FAQ's
Parents
Joseph Ortiz Codona:
The Nedhni Apaches come from the Sonora Mountains, south of Arizona.
The Nedhni had a powerful kinship with Geronimo, and joined him on all of his campaigns in defense of their homeland.
Florinda (Silverbird) Blair:
The Blair family and the Sequoia family were related by marriage.
Sequoia invented the "Cherokee Alphabet".
Birthplace
Out of seven children, he was the only one not born in New Mexico. He was born in Placentia, California.
His parents were on the way to Hollywood where his father had plans to become a Character Actor in the Film industry.
The child was the reason they left Beverly Hills.
They decided to return home to Santa Fe, to seek Native Medicine
which they faithfully believed could cure the child's blindness.
More in the biography: "World in my eyes" (to be released in late 2006).
Reason for being in Vienna
In 1999, Mr. Silverbird was contacted in Orlando, Florida, where has was starring as Chief Powhatan,
father of Pocahontas for Disney/MGM, by a management company that engaged him in the capacity
of Ambassador and Coordinator of one of the largest Native Villages
that was ever established 27 kilometers from Vienna, Austria.
His impact on the European public was so favorable that he now returns every year and uses
Vienna as a base to commute between most European countries.
Purification Lodge Ceremonies
He has established a small Native Village, by a river, in a Horse Farm, within the city limits of Vienna,
with a beautiful countryside feeling of Nature, at: Steinsporweg 9 in the 22nd District.
He will be conducting Ceremonies, Seminars and accepting groups of school children for Special Festive Native Events.
Family Roots
The basis of strong religious beliefs and sane political views should begin at the family home
level with respect for individual opinion from every member of the family.
Religion is good, but spiritual belief and faith can be more rewarding.
You must have a healthy and positive upbringing in order to think wisely about issues
that have their beginning within the family home.
Focused daily guidance and proper spiritual direction from parents will enrich children in their transition to adulthood.
These values will be remembered throughout a child's lifetime.
The Father and Mother must set the example of love and respect for the children to follow.
In essence, a picture is still worth a thousand words.
Children should be guided with love and respect and not manipulated with power.
If a child is wayward, unruly, rebellious or insolent, you do not beat the child into submission.
Acts of brute force against a helpless child are considered cowardly.
Discipline is necessary, and parents should communicate with each other carefully,
and discuss the best human way to administer such disciplinary action.
It is wise, for instance, to exclude a child from games with other members of family and friends,
or having them "fast" until they realize and understand their error.
In Native tradition, the worse punishment for someone is to feel as an "outcast",
and soon after a child or even young adult will learn obedience is necessary
in order to be allowed back into the realm of the family circle.
On the other hand, to use the morally wrong way of beating a child or young adult,
will only result in a lifelong hate and resentment against those
who have committed such acts of mentally or bodily Torture.
Mr. Silverbird, using serious humor during his Seminars will state,
"I have had many confused children of age 45, (Sporadic chuckles),
relate to me their memory of parental belittlement and torturous abuse while growing up.
It is very hard to erase completely, such actions from the powerful mind memory bank".
Most parents have no idea they are inflicting these adverse feelings of loneliness, neglect and anxiety in their children.
After all, they are using methods that are no different than their own parents used on them.
Equality between Husband and Wife partnership must take a 360 degree turn
in order to have a peaceful change in the world:
for peace and ways of adjustment must begin with the father and mother in the home.
When man finally comes to the realization that it is woman whom the Creator has gifted
with the miracle of life giving, and when he is able to concede where he comes from,
then perhaps there will be peace. The reason most Natives call the earth we live on
Mother Earth and not Father Earth, is because we respect the fact that,
"Mother Earth, gives, never stops giving and never tires of giving",
an absolute equivalence to that of Woman.
"Indian Circle"
The "Indian Circle", since the beginning of time to the present day, remains very sacred to many of the Natives in America. Today, Natives are able to challenge, if not, in major issues win, to regain their ancestral pride, culture and religious beliefs: Traditional identities that were almost lost because of adverse beliefs of the strangers from across the sea. The strong commandments that guided peoples of the Native Nations were stringent, ancient bylaws that came from within the Sacred Circle. It can best be expressed in the words, that I consider the most important commandment of the Medicine Wheel: "We must help others, without first thinking of ourselves".
Most of the words in this CD talk about: love, unity, forewarning, with hope and prayer for better understanding, and a world of peace for all humanity.
Happy and sometimes Sad, but true Native stories with diverse original musical styles, varying from, Acoustic and Electric guitars, percussive and synthesized orchestral sounds, intermixed with the Earth sounds of chanting, Native Instruments and meditation like sounds of Native Flute round-out the humble musical offering.
The songs are but a few that merely touch on the tragic fact based stories, of the events that followed after the Natives helped the sick and starving Europeans survive upon landing on their shores. Helping the strangers to survive and sharing with them their Native homeland, they were soon and methodically brought into submission by peoples whose mentality was not that of the words they preached from their holy bible. The ill-minded strangers used empty-promises and lies to get the Natives to sign, at times meaningless pieces of paper they called "Treaties". Europeans came with greedy knowledge of "real-estate ownership" and centuries of past expertise in the deadly art of war. Word of mouth traveled fast in Europe and soon an overwhelming flow of their country men arrived with far advanced weaponry for which the Natives were no match. In the end, Natives were, either sold as slaves to the West Indies, other far away places, or removed to remote pieces of wasteland. The new formed government of early America conveniently named these pieces of waste land, "reservations", which still exist today, Sovereign Nations but still closely monitored by Washington.
The only way to truly learn about Natives in America, land of their birth and ancestry, is through works by other Natives such as Ohiyesa, Zitkala-Sa, or true white sympathizers such as Robert Redford. It should be noted that there is no real Native history course taught in the American school system that allows any student the freedom or choice to learn about Native History as a subject for a school credit. So since it can be surmised, that it is mostly restricted, the honest truth about the majestic, valuable and historical aspects of the "Original Natives of the land" is mostly unknown to the majority of non-Natives of America today, that includes many Urban Natives as well, who are too busy trying to learn the American way in order to survive in their subnormal life within the American system, which is not equal to that of non-Native citizenry.
The Natives who considered their land, "Old World" were estimated by some anthropologists to number, anywhere from 12 to 50 million, before the coming of the European. Today, Original Natives number approximately 2,475,956, not even 1% of the population in America. They are the only race of people in the world whose number, instead of multiplying was diminished or decreased methodically.
By a miracle of time, much persistence, love and patience, Original Natives have been able to endure, adjust, forgive and, if not totally forget, recover from one of the darkest American moments of treachery, land-grab take over and near extermination in the history of the civilized world.
I pray that some of these original songs fill your heart with joy and make you want to sing and dance. But, that it also helps you think, understand and learn more of a traditionally proud, giving and mostly happy peoples. It is presented in a form of artistry considered one of the leading and most palatable known to the world since the beginning of time: music, lyric and story-telling verse.
INDIAN CIRCLE (THE SONG TEXT)
Indian Circle of love and respect
Goes on without an end, it's a lifetime test
Indian Circle of honor and pride
Must always begin within your heart from the start
In the heavenly LAWS it was written, a very long time ago
That the Indian man would have to live within the sacred circle to grow
True obedience to hoop, through every summer and snow of his life
Would bring him knowledge and light, healthy children, with a wise and tolerant wife
(Top four lines)
The center of the Drum always represents the beat of the people's heart
Rejoicing to the beat of Drum has been the Indian way from the very start
To achieve your place within the circle, you must think of nothing else, but doing well for other human beings before thinking or doing for yourself.
(Top four lines)
The white wisdom of the North, where we find the proud and mighty Buffalo
While in the South stands the green innocence of a trusting little mouse
And the introspective bear from the West looks through the black forest as he waves goodbye.
While a Golden Eagle in the East, illuminates and flies, freely in the sky
These are the symbols that the Indian knows he cannot forget or ever deny
If he wants to be in balance with the circle, he must forever comply.
(Repeat top four lines four times)
(Dedicated to CNIGA and all other Native Gambling Casino owners in the USA, as a reminder that perhaps the Great Creator gave Natives this gift to help all Natives in some way, and not to waste gambling revenues foolishly to do battle against one another, as white opponents frequently say was the habit of Natives in olden days).
Gambling Casinos and Silverbird
In 1984 I was the owner of the first Native Restaurant in NYC called Silverbird. It received International Media from all over the world, including the Wall Street Journal, US News, TV and more. I became Mr. Silverbird overnight (if you know what I mean). Needless to say, I was riding so high that I was even asked to run for office in NYC. However, if you were to check with the American Indian Community House in NYC, of which I am a member, they have on record that I donated 10% of all revenues from my place for the betterment of the AICH Native members, where my own nephew was Director of Public Relations for 17 years.
I was also, often approached with all kinds of interesting offers. Other restaurant owners in NYC wondered how I was able to get so much publicity. They visited my place and some became good friends. One night I received a dinner invitation from a Japanese friend who owned one of the top restaurants in the city and others throughout the USA. He said he had some people that wanted to meet me. I asked who they were and he told me that it was an Atlantic City Casino Group of eight Casino owners, which did not include himself, my friend Rocky Aoki. When I arrived, he was accompanied by eight others that also included the head of Bally's gambling in Atlantic City and seven others. They "made me an offer", because of my Apache/Cherokee heritage, to travel, as their Ambassador and meet with Reservation leaders and propose gambling Casinos. They had contracts for me to sign and all, and after a week my friend Rocky called me to ask if I had signed the contracts, and I told him that I could not do this. I turned them down because I don't like what gambling fever does to a people regardless of their racial background. No doubt, I would be a very wealthy man today, but believe me when I tell you, I could foretell the fiasco that was coming, and now it is here. Now I pray this does not damage further, the Natives of this country, who already have enough problems going on with cases like Cobell v Norton and so many others that get nowhere in the Supreme Courts of this country. The terrible thing is that the world does not know what is still happening to our people here in this country. With this tragedy, things can only get worse. Unless, the Casino owners join forces as one, and use some of those ill gotten millions to fight the establishment with a two prong program of MEDIA and a strong and reputable Law Firm to represent and fight back all the dark media that will be forthcoming, blaming Native Casinos, to camouflage this scandal that that goes all the way to the top of politics in Washington DC. I predict that if Natives, mainly Casinos who are financially able in this country, do not UNITE and do for their own people, worse catastrophes will follow for Natives in general. All our people will suffer because of the involvement of certain Native Casinos with this LOBBYING Jewish man. The importance of mentioning his Faith is because I believe it is shameful for a Jewish person to have such low regard for a people who have suffered the same fate as his own people: extermination and genocide at the hands of the world. In the end, sad to say, Natives will lose again. The only power that can now help is that of money and since Casino owners seem to have an abundance of it, this time, they should use it wisely with cunning to fight fire with fire. And these Casino Owners should, never again forget who they are, where they came from, even if they only have a minute ounce of Native Blood. From this point on, if you survive this calamity, help all Native people with this gift of good fortune given to you by the Great Creator.