One day my phone rang and it was some Native Americans I knew from Nebraska. They said they were coming to see me in Lake Mills. One is an elder & the head of the Water Spirit Clan in Winnebago, Nebraska. I asked them what we would be doing and the answer was Spirit said for them to come and see me.

The morning came when I was to meet them at the motel and I still did not know what to do with them. For some reason I decided to pickup a State Journal newspaper and looked it over before I met them. In the State Journal was a story about land on the West side of Rock Lake that was to be turned into a County Park. At the end of the story it talked about Native American remains being found at the site when it was being cleared by the early pioneers.

Knowing the elder had worked the spiritual aspect of repatriation issues for the Winnebago Tribe I read him part of the story when I was asked what we would be doing. After hearing the story, the Winnebago elder said for me to take them there. We went out to the property and I talked to the owner David Korth, asking him if we could have a look around the property. He said ok.

We went out into a field and they did some communication with spirit. They then started walking around and picking up stones holding them saying this is not it and dropping them back to the ground. After a while they just stood there not knowing what to do, I talked to them and they told me they were told to look at stones. I told them that I know of a man who has some round stones from this farm that he found a long time ago by some remains of Indian mounds. They told me to take them to him.

We drove over to the house of Mr. Kenneth Bare in Lake Mills. It is an interesting house as the walls are built of local stones he had found in the area.

He was home and I asked if we could see the box of round stones he had collected off the Korth farm. He said sure and took us downstairs and produced the box of stones. The elder handled some of the stones and proclaimed these are the stones we are looking for. I explained to Mr. Bare that his stones were very special objects to these Winnebago Indians just as a cross or chalice would be to one of our spiritual leaders. Mr. Bare then said “I guess I better give the stones to them.”  

After we drove away from Mr. Bares home with the stones, a spirit that was with the stones spoke to the elder telling him that the stones were now where they should be and so the spirit would now be leaving the stones.

I have since been told that the elder has used the stones in healing ceremonies and that Spirit showed him what pattern to lay the stones out in for the ceremony. The Elder has learned some things about some of the individual stones and the healing ceremonies have helped some people.

Beaver