Kiowa bless city's restored Keeper
A purification ceremony Monday marks the final step to reinstalling Blackbear Bosin's much-loved Keeper of the Plains.
BY CHRISTINA M. WOODS
The Wichita Eagle
The scent of burning cedar rode the winds Monday morning in the Mid-America All-Indian Center's backyard.
Before the 44-foot-tall Keeper of the Plains sculpture could return to its higher base at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers, it had to be blessed.
"It's purification," said Truman Ware, a member of the Kiowa Nation and former center board chairman said about the ceremony.
Two Kiowa medicine men, who traveled from Oklahoma on Sunday, kept the wood burning using feathers, while Vernon "Cy" Ahtone sang in his native tongue of a warrior's return home.
The medicine men, Phil Joe Fish Dupoint and his brother Donald Dupoint started the blessing once the smoke started properly billowing.
The brothers began at the Keeper's feet as the statue lay on a truck bed, awaiting the journey to its base.
Donald Dupoint held the ashes in his right hand, eagle feathers in the left. He prayed for the statue. The Dupoint brothers then fanned smoke as they walked around the Keeper statue.
"It's an honor to be asked to do this," Phil Joe Fish Dupoint said. "They could have asked any other tribe, but they asked us."
Betty Nixon, a community leader who is also Kiowa, said the ceremony reflected the tribe's tradition of medicine men standing atop hills, offering prayers of protection for the people below.
Once the Keeper's blessing was complete, the medicine men prayed over people who waited with closed eyes and outstretched hands.
The medicine men offered individual prayers for each person, tapping their feathers and fanning the fragrant smoke over the person's head down to the feet. Once the prayer was complete, those being blessed bent down to cup smoke in their hands before patting themselves from their heads to their feet.
"This thing we're doing is not for show," said Ahtone, the singer. "It's got a purpose."
Less than an hour later, the Keeper stood 30 feet higher than it did before, facing due east, looking over the rivers and their people.
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Special thanks to Glenda Deer for the lead!
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March 2006 Reports
Last updated on March 24, 2006