“Bozho Nikon, hello, my bone
My name is Minisa Crumbo. I am an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation of Oklahoma. As an artist, homemaker, and elder I invite you to come and sit with us at this gathering of people, generously coordinated and hosted by MONAH. Chi migwech, thank you MONAH for this opportunity. I am honored.
We are being called together not only to celebrate life but more seriously, to intentionally formulate sacred conversations and to consider learning some personal honoring ceremonies based on seasonal Medicine Wheel Teachings. These talks, while interactive, are still valid, two-way conversations of a sacred nature even while being conducted in the etheric realm.
By these WAYS, may we continue to grow in awareness and personal connection with ourselves, others, the natural world, and prime Creator that we may forge tools to begin putting an end to ‘that which is not real. By such WAYS do we endeavor to grow in wisdom, knowledge, bravery, honesty, and love. May we be drawn together, to even begin forging a shared vision and to begin bonding in ways of positive evolution and emergence, as the sacred beings that we are and know ourselves to be.
We are in a new morning of the world..let us endeavor to take up the staff of our shared divinity. It’s okay to cry now. Let us all cry for new vision and renewed energy and the good health by which to make these things real.
A Morning Song will be offered with song words available. Then, we will sing together. Bring a drum, rattle, sticks, or any percussion instruments that comes to hand. The drum represents the heartbeat of our Mother Earth as we greet and recall our Father Sky-Sun. In preparation, you may want to open a window and smudge or ‘fan off’ to purify the mind, heart, body, Spirit, and drum for our ‘talks’ and song. We will visit about the use of the sacred purification herbs: dry sage, sweetgrass, and cedar.
And so, we come alive for another day..or anytime.. for we live in the ‘eternal present’.
Bama mine, until we meet again….
Peace, love, and joy be with each one of us, now and forevermore. AHO!”
Following the opening morning song by Minisa Halsey Crumbo and Gaby Nagel’s Breeze Prairie wind Freestyle Live flute song. We invite you to join us on Saturday, October 9, 2021, at 10:00 AM CST for a musical morning song workshop with Minisa Crumbo! She will lead us in song. The workshop will be completely virtual with pre-registration to participate on Zoom. The workshop will also be publically accessible via our live stream!
Registration for Zoom participation opens on September 15th!
This event will be live-streamed on Facebook Live. Watch online only.
The museum will be open to the public with regular hours, reserve your free timed ticket for entry.
This event will be recorded and archived on our website.
Minisa Crumbo Halsey
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the Year of the Earth Horse, to Lillian Hogue Crumbo and Woodrow Wilson Crumbo. I am Muscogee Creek and Potawatomi Indian, Scots-Irish from my maternal Papa and French-German from my paternal Papa.
My education, in the ways of the Mother Earth and the Father Sky-Sun, who were and remain my first, most important and beautiful teachers, is grounded in the black jack hills of Oklahoma and the high mountain valleys of New Mexico. As a child in Sand Springs, OK, as I laid on the grass and looked up into the starry night sky, an airplane flew over and I said, "I want to go there". And so it has been. The natural world is my University.
The floor around Woody Crumbo's drawing table, my maternal grandmother Harriett Hogue's garden, milk cow and wood cook stove, my mother and first school teacher, Lillian Crumbo's kindergarten class at the Taos Pueblo Day School ... These places were where I would receive the first structured life lessons, lessons that would endure and reverberate endlessly to this day.
I am an artist and craftsperson of several disciplines: painting, silversmithing, basketry, potting, as well as quilting, cooking, gardening and writing. I am currently working on THE BOOK OF EARTH DAYS, which includes original illustrations and poetry.
It is a Medicine Wheel Teachings book, offering to accompany the reader through an honoring and interactive 'medicine' journey through a 12 month-13 Moon Calendar period, as it emanates from the mind of the Creator as a teaching of natural wisdom and nourishing element to the minds, hearts, bodies and Spirits of all Beings that live upon and within our beautiful Mother Earth and Father Sky Sun.
I am married to Jim Halsey, Impressario Extraordinaire.
I have two beautiful and talented children, Woodrow Rexford Carter; pilot and Tesla scholar, father and husband, of Prescott, AZ., Christine Heather Carter Rumford; wife, mother, skier and award winning realtor, of Vail, CO.
Woody Crumbo was a long time friend and admirer of the Koshare Indian Dancers Founder, Francis 'Buck', Burshears. In the 1970's Buck, Jane and 'Ma' Burshears invited the Crumbo's to move from Taos, New Mexico to La Junta, CO where they made their home for a number of years. Here, Woody maintained a studio and Lillian taught in the La Junta public schools. Both Lillian and Woody Crumbo were enthusiastic supporters of the internationally recognized and accomplished Koshare Indian Dancers.
Woody Crumbo, and many, many other dedicated and specialized teachers, mentors, interested friends and sponsors, mothers and fathers, spent much time with 'the boys', discussing varied Native American traditions and broader American and Universal ideals, lecturing in art appreciation, studying dance, face and body 'paint', song, drumming, regalia understandings and construction and appropriate deportment as representatives of the Koshare Indian Dancer tradition. It was and remains to be a vast and complex organization that requires committed input and participation from a myriad of persons and directions to function smoothly, efficiently and with satisfaction for both the core performing Koshare Indian Dancer organization and the attending public.
In the midst of this microcosm of the Universe, they spoke of and considered: the arts, vision and aspirations, interactive and cooperative actions, focussing on the desirable, appropriate and attainable goals as identified by and within Buck's vision for 'his boys'. Within this microcosm they worked, laughed, sweated together, forging life long alliances, and growing into manhood while striving to incorporate and maintain the Boy Scouts of America ideals, teachings and traditions, high grade point averages in school and then, they danced their hearts out in the Kiva and on tour. And so, the Natural World and helpers, continued(s) to teach, inspire and support brilliant and inspired lives as they move out from their Kiva, the teaching and ceremonial place of what it means to truly be a Human Being and into their larger lives in the World.
Woody Crumbo painted SPOTTED WOLF'S LAST REQUEST in the La Junta, CO studio and it was subsequently acquired for the Koshare Indian Museum, where it hangs on display today.
It is my very great pleasure to serve on the Board. I consider it an honor to carry on in the Crumbo-Koshare tradition. Would that their days measure many and joyful.
MINISA CRUMBO HALSEY
SPIRIT HORSE RANCH
MOUNDS, OK