EcoDharma exploration
A Tree of Peace: The Power of Remembering the Indigenous Design of American Democracy
This special monthly series of EcoDharma Explorations is offered in partnership with One Earth Sangha and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. A recording of the conversation will be provided for those who cannot attend the gathering.
Session Description:
At the core of American Democracy is an image of renewal that retains its inspirational power in the face of any adversity. It is the image of the roots, trunk and branches of a living tree. Some of us today can see this tree quite vividly, and for others the image is outside of awareness—but all may invoke it at this perilous moment in history and remember its message of strength in unity.
The Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee flag, representing the six nations of the Iroquois.
You are invited to envision the towering beauty and sparkling leaves of the mighty pine trees of the Eastern woodlands. They can grow as high as 230 feet, can have a diameter as wide as 8 feet and a canopy as broad as 50 feet. You are invited to see these trees not as metaphors or archetypes—but rather as a separate nation of breathing beings with a deeply intelligent organization from which we humans can learn. Only this level of respect will enable you to understand how an indissoluble federal government could derive from a tree.
The Eastern White Pine was the bio-mimetic source of Gayanashagowa (the sacred alliance of the Iroquois) which united five fiercely divided Indian nations. Thereafter it profoundly influenced the binding together of the English colonies into a United States of America and later the joining together of the countries of the world into a United Nations.
By examining The Great Law of Peace—an oral constitution rooted in unity, balance and mutual respect—we will uncover how indigenous concepts of collective governance, consensus building and communal responsibility helped shape democratic ideals embraced by the “founding fathers”. We will also look unflinchingly at what was specifically omitted when they borrowed from Native governance and see in this both the terrible human cost that followed as well as the roadmap to repair.
About the Teacher:
Dr. Leslie Gray is a Native American clinical psychologist with a private practice in San Francisco, CA. She has taught Eco-psychology, Anthropology of Consciousness and Native American Psychology at numerous Bay Area universities including U.C. Berkeley. Leslie offers workshops for the general public in the U.S. and abroad, as well as specific trainings for practitioners seeking to blend Indigenous worldview into their work.
Leslie is founder/director of The Woodfish Foundation which promotes sustainability grounded in Indigenous knowledge. Leslie’s writings on the therapeutic power of incorporating Indigenous perspectives into contemporary organizations can be found in numerous publications, including “Ecological Medicine” (Sierra Club Books) and “Original Instructions.” Leslie is an Associate of the Milton Erickson Institute, a Member of the Society of Indian Psychologists, and is Vice President of The Association for Transpersonal Psychology.