lune pleine - full moon

Rain - Rising American Indian Nations

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RAIN now operates on a 40-acre horse ranch located in the Uintah Basin in northeastern Utah. We consider this land sacred, a place of healing with pleine lune. Currently seven horses, five American Paint and two quarter horses, occupy this ranch for our equine energy program. We hold workshops on Uinta Springs Ranch for anyone who wants to experience the Power of the Whispering Horses.

We utilize Uinta Springs ranch facility to provide services for youth and families; we are working with the Ute Tribe community to target troubled youth. We incorporate programs and services that correspond to the Medicine Wheel and the ancient concepts and interpretations of it, which we think better serve native people. This holistic approach is effective when healing inter-generational historic trauma, substance abuse (methamphetamine abuse in particular), and other problems facing native people.

Uinta Springs Ranch facilities: Our facilities include a healing grove for prayer and meditation, a sweat lodge, fire pits for ceremonies, a medicine wheel, and beautiful camp sites for visitors. We are currently raising money for a community building that will include a commercial kitchen, a meeting or lecture hall, indoor sleeping quarters, and bathroom and shower facilities.

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Equine Healing: Kathleen McGarry says it best, "Working with the sacred nature of horses brings people into connection with their emotional power, familial and tribal values, culture, ceremony, spirituality, and language. The horses help to release anxiety and stress and ease conflict. Individuals will develop responsibility, integrity, leadership skills, and respectful boundaries, while understanding the relationship the tribe had with the horse through songs, stories, dances, and art.”

Garden: Gardening is all encompassing. Our model grow-box garden and community garden are designed for many purposes: to encourage tribal members, especially troubled youth and their families, to grow and cook healthy foods and to learn business skills such as selling organic produce to tribal schools, farmers markets, the tribal grocery store, and restaurants. Plans are in order for a seasonal high tunnel this spring, which will extend the growing season in our area and enable a greater amount and wider selection of produce. We are currently looking into hydro-turbine generators, including hydroponic facilities.

History of Uinta Springs Ranch (by Forrest Cuch)

Located on what is called Indian Bench in Uintah County, this beautiful ranch is an inheritance gift from my Great Uncle Billy Chapoose. My mother cared for Uncle Billy during his latter years. He lived in our home for many years and served as a grandfather to me. Uncle Billy left the land to my mother, Josephine LaRose and her sister, my Aunt Mary Mae Murray. Following my mother's death in 1970, the property was left to me. I bought Aunt Mary's share shortly thereafter.

Uncle Billy lived to be close to if not beyond 100 years. His actual age cannot be determined because it is my understanding that his birth certificate was lost to a fire in one of the government buildings housing such information. What we know about him is that he was a very traditional man. He was very soft spoken and always kind, a true gentleman. He was an excellent speaker of the Ute language, and he knew many of the old Uintah Ute words that have long since been lost. In addition to being a singer, he was the fire keeper for the most sacred Ute ceremony, the Ute Sundance. At one time, he was married. His wife preceded him in death. He also had a brother named Scott who also preceded him in death. Under my mother's care, he became a well known figure in downtown Roosevelt. Over the weekends, he would stay in the Hotel Roosevelt where they took good care of him. He would spend countless hours in the local tavern called Commercial Club, nursing a beer or two. On Sundays, my mother and I would pick him up and bring him home. One of the special things we used to do is play cards. Our favorite games was "Cau-chuck", a pairing game similar to fish. I have nothing but wonderful memories of my time with my great Uncle Billy

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Uinta Springs Ranch

Tribute to Uinta (pictured above with Munchkin)

Uinta was our 10 year old registered black and white American paint mare. She was our prized mare. She was well-proportioned with just the right amount of muscle tone to highlight her beautiful shiny coat.

She gave birth last year to a beautiful foe we named, Munchkin. And, of course, Uinta was a very good mother. Both her and her foe had beautiful black and white markings and pattern distribution. Most importantly, Uinta was beginning to show her love for people.

When we first got to know her, she was aloof and standoffish. But as time went on, she began to notice what we were doing in our horse energy work. Before long, she was stepping forth and choosing people to work with. She was consciously choosing to be a part of RAIN’s mission.

Uinta came down with a sudden case of colic and passed away, Sunday, December 6, 2015. Her sudden departure devastated all of us who knew and worked with her. She was a very special mare who made a huge contribution to our work. We loved her very much.

We have been at such a loss that we have decided to name our ranch after her. Here forth, our ranch will be known of as Uinta Springs Ranch. The Springs aspect is added due to the unusual amount of water found on our 40 acre property, water which we hope to use in an efficient manner to beautify and contribute to the sustainability features of the ranch.

NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS

The name RAIN—Rising American Indian Nations—has multi-faceted meanings for everyone who becomes involved in this wonderful, exciting American Indian organization.

Rain is very sacred to American Indians. Many mountain/plains tribes participate in a ceremony called “Sundance," in which they fast from food and water for 3-4 days/nights, learning quickly the value of water, then food. A single raindrop falling from the heavens becomes a treasured blessing. Many offer thanks each time they take a drink of water. Out of this celebration and respect for rain, came the name Rising American Indian Nations.

Rising American Indian Nations (RAIN) was established April 2007 in Salt Lake City, Utah, as a non-profit 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization. RAIN is an organization dedicated to empowering American Indians. A majority of American Indians serve on RAIN's Board of Trustees. RAIN’s many programs are specially designed by American Indians to counteract early death, hopelessness, and despair. We use several vehicles to accomplish this: non-traditional education, interpersonal skills training/development, health education and prevention, promotion of traditional native healing arts, sustainable living concepts, and many other specially designed programs, events, and services.

Vision: American Indian nations will rise up with one voice and develop a higher consciousness of truth, faithfulness, and love necessary to restore the earth to sacredness in communion with God/Creator.

Our Mission/Purpose: To empower Indian people to make contributions to their communities and become leaders who make major contributions to humanity.

Our Motto: We respond to the core of problems, not the symptoms. “Band aids are killing our people!”

Our Overall Goal: To recreate a genuine model of a modern-day traditional American Indian community that is self-sustaining and promotes the pre-colonial ideology (i.e., cooperative economics, unconditional giving, and egalitarianism) of American Indians, combined with the utilization of the newest, most effective, and clean technologies (such as alternative energy, organic food production, and alternative construction methods), which will serve as an effective demonstration of how to improve one’s life and contribute to self-sustaining communities.

Co-founders of RAIN

Forrest S. Cuch is an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe and Co-Founder of RAIN. He was born and raised on the Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. In 1973, he graduated from Westminster College, SLC, Utah, with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in the Behavioral Sciences. Forrest served as education director for the Ute Indian Tribe from 1973 to 1988. He has held numerous positions that have prepared him for his current work in RAIN. These include tribal planner (nation building), tribal administrator, and secondary social studies teacher. Forrest was director of Utah Division of Indian Affairs from 1997 through 2011. He was editor of the publication A History of Utah’s American Indians Utah State University Press, 2000. He served on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics. His legacy is getting a more accurate history of Utah's Tribes into schools and to the general public, which includes the documentry film We Shall Remain that focused on each Utah Tribe and was sponsored by PBS and KUTV. Throughout his career, he has worked to call attention to the ancient presence of American Indian people in Utah, and he has worked with other American Indian leaders in the state to address many critical issues facing all of Utah’s tribes.

Shauna Lynne is executive director and co-founder of RAIN. She successfully raised a large family. Shauna has owned and operated several businesses and is presently a consultant. She served on the University of Utah advisory board for Fine Arts. One of her accomplishments in this capacity was arranging for the Ute Tribe Education Department to display art in the Gittens Gallary. She developed a unique branding and marketing strategy for RAIN and a business plan. She developed a program for presentations for the Salt Lake Public Library to help the community better understand the Indian people and their culture. She worked with the Ute tribe on diabetes prevention through a nutrition program that included cooking demonstrations as a solution to debilitating diseases due to poor nutrition. Shauna helped bring awareness in public schools of the We Shall Remain curriculum by hosting assemblies at schools near reservation consisting of American Indian cultural performances, story telling, and drumming/dancing. As business consultant to the Ute Tribal Enterprises, LLC, she developed healthy concepts for a new restaurant and existing grocery store on the Ute reservation. She helped develop the second generation website for RAIN and started the kickstart program to raise money for a community facility on the reservation for workshops and training. She is currently working with Ute Tribe Family Services to develop programs for troubled youth and their families. She is committed to assisting Indian people in line with RAIN's goals and objectives.

RAIN Goals/Objectives: We seek to empower through sponsorship the following programs:

HEALING - Leadership and Empowerment

HEALTH/PROSPERITY – A model native, sustainable ranch/native healing facility emphasizing good nutrition, dietary supplements, and health prevention programs

EDUCATION - Emphasizing out-of-school programs that empower parents and youth

SUSTAINABILITY - Promoting environmental education and conservation services

Philosophy/Beliefs

“We must take the best of the Whiteman’s world and the best of the Indian world and keep them.” -- Sitting Bull, Hunk papa Ogallala Lakota

“The greatest evil is the humiliation of children.” -- Ellie Wiesal, Holocaust Survivor

“Imagination is greater than intelligence.”-- Albert Einstein

“Racism is hurtful, but to be invisible and ignored is demoralizing."-- Forrest S. Cuch

RAIN Board Members:

Forrest S. Cuch (Ute), Founding Board Member, Acting Chairman

Shauna Engen, Founding Board Member

Glen Hardaway, Houston, Texas

Lara Arrowchis (Ute), Neola, Utah

Carleen Kanip (Ute), Ft. Duchesne, Utah

Fredricka Hunter, (Blackfeet), Missoula, Montana

Nancy Hewitt, Bookkeeper, Park City, Utah

Duane Moss, Legal Advisor, Midway, Utah

GET INVOLVED

HELP URGENTLY NEEDED: In a recent discussion with Ute Tribal leaders, the Vice Chairman pointed out the alarming 75% dropout rate among Ute high school students. He also called attention to the significant level of methamphetamine use among the youth and its presence in the homes as a result of students dropping out. Help us reach our goal. Join with us now to bring urgently needed services to these troubled youth. Donate now and become a long standing member of our Bear, Buffalo, or Eagle donors club

Any amount will help towards reach our goal. Become an advocate/volunteer for Rising American Indian Nations and help bring clarity and awareness to the non-Indian community about how to give back to the Indian people who have so much to offer. Whether an American Indian or not, CLICK HERE to sign up and help our cause as an advocate/volunteer!

Please click on the Network for Good logo above to securely make your donation. You can also visit us on Facebook to make your donation securely through Causes, the worldwide leader of Social Networking donations.

Welcome to Rising American Indian Nations

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"When the Grandmothers from the four directions speak, a new time is coming" - a prophecy of the Indigenous people of the world, Grandmothers Council the World.

Health is our biggest challenge, we call upon powerful worldly concepts and principles to guide us. These principles can be found in the Medicine Wheel, ancient man-made circular rock formations found throughout the Western Hemisphere. There are four major components/elements of man found in the Medicine Wheel (blog), namely mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional. Our programs are designed around or with these components in mind. Click here for information on the Medicine Wheel and why it is our symbol of hope for Rising American Indian Nations.

The poor health of American Indians is the result of displacement and restricted reservation life:

  1. Nine Ute bands who once roamed homelands in central Utah and western Colorado were forceably removed to northeastern Utah, a mostly arid land

  2. The original Ute diet consisted mostly of protein from wild game, with little or no carbohydrates, sugar, or alcohol

  3. Restriction to a limited hunting range drastically altered their diet and native foods were replaced by military rations consisting mostly of refined wheat or white flour, sugar, salt, lard (often referred to by native nutritionists as the four white killers), and hard tack/bacon

  4. The more recent influences of modern media emphasize comsumption of fast foods loaded with sugar, carbohydrates and harmful chemicals, such as high fructose corn syrup, GMOs and MSG.

Exposure to these harmful influences have taken their toll over the past 200 years.

The poor diet has contributed to addictions to sugar-based foods, alcohol, illicit drugs, and prescription drugs, which include a plethora of pharmaceuticals designed for a quick fix. Rather than their original diet serving as a means of prevention, the Indian people have become victims of ignorance and bad information. RAIN therefore engages in food demonstrations, presentations and events that emphasize the importance of native foods, organically produced foods, raw fruits and vegetables, and exercise that is more conducive and appropriate for native people.

Most of our traditional ceremonies for health take place on our Uinta Springs Ranch. Some of these ceremonies include equine healing; a healing grove for prayer and meditation; sweat lodge (no fees or charges incurred, donations only); fire pits for healing ceremonies; and a large, modern medicine wheel. We are currently raising money for a community building to facilitate our training and workshops that will include a commercial kitchen, a meeting or lecture hall, sleeping quarters, and bathroom facilities.

Get involved now and enjoy the reciprocity of donating to the first people of our nation to return to health and prosperity...and improve your own health and the health of your loved ones in the process!

Medicine Wheel Health

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The Ute Indian people were once knowledgeable of the Medicine Wheel, but over time and mostly due to warfare, which is costly to the elders (wisdom keepers), this knowledge has been lost. At RAIN's healing ranch, we are commited to restoring and utililizing the power of the medicine wheel for healing purposes. The medicine wheel therefore has great importance to present day circumstances and challenges.

A revered Mayan elder demonstrated how the medicine wheel is a powerful connector to the cosmos and to healing energy. It goes hand in hand with the Mayan calendar and has much to offer humanity in this day and age.

Rising American Indian Nations Healing Ranch

We are happy to report that RAIN now operates on a 40-acre horse ranch located in the Uintah Basin in northeastern Utah. We refer to this facility as the “healing ranch.” Currently seven horses, five American Paint and two quarter horses, occupy this ranch for our equine healing program.

We utilize this ranch facility to provide services for youth and families; we are working with the Ute Tribe's Social Services to target troubled youth. We incorporate programs and services that correspond to the Medicine Wheel and the ancient concepts and interpretations of it, which we think better serve native people. This holistic approach is effective when healing inter-generational historic trauma, substance abuse (methamphetamine abuse in particular), and other problems facing native people.

Equine Healing: Kathleen McGarry says it best, "Working with the sacred nature of horses brings people into connection with their emotional power, familial and tribal values, culture, ceremony, spirituality, and language. The horses help to release anxiety and stress and ease conflict. Individuals will develop responsibility, integrity, leadership skills, and respectful boundaries, while understanding the relationship the tribe had with the horse through songs, stories, dances, and art.”

Garden: Gardening is all encompassing. Our model grow-box garden and community garden are designed for many purposes: to encourage tribal members, especially troubled youth and their families, to grow and cook healthy foods and to learn business skills such as selling organic produce to tribal schools, farmers markets, the tribal grocery store, and restaurants. Plans are in order for a seasonal high tunnel this spring, which will extend the growing season in our area and enable a greater amount and wider selection of produce. We are currently looking into hydro-turbine generators, including hydroponic facilities.

Healing Ranch facilities: Our facilities include a healing grove for prayer and meditation, a sweat lodge, fire pits for ceremonies, a medicine wheel, and beautiful camp sites for visitors. We are currently raising money for a community building that will include a commercial kitchen, a meeting or lecture hall, indoor sleeping quarters, and bathroom and shower facilities.

Rising American Indian Nations Education Programs

Poor education for Indian children has plagued Indian people for decades. The Ute Indian Tribe, as with most tribes, suffers a high school dropout rate as high as 75%, year after year. This problem is systemic and contributes significantly to ineffective tribal government, which negatively impacts business and economic development on reservations. This poor education produces an unskilled and incompetent labor force that contributes to failed businesses and major losses in revenues, making it impossible for Indian tribes to progress to any possible degree of prosperity. Please help today

We promote non-traditional education programs that are specifically designed for American Indians because, true to our motto, these are programs that work. They include native culturally relevant curriculum; effective language restoration such as dual emersion and language nests; and learning accurate history and folklore. We work closely with local schools and tribal youth programs including the Ute Tribe’s charter high school, Uintah River.

When our community building is completed, we will operate After School Programs that emphasizes the arts: visual, performing, and literary. Furthermore, Indians are natural artists, par excellance! We therefore pose the question, “Why not build on the strengths of Native People rather than repressing them?”

Rising American Indian Nations Sustainable Programs

RAIN has a commitment to the protection of Mother Earth, sustainable living, and conservation. These commitments are an integral part of RAIN and all future initiatives. As stated in our overall goals, RAIN promotes environmental education and sustainable living processes. Forrest is a member of the Board of Directors of Pax Natura, a non-profit organization committed to preserving rain forests throughout the world. He is also an honorary board member of the Swaner Preserve and Eco-Center, an organization dedicated to conservation of a beautiful, 1200-acre wetlands near Park City, Utah.

We are dedicated to the earth’s beauty and preserving vanishing natural resources. An example our conservation commitment is the protection of the abundant wild plants and animals inhabiting our very own healing ranch. The wild animals include deer, elk, moose, ducks and geese, foxes, coyotes, and soon-to-be-planted fish. The plants include cattail, sagebrush, current bushes, wild lilacs, a host of other wild flowers, elm, and a variety of cottonwood trees.

Events and Fundraisers for Rising American Indian Nations

Annual Events

Horse Dance Celebration: a 2-3 day annual event that features equine healing sessions, earth skills, and other culturally related experiences such as flute making/playing, setting up tipis, and archery.

Feast with the Indigenous Nations: The focus of this event is health & nutrition, native foods, and healthy lifestyles. This event is held at harvest time and gives troubled youth an opportunity to demonstrate their projects and accomplishments to the general tribal membership.

Ongoing Events

Unification of the Eagle and Condor: In cooperation with other groups such as the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, RAIN is involved in uniting the native peoples of the North America with the native peoples of South America referred to as “Unification of the Eagle and Condor.” Since unification has world-wide impact, RAIN is doing it's part to raise money to see this event come to fruition. RAIN was informed by a revered Mayan elder Francisco that this sacred connection of the native people was broken during the 15th Century American Conquest and the reunion of the Americas is most important to maintaining equilibrium throughout in the world.

Community Building: This proposed facility will include a commercial kitchen, meeting or lecture hall, arts and culture room, sleeping quarters, and bathroom facilities to accommodate workshops, retreats, and training for troubled youth and their families.

Upcoming Events

Shoshone Horse Journey: RAIN envisions the day when the Ute Tribe will host a trail ride that we refer to as "Horse Journey." Participation would require tribal members to be drug and alcohol free for one year. This gives the youth a goal to learn great horsemanship and reconnect to their traditional culture and ancestral heroes. A Victory Feast would be held at the end of the ride and the community will be invited to celebrate.