In the poignant memoir, Medicine Rock, one woman retells her journey of deep living and incredible changes after the loss of her six-year-old son. In 1970, when Morning Star first met Sun Bear, a Chippewa medicine man, she had two healthy sons and a happy marriage-everything a twenty-seven-year-old hippie could want, despite living in a home without electricity. One evening, after the kerosene lamps in her home were filled, someone left kerosene in a drinking glass. The next morning, her son accidentally drank the kerosene and a few hours later, his short life was over. Morning Star relays how after her marriage disintegrated, she and Sun Bear reunite, fall in love, and he soon talks her into traveling around the country with him in an old police car. Relying on the diary she kept during their journey, she describes the beginnings of environmentalism, the peace movement, and the wild culture of the seventies, all while documenting the pitfalls and incremental healing of a mother's broken heart. Medicine Rock traces one woman's return from death to life and how the song of the earth came to live in her bones during her grief journey, filling her up once again. Morning Star lives in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana, and is the author of two books of poetry as well as a Certified Leader in the Dances of Universal Peace. As her career in social work draws to a close, she plans to enjoy more hiking, skiing, and family adventures. MEDICINE ROCK A Journey of Vision and Healing By MORNING STAR iUniverse, Inc. Copyright © 2009 Morning Star All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4401-9744-4 Contents Gratitude...........................................................................viiDedication..........................................................................ixIntroduction........................................................................xi1. Potlatch: Sacramento Early March, 1971...........................................12. City Trips.......................................................................103. Medicine Rock: Tribal Roots......................................................224. Traveling Light: Base Camps......................................................345. Road Kills: Survival With A Knife Late March.....................................506. Rising Tides - Death And Resurrection Early April................................627. The Yellow Plague: The Body Process April-May....................................818. Medicine Journey: Southwest Gifts June...........................................959. A Lot Of Hellos: Communes & Communities Late June-Early July.....................10910. Hot Highways: Close Call........................................................13211. Ripe Berries Moon: East Coast...................................................16512. No Place To Go: Gifts From The Apple August.....................................18813. A Lot Of Goodbyes: Family Trips.................................................21814. What Goes 'Round Comes 'Round: Homecoming.......................................24515. In Beauty It Is Begun September.................................................25516. Fields of Corn..................................................................281 Chapter One POTLATCH: SACRAMENTO EARLY MARCH, 1971 Sun Bear told Morning Star that free food would draw people like flies. He was right. Two hundred people showed up that rainy Sunday afternoon to eat lamb stew and fry bread in the great circular room of the church. They came out of curiosity for the most part. The advertising called it a Potlatch, not a familiar word to most people. But the second line said "Give Away' and that was the hook. He wanted as many people as the room could hold to announce publicly the formation of the new tribe. When they'd secured the round church he told her it was a good sign, that it would be a great day. The room was like a kiva and he said the folks from the Indian Center would know this was a sacred event. Star had never heard the word potlatch before a month ago when they had begun working steadily getting this organized. She stood off to the side of the room, her blonde braided hair decorated with thongs that hung down her back and quail feathers nearly reaching her waist. A beaded headband encircled her forehead. She was wearing every medicine object she had. Every feather had meaning, every bead had been sewn in prayer. She had put them all on to strengthen her for what promised to be another very long day. As her eyes scanned the gathering she felt the ache in her gut return. She looked for Sun Bear. He was easy to find in any crowd in his old, black cowboy hat. He usually threw it in the back of the car when he traveled. The creases were crinkled and dusty, but successfully covered his unruly black hair that wasn't coarse and straight like most Indians' hair. It was soft and full and usually tangled if someone didn't brush it for him. His