The Spiritual Dimension of Development is Inescapable: A Message of Healing from the Native American Chief Phil Lane Jr. (Veg advocate)

The Honorable Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. is a member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota and Chickasaw Nations. He is formally recognized by elders from across North America as a hereditary chief, owing to his noble lineage of leadership and longtime service to Indigenous peoples and greater humanity. For his tireless contributions, Chief Lane has received many awards, such as the Windstar Award and the Swiss Foundation for Freedom and Human Rights’ International Award. Today, we are privileged to introduce The Honorable Chief Phil Lane Jr., who will share some of his personal experiences, which led him on the path of unbounded wisdom, beautifully linked with Native American prophecies about a new revival, giving hope not just to the Native American Nations, but also to the world as a whole. “The Four Worlds International Institute goes way, way, way back, deep in our prophecies. It really began when my life changed in 1967. When my heart was so full of anger and hatred about what had happened to our people here. All people, really. All members of our human family that had been needlessly hurt and killed − we can’t have that. And so, that led me really into a life of trying to kill that pain with alcohol and something like that. But I encountered a very sacred, very, very sacred prayer; and that was like fire started burning inside me. And I’m sure we all have that spiritual awakening, that time when we awaken, and understand and feel oneness.” “By 1982, in Turtle Island, which is now called Canada and United States, both culturally and physically, our indigenous people had fallen into a deep, deep, deep, deep pain; deep alcoholism. And so, we were really at a point of suffering. But we knew in our prophecies that there would be a huge turning point, but there were signs on the way.” “So, in 1982, we were approached by the new director of what they call the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program in Canada, NNADAP. And we wanted to bring – as never before − a council together, and to ask them the question: ‘How can we come out of this deep, deep, deep hole we’re in, of darkness?’” “The elders said this. They said: ‘The moral, the spiritual dimension of development is inescapable. You cannot build healthy communities, healthy nations, healthy families, healthy human beings, on lies and greed and selfishness. They have to be built in kindness, compassion, forgiveness, respect, justice. That’s the foundation.’”