PETE V. CATCHES

 ZINTKALA OYATE

PART 1  December 6. 2006.

John LeKay: Can you please tell me about your Lakota background and where you are from?

Pete V Catches:  My grandfather was Ribsman, a survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre. He was nine years old as his brother was throwing him into a dry creek bed to run, as he was being shot. He lived with my family until his death in 1968 and I was 13 years old. He was very important to my life. He never learned to speak English. He taught me my first songs. This is my grandfather from my mother's side. My mother was Amelia. I am Oglala Lakota, one of the bands that is known by many as the Sioux.

We liked to be called Lakota. It means the people of peace. My father was named Pete Catches Sr. and known as Petaga Yuha Mani (He who walks with hot coals). As far as we can count back he was a 37th generation medicine man. In Lakota society, to be a medicine man, it has to be in the blood line, the DNA so to speak. I am the 7th of 8 children.

My father knew before I was born that I was to be the medicine child. So when I was to be born, they prepared the sweat lodge so that he could give me his name and commit me to the Spotted Eagle way of medicine and my grandfather gave me my spiritual name, Zintkala Oyate, which means bird people. The reason for this is that when a medicine child is born, any real medicine person can come and get that child to raise it in the medicine that they do. This happened. A bear medicine man came after me but my father was ready and told them that he had already committed me to the Spotted Eagle way.

My home is on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

 

 John Fire Lame Deer with Pete Catches Sr

JL: At what age did your medicine training begin and did you have to stay on the mountain for 4 days and nights to receive your vision?

Zintkala Oyate:  I was born with it whereas with Dad, it didn't awaken in him till he was in his 40's.

You are talking about hanbleceya, the best way to describe it in English is the pipe fast which is a fast without food or water up to four days (how many days you commit to before you start) which is a 4 year commitment and it is one of the seven sacred rites given to the Lakota. It is a beautiful and powerful prayer. Mainstream society calls it a vision quest. One can have a vision but this is not the purpose as there are many reasons a person will go on a pipe fast.

I have my medicine by birthrite. It was very different for my father. I have done certain things to be able to do the healing that I do but it is not something I would discuss in an interview.

JL: So can any Lakota do this pipe fast or do you have to be a medicine man?

Zintkala Oyate: Any human being who believes this way can do this rite if they get a medicine man or spiritual person to create the space for them. Remember Lakota means the people of peace, there is no color attached to it. Race is something that man made up.

 

 

JL: What does the eagle and the bear represent and why is the eagle feather used?

Zintkala Oyate: They are different clans.... the eagle clan, the bear clan, the elk clan, etc. Each way has its own teachings and understandings of the seven sacred rites and the ceremonies within these seven sacred rites.

The eagle feather is used to cleanse the mind and bring you to a higher state. The eagle symbolically is the closest to the heavens; the highest realm of consciousness.

JL: Were Black Elk, Lame Deer and Fools Crow from the bear society or were they from the eagle society, and what is the difference?

Zintkala Oyate: Black Elk and Lame Deer were heyoka which means that you literally say and do things backwards in a humorous manner but whose spirit helpers are the powerful thunderbeings.

Lame Deer was the last true heyoka. If you look at this world most things flow in a clockwise cycle but you also have that small element in life that goes the opposite direction. There are things that Black Elk and Lame Deer did and said things in a way to divert the tensions at that time when the pipe way was under attack.

This is a way they used their medicine to help the people. At these times our religion was against the law with 10 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Medicine men were being put in jail, pipe and sweat lodges were destroyed, and so on. This law was till 1979. This is one of the reasons that my dad wrote the book that he did. Now that we had more freedom, the Lakota was coming and learning about themselves from books and they started doing everything backwards.

For a ceremony to have the power it was intended to have to help you, it must be done the way that it was given to you. You can't take a little from here and a little from there and have the same results. Although all prayer is good.
 

Peter V Catches

 

Fools Crow was yuwipi. They use black in their ceremonies. In the Spotted Eagle way, we can not use black in our ceremonies. We can only use life colors and can only do good with the use of our power. We can not do something bad in the name of good. Our medicine would be destroyed. It is only to be used to help the people.

JL: What is the reason for the number 405 for Fools Crow's stone white men spirit helpers and also Lame Deer mentions 405 and stones that are used in the the holy rattle?

Zintkala Oyate : A lot of yuwipi use 405 prayer ties. This is not my way so I can not answer your questions about this.

JL: Does that mean that Black Elk's descendents were also heyoka?

Zintkala Oyate: No, that does not mean that Black Elk's descendents would also be heyoka.

JL: Why was Lame Deer the real last heyoka?

Zintkala Oyate: According to my father, Lame Deer told my father that he tried to pass his medicine on but it was refused, so he died without doing this. If it is truly needed, it will become a reality again.