Bear Heart - The Bear Is My Father: Indigenous Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways

The Bear Is My Father is good medicine. Ultimately, this is not a book about a deceased man; Bear Heart is herea living ancestor who resides in the hearts of those he touched. These pages retain the essence of his teachings, much like a drop of water taken from the ocean is still part of the ocean. This is a superb companion to the original The Wind Is My Mother, and I recommend they be read together for maximum impact.

Glenn Aparicio Parry

Author of Original Thinking: A ReVisioning of Time, Humanity, and Nature and Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again

What a heart-felt, uplifting, inspirational book! Much more than a memoir, Bear Hearts own amazing story is amplified by memories and testimonials from his Medicine Helper and wife, Reginah WaterSpirit, and other friends and colleagues. Sprinkled with humility and humor, The Bear is My Father offers profound insights for best living, and remarkable examples of the intersection of science and the world of spirit.

Anne Hillerman

New York Times best-selling author of the Leaphorn-Chee-Manuelito series

Bear Heart and Reginah gift us with a glimpse of the nature of the Indigenous Spirit of healing, well-being and loving-kindness in their story of a life well lived, and becoming a complete manan authentic Indigenous Elder!

Gregory Cajete

Professor of Native American Studies and Language Literacy Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico

The Bear Is My Father is replete with humor, wisdom, inspiration, and most of all, celebration of life and love. Reading this masterfully architectured book, you will know Bear, you will know your own heart, and you will know a man about whom not enough can possibly be writtenBear Heart, Keeper of the Sacred Wisdom of the Muscogee Creek Nation, healer, and storyteller who lives on not only in the Forest of Spirit but with us here in the Land of Seeking.

Rabbi Gershon Winkler

Author of Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism

In The Bear Is My Father, Bear Heart has given us a path into the spiritual wisdom inherent in the Indigenous experience, by illuminating the deep Native American traditional perspective that everything is connected and related, and all is divine vibration.

Basil Braveheart

Lakota Elder and author of The Spiritual Journey of a Brave Heart

This very important book on Bear Hearts life and wisdom helped me get to know and see the many seeds of healing sprouted from this Native elder. Filled with many personal stories and teachings from Bear Heart, Reginah, and many others who were touched by his life, this book is a much-needed medicine to help us find our way in our world today.

HeatherAsh Amara

Author of Warrior Goddess Training and Warrior Goddess Wisdom

This is a book that subtly transforms its readers. Read it and let it teach you. This is a different way of learning. Learn from this book gently and effortlessly. You may not even know what has happened but it hastrust it!

Sidra Levi Stone, PhD

Author and the co-creator of Voice Dialogue

Even if you never had the privilege of meeting Bear Heart or hearing him speak, you will feel his warm presence when reading these stories and get a feel for the depth of the man. The pearls of wisdom found in these pages can be spiritual guideposts for a good and fruitful life. I urge you to take a few steps down the path of this book and discover how much we all have in common.

Doug Alderson

Author of Seminole Freedom and The Vision Keepers: Walking For Native Americans and the Earth

Bear Hearts wisdom is profound and lasting, but more so is his love that lifts and inspires you on your own journey to learn your own ways. Bear Heart sought to help others find strength through their struggles and purpose in their lives. How lucky we are to have his words to guide us, needed now more than ever.

Laura Baker

Author of Stargazer and Legend

Wisdom of a Muscogee Creek Caretaker of Sacred Ways

Marcellus Bear Heart Williams & Reginah WaterSpirit

Edited by Tim Amsden

Copyright 2021 by Marcellus Bear Heart Williams & Reginah WaterSpirit

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Synergetic Press |1 Bluebird Court, Santa Fe, NM 87508

& 24 Old Gloucester St. London, WC1N 3AL England

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 9780907791898 (paperback)

ISBN 9780907791904 (ebook)

Book design: Brad Greene

Title page art: Bev Doolittle

Cover photography: Kyle Malone, Kinfolk Branding

Interior fan photograph: Gene Sovo/Sia Collection

Managing Editor: Amanda Mller

Project Editor: Sage Wylder

Printed in the USA

Among my people, we carve the bones of animals in such a way that they speak to us, and we speak to them. I sing to the bear, and he guides me. Can we not make room for the bear to roam free, at least in some part of where we live? Is he not our grandfather?

Bear Heart

Marcellus Williams and Bev Doolittle, 1992.

Bev Doolittle

I first met Marcellus Bear Heart Williams at a Sacred Circle Ceremony in Yellowstone National Park about a year and a half after the great Yellowstone fires in 1990. I had created a painting for release as a limited-edition print called The Sacred Circle. My art publisher, the Greenwich Workshop, had arranged for this special gathering to be filmed as a short documentary to be released with the print.

My painting consisted of nine panels that fit together like a grid. Each panel represented a different environment in North America, from the smallest creature (a frog) to a large grizzly bear snatching salmon from a river. All the white elements from each panel are connected into a circle around the center panel depicting a Native American astride a horse, who represents man and his ability to change the balance of our ecosystems. We must learn from nature; Mother Earth is our teacher.

The purpose of the Sacred Circle Ceremony was to call on the hearts of people to rekindle a true appreciation of all life forms. Bear Heart, who conducted the ceremony, explained: We set up the circle and allow people to come in and share our appreciation, to ask the Great Spirit to bless what we are trying to do, not only for ourselves today but for those that follow after us, for those not even born yet.