ENCAMPMENT Betty J. Eadie

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What I learned in these visions held me spellbound, but some of it confused and puzzled me. I am Lakota Sioux, and I did not understand how my own people, a disadvantaged and oppressed nation, could become as the magnificent people I saw in vision. In my early childhood, I lived on reservations surrounded by my Native people. I experienced the weakening conditions forced upon us in those days by government agencies and by American society at large. Our culture was frowned upon, our traditions denounced and even banned. Families were split apart as children were forcibly removed. Education was almost non-existent. Literacy suffered. There were few jobs, if any, to provide self-earned income, or to improve skills or raise morale and self-esteem. There was hunger, illness, condemnation and poverty all around me. I witnessed first hand the breakdown of spirit through destruction of faith as religious beliefs foreign to us were forced upon us. I saw many of my people struggle through life with little hope for better futures. Many, including relatives, friends and acquaintances, turned to alcohol and drugs for release from pain. In my parent's struggle to make a better life for their children, they moved us into the "white world," only to find that in many ways this created greater challenges. We were not accepted generally as equals and had to learn to fight for our physical and emotional survival.

As I matured, I saw very few social improvements put into place to benefit Native Americans. And I saw very little change in the Natives themselves. To me they seemed unable or unwilling to raise themselves from their depressed conditions. Now, I had been given great visions about them, but I had little faith in their power to step forward as spiritual leaders to perform their divine role in God's plan. I could not help but question God's will and intentions for them. Nor could I help wonder what his intentions were for me by entrusting me with this knowledge.

During my many travels in the 1990s to share my newly published book, Embraced By The Light, I included speaking events with many Native tribes in the United States and Canada. I was anxious to learn as much as I could about their traditions and spiritual beliefs, especially those which extended back to a time when they remained pure and unchanged by history. I spent as much time as possible visiting with these people and especially with their leaders. Most of these visits became possible only through divine guidance, and I am sure they were "meant to be" from the start. However, during this time I put aside my visions because I did not know what to do with them. I felt I needed more confidence in what I knew before I could share with the strength and conviction necessary for others to accept it. I was also uncertain of my role, and so I waited.

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