The banks got their bailout, where is our relief! They used our I.I.M. Account. Our Indian money has also bailed out G.M.

We cannot negotiate a new interest rate with our bank. My husband has heart and kidney failure, his disability came about from fighting in the Viet Nam War. He is dying. The bank, which is Chase Mortgage, will not lower our interest rate. The trustee is giving us an even higher interest rate for the back payments to be made up in bankruptcy court. We want to keep our home. It means everything to us. We worked for 12 years to accomplish this. My husband needs the home to fit his home dialysis machine in it and we have our inipi lodge built on our land. Our Indian land was leased without our permission by our government and the money stolen. We get $1.39 a year for the farming leases. We cannot do ceremonies and pass them on to the next generation without a land base. Our culture is dying. Please help us, we are in bad shape. I am sending you an article in this email that was published in the Sheridan Sun. We go to court this Wednesday and I don't know if I will have a home for my dying, Veteran Husband.
Ishoni Wakiya Ohunco
503-376-6309

Article-Sheridan Sun

HEAL THE HEALER by Garret Jaros

There is a medicine man who lives on Red Prairie Road— a Native American Lakota holy man. the great-great grandson of Chief Fast Thunder spiritual guide to Chief Crazy Horse. Fast Thunder had 98 eagle feathers in his headdress.
“Every time a person does something so that the people shall live, and it’s acknowledged by the warrior societies, the holy man society and the elder women’s societies, they are awarded an eagle feather, “Al Fast Thunder says from a chair in his living room.
The enchanted realm of medicine people crackles with a magical electricity—one where unseen worlds and animal spirits dwell—and the old
Stories make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
Chief Fast Thunder was given his name while meeting with Sitting Bull, Nincatu, Hump and Red Horse atop Beaver Mountain in Nebraska. He was praying for a way to protect his people from the onslaught of white settlers.
When he spoke, a black cloud gathered, thunder boomed and lightning bolts arched across the sky.
“Wakiya Ohunco, thunder that comes swiftly —Fast Thunder,” Al explains, while his wife Ishoni sites at his side, and a cat that snores like a mountain lion lays stretched across the top of his chair.
Al Fast Thunder is on the mountain now. And the clouds are gathering. Fast Thunder was diagnosed with kidney failure last year. Now he undergoes a weekly regiment of dialysis to stay alive while he waits for a kidney transplant.
Ishoni will donate the kidney.
“He’s a humble man,” Ishoni says of her husband. “He’s a Sun Dancer and a Pipe Carrier. And he does the curing and healing for our family. But Al’s had a life changing situation with his kidneys hutting down.”
The trouble began years ago when Al, who is a Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart recipient from when his jet was shot down, went to the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital for exploratory surgery and doctors ended up puncturing his pancreas, he says.
Tumors in the pancreas followed and eventually another surgery to remove the tumors.
“They told me to get my affairs in order because I had about four months to live, “Fast Thunder says. “That was 12 years ago. But I’m not going to quit yet.”
In the meantime, diabetes attacked, his vision dimmed, his heart failed several times, his memory faltered, and then his kidneys shut down.
The waiting period for a Veteran to get a kidney transplant is two years, Fast Thunder says. But if in those two years his
condition worsens—he’ll no longer be eligible for the surgery.
That is the hard rock of this story. Now here’s the hard place.
The bank is foreclosing on the Fast Thunders home and property along Red Prairie Road.
Al has been too sick to work and Ishoni has been taking care of him, which means the business, the couple runs together, Fast Thunder Media Inc., has had to take a back seat.
“This was our dream to have this home, “Ishoni says. “It means more than property to me, it means my heart.”
They are trying to renegotiate the interest rate on their home, which has taken the now infamous jump, putting the payments beyond their reach.
“I feel like this property was entrusted to us, “Ishoni says of the home, whose previous owner “poured a lifetime of love” into it before she had give it up to care for her ailing husband.
“We worked 12 years to get this home, “Ishoni adds. “And it’s very hard if we don’t have a land base, to do our ceremonies.”
“We want to save this property from foreclosure, “says Al, who has more than a few eagle feathers in his own headdress. “So we can devote all of our attention to the people, so they shall live too.”
The Fast Thunders’ dream is to transform their property into a cultural center of sorts, where people can learn the traditional ways of Lakota prayer and spirituality, and participate in authentic ceremonies.
One man has already stepped up to learn and to help.
Floyd Greenlee, a Cherokee, “gifted” a horse to the Fast Thunders, and he’s been helping out around the place. Al is preparing Greenlee for the Sun Dance this summer.
The Sun Dance is a traditional Lakota ceremony that represents life and rebirth. Common features of the ceremony include dancing, singing, praying, drumming, experiencing visions, fasting and piercing of the chest or back.
To be a Sun Dancer, or to be a pipe (chanupa) carrier, signifies someone who is walking a righteous path that honors the tribe and all sentient beings.
Greenlee will dance on behalf of Fast Thunder.
“I’m very honored to be able to come in and do this for family, “Greenlee says, “hunka (adopted) family. “Greenlee says, “I know I will never be able to put my brother’s moccasins on, but I hope I will at least be able to tie his laces.”
Fast Thunder helped with the Sun Dance for 12 years, “just to learn.” before becoming a Sun Dancer.
You have to go with no ego, no pride, “Fast Thunder says. “Go there with an open mind and a sincere heart. And go there with the intent to learn who you are. That’s all it is. It’s about you, the individual.”
To the Lakota, what most people perceive as reality, this life we live and breath is actually a lesson plan.
“What is your growth in your lesson plan?” Fast Thunder asks. “Do you do everything that you can possible do correctly and righteously every day, so that at the end of the day you can go to the top of the hill and say ‘father I did the best I can and I have no shame?’
“If you can do that everyday, you are on your way.”
Fast Thunder rises with Ishoni’s help. Unsteady on his feet, she helps him outside so he can watch the horses in the back pasture and get a little sun.
“I want to work on my tan,” jokes the 55-year-old Fast Thunder, though it’s obvious the movement causes him discomfort.
Ishoni looks worried, but she is cherishing every day with her husband. She prays he will not only survive, but that the Great Spirit will find a way for to continue teaching the traditional ways.
“The knowledge needs to be passed on because the songs that were given to us are thousands of years old and they change the energy of the Universe,” she says. “It’s really important for that to given to our next generation.
“If we lose our elders, that knowledge, then we lose the next generation. The most important thing we have right now is our ceremonies and traditions.”
Fast Thunder, who was taught by Frank Fools Crow (Frank Eagle Bear), takes his condition in stride, the twinkle still residing in his dark eyes.
“When you get sick and crossover, what society doesn’t understand, is that death is a natural part of life,” Fast Thunder says. “There’s no need to be afraid of this. This is just a chapter in my spiritual growth, my path.
“And when I crossover I’ll close this door and open up my next one and continue—and always working toward being the best I can be.”
The public is invited to participate in chanupa ceremonies at the Fast Thunder home on Sundays. And if they want to build an inipi lodge or learn about the ‘medicine ways,’ they are welcome, just call 503-376-6309.
For those who would like to help, the Fast Thunders are in need of everything from good firewood to rain gutters on their house.

Donations to help save their home can be made to Chase Mortgage, Bankruptcy Dept—loan #0024672628 property 8850 Red Prairie Road, Sheridan, OR 97378.