stop, have fun and enjoy the journey. Here is a spot I discovered a while back that has great Minnesota made treats and well as some exotic imports to enjoy. Here we picked up sausage, jerky, chatted with the locals and shoppers. Three of the wonderful men with whom I shared this 2 day journey and with whom I am deepening my understanding are: Steve "Coby" Cobian, Xiaosong "Steve" Liu and Blaine McCutcheon - a sandwich of two Minnesotans containing a Tianjin China Native in the lower photo. oThe first photo was taken by Xiaosong. Thanks for the great connections!

Guthrie Theater Northern Lights- Southern Cross

Here are five of us, the the yellow after glow having just attended Kevin Klings production of Northern Lights/Southern Cross:
Tales from the Other Side of the World at the new Guthrie overlooking the Mississippi River here in Minneapolis. The indigenous character of this production with the understated humor of Osseo MN Native Kevin Kling along my I group friend, Jeff Haas being in the chorus, led a a most wonderous and healing connection for me here. Thanks to Jane Newell, Don Roden, this author, Xiaosong Steve Liu & Jeff Haas for our Clowning up here, reflecting on the native Heyoka theme I have learned so much about in my connections with the Lakota/Dakota Oyate here in the prairie lakes area of Turtle Island. Much gratitude!

Chinese Feast watched over by Pete and Peg and the Rotary Boys

Here is some of the feast Xiaosong prepared in my little kitchen with whatever I had at hand after he got all the right ingredients at the Hopkins Shanghai Store. Lucky I found the corn starch, as he says "everybody cooks with corn starch"!
So as we get ready to feast, rice is prepared on our two large plates with Black Mushrooms (Lentinula edodes, commonly known as the Shiitake) According to Wiki "In Chinese, it is called xiānggū (香菇, literally "fragrant mushroom"). Two Chinese variant names for high grades of shiitake are dōnggū (Chinese: 冬菇, "winter mushroom") and huāgū (花菇, "flower mushroom", which has a flower-like cracking pattern on the mushroom's upper surface); both are produced at colder temperatures" Cooked with baby bok choy on the new plates Denise Martineau gifted me. Tofu and eggplant sauteed.
In the back bowl what we called in Japanese edamame . Per wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edamame
"edamame (枝豆?) is commonly used in some English-speaking countries to refer to the dish. The Japanese name literally means "twig bean" (eda = "twig" + mame = "bean"), and is a reference to the short stem attached to the pod. This term originally referred to young soybeans in general. Over time, however, the prevalence of the salt-boiled preparation meant that the term edamame now often refers specifically to this dish. Since this is a Chinese event I am learning:
In Chinese, young soybeans are known as maodou (Chinese: 毛豆; pinyin: máodòu; literally "hairy bean"). Young soybeans in the pod are known as maodoujia (Chinese: 毛豆荚; pinyin: máodòujiá; literally "hairy bean pod"). Because boiling in the pod is the usual preparation for young soybeans, the dish is usually identified via a descriptive name, such as "boiled maodou", or "salt-boiled maodou", depending on the condiments added, but like in Japan, simply saying the name of the bean, maodou, in a Chinese restaurant will produce salt-flavored, boiled maodou." Fun to have the clean white beans eaten from the hairy pods! Steve used Sichuan pepper (or Szechuan pepper From Wiki "The outer pod of the tiny fruit of a number of species in the genus Zanthoxylum (most commonly Z. piperitum, Z. simulans, and Z. schinifolium), widely grown and consumed in Asia as a spice. Despite the name, it is not related to black pepper or to chili peppers. " I think it is related to our prickly ash, also a Zanthoxylum ("yellow wood:) species with a fragrant fruit. Love those fragrant fruits!

Lastly are the boiled raw peanuts in a bowl, eaten like the maodou (do it like Mao?) as an appetizer. Wow I really enjoyed seeing this done with Sichuan Pepper and star anise. He used whole anise and then had to fish them out. ! FUN

Chinese Culinary Wizardry - Guest Cooking by Steven Xiaosong

Here is Steven, the first guest cook in my St Louis Park apartment kitchen. Jane and I have done some mutual meals off and on since last year. Now it is sweet to have our Chinese brother Steven he to share in his culture and cousine. On the stove, millet congi, fresh boiled peanuts (the fresh boiled Edemame peas were already done!), rice and now tofu for being sauteed. I feel very blessed. After a spontaneous visit to the Boy Scout Center in Golden Valley on Friday, we ventured to other locations for an appropriate garb for Halloween such as the used clothing at thrift stores. While in Hopkins we happened across an Asian Market on Excelsior and Blake where Steve engaged with the clerk in Mandarin while gathering all the accoutrements for real Chinese cooking....wine, vinegar, black mushrooms in clear bags, fresh thin eggplants. More exotic if I only knew the Mandarin names. I flashed on his being the Julia Child of Chinese cooking while he is here. I shared my story about the 3 days I prepared for my 60th Birthday party to share with Peg Weaver and 20+ other souls who joined us in February of 2007 at the Colony at Eden Prairie and how grateful I am to have an expanding circle of friends and family. The Tiospaye continues to grow. Pidamiyayedo. Mitakuye Oyasin!