Stomping Ground

no, he was evil, you crossed over the spoon, stay tuned!

Okay, and it's just like a remember, I've been black, I like most black Americans as other stuff mixed in, until you say you've got Native American roots on both sides, black foot from my father's, to pull off from my mama's, I don't know anything about that. Back when I'm in college in Ann Arbor, I hear they're about to have the biggest Native American

“power in the country, and I think a one-on-one, till the next morning my girlfriend and I”

fumbled around the dark, trying not to wake up my roommate, and her house is laid out in the living room. Arumate is from Ohio, this will come up later, I grab a shirt, jeans, a sweatshirt, and we're out,

get to the enormous Christa Arena and it is incredible, storytellers, music, food, this

sea of smiles, thousands of people that are asking to know each other, the brightest light, dancing competitions between various groups and families and tribes, dozens of dancers

“rocking colors and feathers and bells and they dance, only dance, choreographed, rhythmic,”

hypnotic powered by teams of drummers beautiful athletic, intimidating, I watch and not. I don't feel like I'm going home or something, it feels like the opposite of that, I don't

know anything I don't want to mess it up, never so often, the announcer, this old G, great

hair, braided back in two braids, takes the mic and everyone, it's time for the all dance, the pros, the out of the way, the grandmothers and teenagers and babies and students and old men take the floor, people dance, gather and rhythm and community, it's

“hypnotic, it's glorious, I feel it, but I stay where I think I belong, right at the”

edge of the action, watching, watching, now it's your puts down as microphone, motion to me since A, you want it dance, go on, dance, so I go over to the floor, so I try to fall into rhythm behind the hundreds of people next to me and one thing about my family is that we can dance, and I'm getting it, and I'm getting it, dancing, old lady smile, young dudes laugh, yeah I'm doing it up, it's physical, start to get hot, I've got this, take off

my sweatshirt title on my waist, it flaps behind me like a tail, I look toward the side and see my girlfriend, fannically waved me over, trying to get me off the floor, I'm right Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah

So cleave an Indian's baseball team chief Wahoo and the middle of a several thousand person powwow. It was like put on a clan hood at a black church barbecue and this need my shirt on Detroit Tigers, my roommate is Mohail. It's somehow in the dark, trying to wake me body up, I must have grabbed this stuff.

It's like a summon darkness. Every single person in the entire arena turns around and slow motion appointed me to stare thousand pairs of angry eyes. At least that sort of feels like me scrambling to pull my hoodie up.

He's seen the whole fiery display, he's like, no, no, no, no, this dance is not over.

“I'm scared to look around and see once friendly faces filled with hate but when I lift”

my eyes there's no anger, surprise, surprise, this story, like most stories isn't about me. It was just trying to get it to the rhythm of the drum, trying to show each other love. So I tried to dance to dance to move my feet, stomping, stepping, stomping, stepping, trying to dance over it, through it, to bury it, bury it that grinning bang burning on my chest. All the American demon is still smiling, full of stuff now.

. Malachitis has been Jeremiah, they have a very special plan for this weekend, they're

“heading deep into the woods of Oklahoma for one of the most important stomp dances of”

the year the green corn ceremony. See, Jeremiah is Cherokee by blood and makes this dance deeply personal.

Jeremiah's husband Malachai, it's a first, smoothed.

We get into the car, we start driving past the city of Tulsa's, they're taking some back roads, I suddenly start to see tall grass surrounding us as we're driving, I don't see any buildings.

“Oh my gosh, where am I going, where is this man taking me?”

This is the first time my husband and I are both going to the ceremonial grounds, but I have

been going there since I was able to breathe outside of the womb. This was the last stomp dance of the year, they call it the green corn ceremony, they've gotten all of the stuff harvested, there's going to be like a feast and everything. It's kind of like going to church, you're going home, and you're there to worship together essentially. This is just an exciting thing, in my head. I'm currently trying to just call

my heart because it's racing, I just don't know why I'm so anxious, first of all, there's

going to be a lot of people that I never met before, and then I'm a gay dude, and I don't

know how they would react being around gay people. Also, I'm quite embarrassed because I have Cherokee Native American blood in me, but I hardly know anything about my own tribe, and so when he told me about the stomp dance, I was like, okay, well, I need to learn about those traditions. After about an hour and a half, we're literally out in the middle of nowhere, and we enter

into this clearing. I see tents, just camping tents, camping trailers, kids playing,

next to his auntie's camp ground set up. I stepped out of the car. Jeremiah comes around

the car, and he takes me to meet his auntie. She gives me hogs. He says, "Hi, Malikai. Welcome." There was chairs and tables. There was a kitchen without anybody asking me, like, I just started tidying up the place. I don't know. Like, I started setting the table, putting napkins and forks and stuff. I feel a tap on my shoulder, and it's Jeremiah and he's laughing

at me. He's like, "Okay, babe, I know you just want to help and be helpful, but the men

“have to go outside. You need to leave." And like, "Oh, okay, got it."”

So we're outside. There's two of the other guys that have been chosen for the day's dance. I introduced them to my husband. I start feeling very nervous, because I don't know any of them. Eventually, there was 56 people standing outside socializing very, very quietly with each other. They're wearing these ceremonial ribbon shirts. It's a short sleeve button-up shirt, and then on the back of their shirts, there's colorful ribbons lining across their shoulders.

“There's silk pink, silk red, silk blue ribbons, and it was just beautiful.”

All of a sudden, we get called in to dinner. I sit down at this very, very long picnic table. The table was covered in food. There were bowls of vegetables, chunks of cooked meat, almost like a

roast. It had the most wonderful flavor I had ever had before. After probably an hour, the sun finally

goes down. We get to the ceremonial stump dance ground. There's probably a hundred people there of men and women and children sitting on these benches in a circle. The men were wearing their

“ribbon shirts. The women had these beautiful shaws over their shoulders. I started going”

towards where they were sitting, and I was stopped. Jeremiah said, "No, no, no, no, no, you can't sit there. That's not for us to sit." They get to sit there. We get to sit behind them. They said, "Oh." And so we sat in these long terrors behind this gentleman, which is the chief. The men and the women who got chosen for the day's dance take their seat next to the chief. They're sitting in front of us. And everything just goes quiet.

A fire starts to be built in the middle of the circle. I can see the fire getting bigger and bigger, almost like 10 feet tall. The chief stands up. The fire is blazing right in front of him. One man starts chanting. Come on out. Come on out. This woman stands up. She started tapping her way over to the fire. The women followed or then the men stand up. There's one person singing "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." "You." People start tapping their feet, and they start moving around the fire.

Jeremiah said they'll do five of these prayers, and then they'll allow everybody else to come in and say, "Okay."

even from where we were sitting. And all of a sudden, I don't know what happens, but I could not keep my eyes off the fire.

“The fire was so hypnotizing, and then I suddenly start to see different shapes and figures”

in the flickers of the flames. I could see what looked like animals kind of moving around the more I focused in, the more vivid these figures were in the fire. I could see chickens, cattle, deer, they were just black silhouettes dancing and moving about the flames.

I was just second-guessing myself, like, "Are you really seeing what you think you're seeing?" "Malikah?" I like,

I don't know. But then I see people moving in that fire, and I could see them playing his day.

“They were shadows, they were silhouettes, but I could tell they were men and women.”

I was scared at first seeing these figures in the fire, but then I realized, like, "You know, this is beautiful. I'm just so hypnotized, and I do not want this moment to end. I don't want to break focus."

All of a sudden, everything just went quiet.

I kind of jolt or wake up or whatever you call it, and next thing I know, everyone is sitting back down around the fire. Jeremiah said, "That was just the introduction. Now, we'll sit here and then when the time comes, we'll be called and we can enter in and join in the dance." After the main dancers are done, one of the men stands up and

"Yelako" and "Yelako" at that point, everybody's welcome. My two aunts, my great aunt, everybody just kind of stands up and then we're all able to go.

“Jeremiah was leaning over to me saying, "If you want to come in and join, you can."”

But I said, "You know, not hang on. I just want to observe a little bit more. I just want to make sure I know what I'm doing before I jump in. So Jeremiah stands up and joins the dance." I was sitting behind. I was trying to get back into the fire and try to see those figures again, but as I was just trying to focus, something caught my eye. I looked just off to the corner and on the right side of the stump ground, was this man.

He was by himself, kind of back in the trees and the shadows. He's very tall and he has a spear in his hand that was wooden with feathers at the top. His face is rugged and sharp. He's very muscular. And he's just standing there, but yeah, I was pretty frightened because he's staring just straight at me with such intensity. His eyes were so piercing, yellowish, gold, and I hear him say, "What is your purpose for being here?" I really felt terrified. I cannot hear his voice vocally.

And when that happened, everything just goals silent.

“The chanting ends. I break focus from him, and I was just kind of like,”

did I really just experience that? [Music] We were walking back over to the long-tures where Malacay was. Malacay just seemed like something wasn't

sitting right with him, but I could tell that he was experiencing what was behind the veil, you know,

seeing things or experiencing things. I looked over at him and I was like, "Hey, it's time to go,

“like, come on, let's go dance together." I'm like, "Okay, I guess I trusted him.”

I got up, I followed him, and I get into the stomped ground. I see an opening. I kind of put myself in. I couldn't think or focus on anything but the chanting and the deafening sound of the shell-shakers. I just start kind of moving my feet and doing the best I can. It was almost like the music was speaking to me. Left, right, go, breathe. Next thing I know, I'm, I'm stomped dancing in unison with everybody else.

“I had goosebumps, just this feeling of euphoria, like, I feel like I'm kind of flying.”

And it was so spiritual. I felt connected to the people around me, to the music, to the fire. I was just a part of that.

After that first dance, I go and sit down in the chair and I was like, "I was amazing."

I don't know where Jeremiah goes at this point but it's just me sitting in the chair and I'm just kind of watching what's happening around me. All of a sudden, something big just kind of brushes past me. My chair even kind of moved a little bit. And I see very quickly, it was this smoky figure of a black four-legged dog or something and it was big, it was massive. It jumped over the log in front of me and then kind of

glided into the fire. I just saw these sparks and these imbers just kind of, whoa. I'm like, "What the hell?" Jeremiah came back from wherever he was and I said, black figure, four legs jumped into the fire and he's like, "Oh, yeah, that's a wolf." I was walking back to the chair at that time and I saw like a shadow kind of go over into the fire and I literally looked at him like, "You saw my totem, which is the wolf."

I was like, "Oh, wolf, are you serious?" He said, "Yes. When we come and gather in moments like this, our spirits will come and join. They're here. We're not alone." It was about 3/3 in the morning. I was getting so tired. Jeremiah said,

And I said, "It might be time to call it a night." We gave our things and we started walking

“back towards where a car was. Jeremiah had gone to get our supplies and stuff that we brought”

to bring it back to the car. I was just kind of standing there on my own and that's when I started to feel that tingle in my body, something is here and I'm not alone. I look out to the corner of my eye. There he was again the same man from earlier in the night staring

right at me. It's probably a good 20 feet away from me, kind of buy some trees. My heart starts

racing again. I start breathing heavy. I don't want to look at him, but I'm looking at him.

“Again, our eyes connect. This time he was more relaxed and he had more of like a friendly”

and of the gaze. And I could sense approval in his face. I was able to just relax, take a deep breath, and I just started feeling good. I don't know how long exactly it was, but eventually I hear behind me. All right, let's go. You ready? I got the keys. As we were driving Jeremiah, he kind of broke the eyes. He was just like, "Hey, I'm really glad that you got to go there with me. I've wanted you to do that since we we got married."

When all of us are together, our tribe is together. I feel like the veil is lifted. There is something else that's out there. There's something that's happening all around us at all times and for him to have experience that and to see the wolf brushing past him, seeing that person whether that be like a protector of the land or somebody from the family from way back.

“For me personally, I think it really solidified that he's accepted. You are meant to be my life partner.”

I might cry. That was the full circle moment for me. I no longer would just be a bystander and he said, "Now, you've met the whole family." And I was like, "Ah!" Thank you, Malachi and Jeremiah for sharing your story with Spookt, original score, was by Sandra Lawson knew the scouting for this was done by Eshal Lopez. It was produced by Eric Janias. Now, a query, and many many traditions around the world. There's a reference to a shadow

self. To an entity that is related to you, but that is not you. In Ireland, this presence is called a fetch. In Norway, a vartigore is a per spirit, a pre spirit, a four-runner spirit, it arrives before you do. People hear your footsteps, your voice, your keys, and the door, your body moving through the house and then minutes later, the real you arise and does the same thing. In Japan, in Equiro, leaves a person's body and acts elsewhere, often during intense emotion,

jealousy, rage, grief, longing. And so, if you dear listener, if you have a shadow self,

I would sure love to know about it. I'll only tell a million of so of the best people on earth

spooked. It's now judgment.org, because there's nothing better than a spooked story from a spooked listener.

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“Are the sexy team that knows it's way around a dance floor?”

Come from Mark Ristich. Mark, possibly with the B. Not against it. There's David Kim, Zoye Frigno, Eric Janias, Risa Dodge, Regina periaco, Miles Lassie, tailed a cot, Sui Tu, Evan Stern, Eve's Jeff Coat, E. Shell Lopez, Jack Darrell, Doug Stewart Nicholas Marks, the spooked bean song. It's by Papas TV Miller,

“and I was in Washington. And my traditions were broken,”

stolen away by the middle passage by laws and features and distance and in difference. And this has been both a curse and a gift. It's absent of tradition. I've got to make my own from myself, from my kids, because traditions are connectors to place, to time and without them, without ritual, you can feel laws. And so many, so many of us,

feel laws, and more. Knowing full well, there is more, but unable to find our way home and this laws. This will remain. Can we just down dog roads? Struggling for the very connection that should be ours by birth, that should be yours, by birth, and if you're looking for a ceremony. The practice or ritual metaphor to affirm your place, your connection to everything that is, one place I know, to begin this journey.

It's never, ever, never, ever, turn out the lights.

[Music]