PULL TOGETHER NOW (PTN) is a global family of Good Ancestors who accept our sacred responsibility to care for peace, children, elders, and Mother Earth, before all else. PTN creates opportunities for us to gather and share what holds us together for the benefit of all Creation → our ancient and new stories and songs, ceremonies, values, traditions, living knowledges and skills, the arts, and sacred Water, and real-food from Nature and neighbors close to home. PTN is continuing an ancient tradition that has no end:

The Ancestors’ Relay→ calls us to be Good Ancestors face-to-face and place-to-place.
May we know them. May we be them. May we nurture them in the healthy, secure, just, and equitable world they deserve. The Path We Walk starts within and at home and leads us to the confluence of enduring love and compassion and care for one another and our Mother, Planet Earth.

The Ancestors’ Message Sticks or bundles we carry represent our collective ancestral memory that carries wisdom, experience, keen observation, and spiritual insights gained over long periods of time. Good Ancestors look back and forward across countless generations for guidance that illuminates humanity’s genuine Life-affirming path forward, inclusive of all Peoples without preference for any cultures, nationalities, spiritual traditions, status, age groups, or place on Earth. We follow the protocols of reciprocal relationship rooted in Natural Law, not the hierarchical law of man that perpetuates domination and destruction of Life. We are grateful for the ancestors who made our existence possible, and whose love, sacrifice, creativity, and dreams we carry. Becoming a Good Ancestor begins at birth and continues until we cross over, always caring for peace, children, elders, and Mother Earth before all else. Good Ancestors leave no one, no place, out or behind.

The Ancestors’ Relay→ priorities:

re-member, renew, and heal our relationship with sacred Water, Land, Sky, the Cosmos, and each other.
gather and engage in action with compassion that broadens our horizons, relays land-based community knowledge, seeds trust, and grows mutually beneficial cooperation for the common good.
honor, uplift up, protect, and connect the voices of Knowledge-holders and Caretakers with special skills and knowledge of the teachings of the Land, Soil, Water, Medicines, and RealFood from Nature and neighbors close to home. Take only what you need from Mother Earth and each other.
Express gratitude for the Gifts of Life; celebrate beauty within and around us, together. Love one another.

Good Ancestors ignore the propaganda of division and hate as we seek to end the systems of domination vying for supremacy over everyone, every place, every form of Life, and every thing by any means. We’re asking, “Will The Future remember us as the visionary, courageous ones who rose up to bring peace to the world? Or will we remain passive and silent behind imaginary barriers, enabling the silos of criminal psychopaths to perpetuate their centuries-old agendas of war, genocide, and ecocide at all cost, including nuclear annihilation that will leave no one ─ no Life ─ behind?”

“What are we waiting for? It’s so simple! We are one People!
We know what we need to do!
We need to learn how to hear each other, put aside me, myself, and I,
and then put our heads together and heal the world!” ― Elder Be’sha Blondin, Sahtu Dene Nation

→ What’s your story? Who are you? How are you? Where do you come from? Where are you headed? What kind of world do you want to live in and hand off to The Future? Thank you for standing up where you live!

→ Carry one, give some! Please sign The Ancestors’ Promise and acquire message sticks for yourself and friends. Join the Good Ancestors all around the world!

The Ancestors’ Promise→

Good Ancestors accept our sacred responsibility to care for peace, children, elders, and Mother Earth before all else. We are sharing our Life-affirming traditions and knowledges for the harmonious, healthy, and equitable world we know is possible and The Future deserves to inherit from us. Our thoughts and actions are rooted in love, gratitude, humility, honesty, courage, common sense, creativity, and humor.

Good Ancestors hold the long view and, to the best of our ability, strive to be the change we seek in this world. We listen, hear, feel, see, experience, and share Life-affirming perspectives, experience, and ideas from diverse vantage points. We are getting to know each other, broadening our horizons, seeding trust, and growing mutually beneficial cooperation in ways that lift people up and ripple out to help us all. Good Ancestors pray together and engage in action with compassion leaving no one, no place, out or behind.

Good Ancestors respect all Peoples’ right to self-determination and freedom, to be safe and secure with access to pure water and real-food from bioculturally resilient landscapes and neighbors close to home. We are compassionate and understand there are extremely challenging circumstances and diverse traditions for which the struggle is greater for some than others.

Good Ancestors give back more than we take ─ from each other and Mother Earth.

Good Ancestors understand that we do not inherit Earth, but respect and defend her for future generations of Life. We teach children that Earth is our Mother ─ that we belong to her ─ and what befalls Mother Earth befalls all of her children.

Good Ancestors are humbled knowing that humans are but one strand in Mother Earth’s interconnected, interdependent, indivisible Web of Life. We are grateful for, respect, and protect Earth’s sacred Water, Land, Sky, and Nature’s foods and medicines. We seek to be in harmony with our kin ─ Mother Earth’s sacred communities of plants, forests, grasslands, fliers, walkers, crawlers, hoppers, runners, and swimmers, our human communities, and the cosmos ─ the material and spiritual root for our existence. Good Ancestors safeguard other creatures' needs, habitats, and migration routes, so they too may always flourish.

We are grateful for the generations of ancestors who’ve made our existence possible, who’s love, sacrifice, and dreams we carry. We are learning, preserving, and relaying ancient and new stories, ceremonies, our values and ethics, music, the arts, cultural traditions, and land-based living knowledges that hold us together. We respect Knowledge-holders, Elders, and those with special skills and knowledge of the sacred teachings of the Land, Soil, Water, the cosmos, and Nature’s food and medicines. We seek to understand the true Nature of community ─ to be in rhythm with Life’s seasonal cycles of regeneration of which humankind is a part.

Peace and the well-being of all Peoples and Mother Earth are more important than the accumulation of wealth, status, or power. Good Ancestors are uncovering the root of our shared challenges, helping end the centuries-old domination system driving perpetual war, genocide, ecocide, corruption, greed, depletion, and exploitation ─ the cartels of necropolitics ─ known and unknown.

Good Ancestors strive to go forward with heart, strong in mind, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We eat Creator’s foods, love and care for ourselves properly, and cast out drugs and false entertainment that confuses our minds and weakens our will. We cast out selfishness, materialism, and consumerism as we lead meaningful lives with dignity and serve others. If we weaken we begin again, for the Good Ancestors on The Path We Walk love us, help us to be true to ourselves, re-member and reclaim who we are, and walk in peace and harmony with every living being.

As a Living Ancestor now and to The Future, I promise, to the best of my ability, to be kind and live in kinship with all Life on Earth. I will carry and share The Ancestors’ Message Stick with those who, like me, are aspiring to be Good Ancestors by contributing to the harmonious, healthy, and equitable world we know is possible and The Future deserves to inherit from us.

Signed:_________________ Date:_________

You may or may not remember us, but we remember you.

You may or may not know us, but we know you.

We are your Ancestors.

We are now woven into the Circle of Life.

We embrace the stars and beyond, the earth, its water, its fire, its air.

We embrace the unborn, the children, the ancestors of the future.

We are your Ancestors. We are here. We are listening. We are watching.

We know you. We feel you. We are always with you.

You are each the sum of all your ancestors who have gone before you.

Whoever you are, listen. Your ancestors are within you.

Listen to each other. Each of you is the sum of ancestors before you.

Seeing, imagining, and knowing is as diverse as the universe itself because opposites are necessary to keep the world turning and maintain its balance.

Together you can create balance.

We are here. You are not alone.

Whatever the struggle, we are here. We are within you. Listen.

You are more than you think. You know more than you think.

Listen to what is within…instincts, orientations, rituals born of knowledge and traditions long forgotten.

Listen to each other.

Each of you was born complete. Each of you has a right to be here.

It is time to relearn how to be here. But I have no role model, you say. I cannot see the ancestors.

People are not your only role models. Look around you. Teachers are everywhere.

They are among the trees, the plants, the animals, the birds, the sea creatures, the insects.

We have forgotten how to live. But they have not. In a world older than we know, they live complete.

Like the land, a person must practice being the one whom one is meant in all one’s humanity to be.

What is asked of you is to ground yourself in your own life and let its truths emerge.

You are born complete. You are enough.

The Ancestors’ Message:
“We, Your Ancestors, Are with You!” →

Guides to Help Heal Ourselves, Others, and Mother Earth:

“We need to reconnect our Spirit to Mother Earth and embrace the ancient knowledge we hold of understanding our relationship to our environment. We are given a window of opportunity to forge harmony and peace in these difficult times. Only if humanity were to open their hearts and allow for the real spiritual connection to flow.”
─ Elder Francois Paulette, Smith’s Landing Dene Nation

"We are giving our lives
defending the sacredness and health of Grandmother/Mother Water."
─ The network of Original Free Peoples of the Lowlands of Mesoamerica

“We are all of Water and all united by Water.”
─ Grandmother Josephine Manadmin

“If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die.
Our future and the state of the oceans are one.”
─ Sylvia Earle

“Instead of taking Water for granted, we have to say, 'Every policy that we adopt, every practice, everything we do has to ask the question: What's the impact on Water?' And, if the impact on Water is not good, you stop. You go back to the drawing boards.”
─ Maude Barlow

“Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
─ Cree Prophecy

“You cannot protect what you don’t understand.”
─ Elder Rosalinda Ramirez-Yrizarry

“Values change for survival.”
─ Elders Akio Matsumura and Oren Lyons

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” ─ Galatians 5:14

“Peace is the most important goal in the world. If we don’t have peace and nuclear bombs start to fall, what difference will it make whether we are Communists or Catholic or capitalists or Chinese or Russian or American?
Who could tell us apart? Who will be left to tell us apart.”
─ Nikita Khrushchev

“And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular─but one must take it simply because it is right.”
─ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact
on the world around you. What you do makes a difference,
and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
─ Jane Goodall

“You cannot see the future with tears in your eyes.”
─ Wilma Mankiller

“Whether you light the fire, carry the fire, or are the fire, it all matters.”
─ Jim Miller, Dakota 38+2 Memorial Ride

“…That is everyone’s calling, to lead a life that helps.”
─ Barry Lopez

“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. To be a part of the land community, we must cooperate with both our human and non-human neighbors.”
─ Aldo Leopold

“Eventually, all things merge into one and a river runs through it.”
─ Norman Maclean

”What are we waiting for? It’s so simple!
We are one People! We know what we need to do!
We need to learn how to hear each other, put aside me, myself, and I,
and then put our heads together and heal the world!”
─ Elder Be’sha Blondin, Sahtu Dene Nation

Thank you for joining The Path We Walk:

Good Ancestors
May we know them.
May we be them.
May we grow them.
Rise!
Stand up for peace, for all children, elders, and Mother Earth→ NOW!

The Ancestors’ Promise→

Guides to Help Heal Ourselves, Others, and Mother Earth:

“We are all of Water and all united by Water.” ─ Grandmother Josephine Manadmin

“If the sea is sick, we'll feel it. If it dies, we die.Our future and the state of the oceans are one.” ─ Sylvia Earle

“Instead of taking Water for granted, we have to say, 'Every policy that we adopt, every practice, everything we do has to ask the question: What's the impact on Water?' And, if the impact on Water is not good, you stop. You go back to the drawing boards.” ─ Maude Barlow

“Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.” ─ Cree Prophecy

“You cannot protect what you don’t understand.” ─ Elder Rosalinda Ramirez-Yrizarry

“Values change for survival.” ─ Elders Akio Matsumura and Oren Lyons