At home in Altai Siberia, Russia
By Patricia Anne Davis
Special to the Times
Sept. 29, 2011
(Courtesy photo)
Patricia Ann Davis, left, and Danil, a Siberian shaman, during Davis' recent trip to Siberia. Danil commented that he had hosted two Navajo men about two weeks before Davis' visit.
They eat every part of the sheep like we do. They call their sheep "security" in their own language. They fed me lamb stew and fry bread in their shade sitting on a bench next to an eight-sided traditional home as we do on the Navajo Nation.
I made a long list of ways they are the same as Navajo people, including how they look like American Indians. Some similarities include women who wear tiered skirts and a head scarf. They travel by horse and by wagon. They still have out houses. They have a female and male traditional home where the male home is also for ceremonies.
They smoke a traditional short pipe and drink mostly Chai tea instead of coffee. They chop wood and build a fire outside near the shade where they cook.
I met my twin brother who is an authentic Siberian "Shaman" who looks like me. I was very far from home on the other side of the world, yet I felt very at home in the TunAltai Siberia, Russia.
I was invited by Carol Hiltner, founder of Altai University and Fellowship to trek to the foot of Mt. Belukha and I walked 60 miles with four Americans in the wilderness. I had never in my life worn hiking boots, slept in a "mummy" sleeping bag or carried a backpack weighing 45 pounds.
We hiked on a mountain trail in the forest along the Katun River to Lake Akkem where we camped at the foot of Mt. Belukha.
After resting two days, we were driven by a four-wheel drive van to Kosh Agach, a remote village where we began a four-day ride on horses on the Ukok Plateau. When we reached the top of the Ukok Mountain in Russia, we could see the mountains in Mongolia and China.
The first day was a seven-and-a-half hour ride over a 10,000-foot ridge. We crossed a raging river just like in the old western movies I saw as a child at Thoreau boarding school, where my father the late Anselm Davis Sr. worked.
The second day my horse stepped in barbed wire and we both panicked and I felt like a grandma saddle-bronc rider at the local rez rodeo. While I tried to rein him away from it when I saw it, he did not step away from it in time.
The third day my horse fell on the rocks in a marsh stream and I strained my arm muscle staying on, so as not to be thrown over his head on to the rocks.
Well, I have not ridden a horse in 25 years! My grandfather Dahgatsosie in Lukachukai, Ariz., used to let me ride his horse when I visited him as I grew up. That was only around his hogan. He passed on when I was 18 years old, but his beautiful spirit was with me riding the Siberian horse in very challenging terrain.
I flew 12 hours to Moscow and three hours to Novosibirsk and rode an all-night train to Gorno-Altai. From there I traveled with the Altai Fellowship group members by bus, taxi and van to walk over mountains and ride a horse in the remote wilderness of Siberia.
The purpose of my participation on this trip was to facilitate a ceremonial change process for the indigenous and Russian people. I am recognized as a person with valuable knowledge about a healing process that leads to curing, not coping with the services and products that rob the poor and enrich the rich every generation.
I designed an indigenous ceremonial change process to educate about the benefits of reframing win-lose decisions into win-win decisions with the appropriate use of the creative imagination in the affirmative thinking system - hozhooji.
It is designed for the general public to understand and implement a how-to process to reframe spiritual energy for wellness restoration and abundant living, by awakening out of belief in lack, fear and scarcity.
The phrase "living the loving way" is a literal translation from the Navajo/Dineh Blessing Way teaching that I translated into unifying principles for universal practical application of a peaceful way of living in the context of the natural order-hozho.
This change-process design represents the intention and reason for the invitations for me to travel to eight different countries in the world, including Altai Siberia, Russia.
I was out of the U.S. for seven weeks and upon my return, I extended my commitment in assisting indigenous youth in giving expression to their cultural creativity to include Altai indigenous youth.
My hope is for a cultural initiative to fund the Altai Throat Singers through financial stipends for basic needs. This support will allow them to continue performing at public concerts in Russia and other countries. IAIM is an acronym for Indigenous Altai Imagination Momentum for soliciting a $75 per month stipend for each current Throat Singer to give creative expression of their gifts as singers and musicians.
I wish to see a similar initiative and cultural exchange event between talented Navajo youth and Altai youth in Window Rock some day.