The first time I met this old man I was bankrupt in every area of my life. But this is not about me, it is about probably the kindest old man I ever met, Martin High Bear – Ivan Hokshiela the Rock Boy.
The old man was in Coos Bay, Oregon helping some folks out putting up ceremony. I remember as he sang and prayed in the darkness that all kinds of strange things started happening, and I wondered “…how’s that old man creating the special effects?” He traveled around with this small red metal box and I was sure that’s where he kept the special effects stuff; maybe he got them from a magic shop.
The next time he came through town he had me get the red box down off the roof of his van and then he gave me instructions on how to set up his altar. So now I was going to find out how he was tricking me. For those of you who knew him I don’t have to tell you; I didn’t find anything. When the old man called the spirits in, they manifested – he was the real thing.
One of the greatest gifts he had was that when he worked with people, he used their own reality to help them find what they were looking for. He didn’t have a set dogma that was supposed to fit everyone. He shared a lot about ritual and symbolism in ceremony but when ever I asked him about things of a spiritual nature that I didn’t understand he’d ask me if I had prayed about it. When I’d answer yes, he’d say “take it to the sweat lodge.” If I said I had, he’d say “take it up on the hill.” He’d tell me to study it until I understood it like going to collage! He’d tell me I had to get my own understanding, not his. Once I traveled 15,000 to talk to him about something and when I was done explaining my problem to him, after a long pause he replied “that’s interesting,” and once again he told me to go study it.
I believe that he taught his most valuable lessons not be what he said, but by how he lived; the patience, courtesy, compassion and love he treated everyone with. I remember visiting him once in Portland when the phone rang. After hanging up he asked me to give him a ride to a friend’s house. When we got there he told the people there that he had gotten a call from friends in Manitoba, Canada and there was a newborn there that the doctors had given up on. The family had asked him to come see if he could doctor this baby or help them bury him. He said he was going to leave as soon as he could raise the gas money. We went back home and folks started coming by the house leaving a few dollars on the coffee table. When we had close to $300 he told me to change the oil in the van and we loaded it up and left. He was like that. When people asked for his help he never mentioned money. I was still wondering how we were gong to get home. He said that there wasn’t a price tag on spiritual things.
On many occasions watched him as he listened to people argue about the “right” way to do things, and who was doing it right and who was doing it wrong. After people got done expressing their opinions he’d say “You know it’s funny, the White Buffalo Calf Woman brought seven laws to live by and we had to make up the rest of the rule ourselves. He lived by the saying “if you can’t say something good about someone, don’t say nothin’ at all.” I never heard him gossip or talk bad about people or religion or anything, really.
I know that my life is blessed by knowing the Old Man, as were many, many others, and I’ll always be thankful to creator for the time I spent with him and the many things he shared freely with me.
At his wake in Eagle Butte, South Dakota one of the participants said the most beautiful things anyone could say. She said that Martin High Bear was the only color blind person she had ever known, and that’s the way he was.
Aho
Tim Lobato