Eagle Feather Dream

“We are all related”

I was born in late January in the year 1953. These were years of intense prejudice. It was socially acceptable to discriminate against anybody who belonged to a group, race, religion, etc. other than yours.

I was one of the “others”. My mother was born in Barga, Lucca, Italy. My father was born in America, but was what people called an American mutt. He was Indian and we think a little Scottish or English or maybe Dutch. He was dark haired, dark eyed and dark skinned. In those days, that was enough to cause prejudice.

By the 80’s I had gone to live on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation in Eagle Butte, South Dakota. The scars from my childhood still existed and were enflamed with anger at the whole world. And on the reservation were even worsened because I was a “half breed’ or “spotted blood”. I was accepted and I felt very loved, but occasionally someone would whisper, “she’s a spotted blood”. And I’d feel such shame that I could barely stand it. So, I began to hate the Italian or “white” blood running through my veins. This went on for years. Until one night I had such a powerful dream that my life completely changed.

One of my best selling art prints came from this dream. It was a dream of equality and the connectedness we have to each other. No matter where we come from or what race we belong to, we are truly one people on one planet. Interestingly, the dream was about an eagle and later I discovered that there are eagles on every continent on the planet.

The following is an abbreviated form of the dream. It’s included on a separate piece of paper with my art print.

“Mitakuye Oyasin…we are all related.” The woman woke from a dream. An eagle had come in the night and taken her to an ancient time. There she saw how we began as one tribe and then scattered to many distant places. Some were far across the ocean. As the eagle gently brought her back from the dream, it loosened one of its feathers to give to her so she would always remember: “We are all related”.

Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related)

Paula Bidwell

Native Talisman Art

This vision has been made into an art print and is available at the E-Bay store Native American Talisman Art at http://www.stores.ebay.com/native-american-talisman-art