This is the seventh article in my series about our changing Earth from interviews with Native Americans shared in We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth, edited by Dahr Jamail and Stan Rushworth (USA 2022). My presentation does not follow the order of the interviews.

#7: Marita Hacker (Hunkpapa, Norwegian)
      (Chapter 9, pp. 124-139)

Marita Hacker is an elder of Dakota Hunkpapa and Norwegian descent, with a wealth of knowledge from her own lineage, and an ardent scholar of other world traditions. She’s a healer, spiritual advisor, former foster parent, and retired high school teacher and counselor. One of just a few female Apostolic bishops in the United States, she has also been involved with hospice care for almost thirty years.

As a member of the US military, Marita’s Native American father met her Norwegian mother when he was transferred to West Germany, where she was forced to relocate, thanks to Hitler. Before Marita’s birth, her father died in an accident. Following his wishes, Marita was raised in Germany and not the United States. After moving to California when she turned 21 years old, she left for Oregon where she lived off-grid for seven years, spending time on a Hopi reservation and in the homes of different Native folks as she “let them foster what I had within me.”

Today, Marita lives with her husband in his homeland of Apacheria in southern New Mexico, serving her community as well as others who travel to see them for ceremony and other spiritual work. She spoke with Dahr and Stan from the front porch of their humble adobe home, surrounded by the rolling hills and mountains of Apacheria.

With regards to the climate catastrophe and all the other converging crises, Marita thinks this happened when people lost their connection to “that which is greater than us.” She spoke of Earth changing many, many times, and of entering the fifth world now. In speaking of the wildfires, hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic, she said (pp. 125-126):

Earth is a self-sustaining entity that is, right now, seeming to cleanse itself of that which irritates it in a variety of ways. She’s cleaning now as we speak. It’s horrific, and it’s not going to change until we get back to that grouping together, to being caring, because we can’t change the world; all we can do is change ourselves…. Individuals, creatures, and everything that encompasses the occupancy of this planet is a puzzle piece…. Unfortunately, some of the pieces have been lost, gouged out, spread apart, lost, and somehow it needs to come back to cohesion…. It doesn’t matter if you’re Indigenous, if you’re full blood, if you’re mixed blood, if you’re Asian, if you’re Black, if you’re Lebanese, if you’re Islamic; it doesn’t matter. You’re part of a puzzle piece that is intricate to this world.

She believes that many of us living in this day and time are damaged individuals. This could be the result of our personal family systems, our culture, or reaction to attack from another culture. So, everybody clings to their beliefs as though they were something tangible. But they’re not tangible.

If Marita had her way, she would have each of us pause from our drive to grab and save more material things that do nothing to satisfy our inner self. She would have us ask ourselves: What is most important? What is our passion? What is our passion that doesn’t harm another being on this planet? While the early shortages (such as toilet paper) during the COVID-19 pandemic are now behind us, she questions some of the things that we continue to grab for ourselves (p. 127):

Is it back to making money for your second cabin? Is it drilling for more oil? Is it fracking and causing a gazillion earthquakes in Oklahoma? That’s your passion? There’s something wrong with that.

In response to a question from Dahr, Marita explains the importance of ceremony in getting in touch with the intangible side of our being during this time of converging crises (pp. 127-128).

It’s very important…. We are this swirling mass of atomic energy that they can’t find under a microscope, as finite as they attempt to get it. We are a combination of movement and the light. The English term they have for this is energy. We are all units of energy. We are puzzle pieces, and there is this battery that is an unlimited source of energy that we are connected to all the time. But most of us don’t have the constant awareness of this deep, perpetual connection to it. And this is where ceremony comes in.

When like-minded individuals come together during ceremony to focus their heart process on a theme, they are tapping into “that battery, and more energy occurs, and then you have results.” Humanity, Marita observes, is caught up in the minutiae of daily life and forgets that we are connected to “the battery” every minute of our day. She adds: “The connection with the battery is what makes everything vibrate.”

The positive and the negative exist together. It’s where we choose to focus our consciousness that makes the difference. The world may be “going to shit,” but it does have its beautiful places.

Look out your window. We are in paradise. We are in Eden. We didn’t get kicked out. Our minds got kicked out. The mind became the all-powerful thing.

Marita believes that people worldwide are aware of the great climate and ecological changes that are already upon us. For the most part, the United States remains stuck in the denial stage (of grief). She thinks that the country blames others for its own actions, refusing to take any responsibility.

When asked what she would say to folks who are stuck in fear, or in a state of panic around the converging crises, Marita said (p. 136):

Those people in fear have lived on this planet long enough to know that change is a guarantee. And they have to stop being afraid of what hasn’t come in yet. And if they’re faced with something that is fearful, they must ask themselves, ‘What can I do?’

She thinks that the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a good thing, because we came face-to-face with fear. The time we spent separated from others also forced us to look inward, increasing our awareness. For those who don’t believe in the power of prayer to heal and bring about change, she suggests that they use whatever connects them with Mother Earth. This may be their grandchild or a pretty bird. Using the words “magic” and “spirit” synonymously, she added (p. 137):

We need to come back to the belief in magic. My dream is that people get to have some kind of experience of that to give them something to hold on to. I do. I wish that for everybody I see or touch, because it’s life changing.

Marita implores us to remain open to spirit that flows through each one of us. When we can step into our own flow, we can use this energy to bring about change that also affects other people who witness this change. Because of her connection with spirit, she’s not depressed, scared, or lacking faith. She’s seen enough to know that these changes are not permanent. She concludes (p. 139):

It’s cyclical. It’s a cycle. It’s a circle. It’s a spiral. It’s never ending, ever changing. And we should too. We should change too.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Like Elder Marita, I also believe that, if you cannot see the extreme changes in our weather, among other changes, you’re still in the stage of denial (first stage of grief). With acceptance (final stage of grief) of Earth’s changing reality, you and I will be able to make the personal changes needed and to take action as a community.

Since childhood, I’ve been connected through prayer to what Elder Marita describes as “this battery that is an unlimited source of energy.” I’ve known this battery as God the Creator and, much later, as Cosmic Consciousness. Over the years, I’ve witnessed and experienced the power of prayer: “the magic,” as she calls it.

Change like we’ve never known in the Modern Era is upon us. How long will this new cycle take for Mother Earth to achieve a renewed state of equilibrium? Elder Marita does not say. I imagine it will depend upon how much more damage our species will inflict upon Earth’s interlocking life systems. To change will not be an option.

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Click on links below for previously featured interviews:

#1: Raquel Ramirez (Ho-Chunk, Ojibwe, Lenca) – Awareness
#2: Alexii Sigona (Amah Mutsun) – Stewardship
#3: Terri Delahanty (Cree) – Sacred Feminine and Sacred Masculine
#4: Shannon Rivers (Akimel O’otham) – Balance
#5: Lyla June Johnston (Diné [Navajo], Tsétsêhéstâhese [Cheyenne]) – Trust
#6: Dr. Kyle Powys Whyte (Potawatomi)– Kinship