We Celebrated The Spring Equiox At Pittsburgh's Indian Center March 2009

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Tau My Relatives
It is my pleasure to inform you that we were blessed this year with some of the mildest and most agreeable weather for our outdoor celebration of this month's Spring Equinox ceremony.
Beside the beautiful weather, we were also blessed with the very nicest participants. Our group included wonderful friends and relatives, including my own niece Crystal John, most commonly known as "Beanie" (Plains Cree/Taina), who journied all the way from Ontario, Canada to be with her Pittsburgh family for this wonderful event. We were also joined by Taino friends from Youngstown, Ohio, the official UCTP liason representative, Rose Xochitl Anao Qui~ones, and a couple of her relatives. Our sister Rose honored us by performing the duty of representing Ata Bey the Cosmic Mother in our Equinox ritual. Her brother David consented to take on the sacred role of Yoka Hu in the birthing ritual.

We were also joined by a dear friend Susan Ferraro, who ministers to Indigenous inmates in the Pennsylvania state correctional system and with whom I am working to eventually get official permission to enter the state prisons and work with the Taino brothers held there.

My son Cha provided us with his expert mayowakan rhythms as we performed the sacred songs of Ata Bey and the other important cemies of our ancient tradition. The ceremony culminated with the awesome scene of the row of participating women arrayed like a string of sacred jewels along the length of the Ata Bey snake rope as they danced back to us from their special ceremonial site away from the men.

http://caneycircle.owlweb.org/equinox.html


The climax of the event came when our sister Rose Anao held the stone coa hoop in her hands as I carefully untied the three-pointer Yoka Hu cemi that had remained attached to it since our Winter Solstice ceremony back in December and Dave raised it high above our heads signalling the re-birth of Lord Yoka Hu.

I want to thank all of the brothers and sisters who participated in this sacred ritual and pray that they took home with them all the love and warmth from our Pittsburgh Caney Circle family.

Taino Ti
Miguel Sobaoko Koromo Sague

[Dr. Rose M. Xochitl AnaO Quinone]

Taino ti Bieke Miguel,
I was honored to represent the Cosmic Mother, Atabey. I have written to Naniki about the event andmy desire to learn more about our ways. As I had written before, I felt as if I knew already! I hope to have you come to Ohio (Youngstown) and you may stay with us. I am proceeding on with some future events. By the way, Mukaro has been to Youngstown.:)
Oma'bahari and Bo'matum for your guidance.
Xochitl AnaO Quinones-DelValle

[Miguel Sague Jr]

Tau Sister
Coming to Youngstown would actually be the realization of a long-held dream of mine because I have wanted to make this connection with my Ohio brothers and sisters for years. I remember back in my musician days, in the 1990's when I was still performing with our salsa band we were booked to Youngstown to play in a big hall at a fancy birthday party and I saw all of those beautiful Boricua faces and coming from a town, Pittsburgh where we have precious few Tainos i said to myself how wonderful it would be to connect with all of these relatives here barely an hour away from my home. Since then I have had a desie to establish a permanent connection with my Ohio brothers and sisters. I would love to invite them all to our Pittsburgh ceremonies and to celebrate some of these ceremonies there in Youngstown.
Taino Ti
Miguel

[Miguel Sague Jr]

There is also an untapped Taino community up north at the Northwestern portion of Pennsylvania in Erie and right accross the border in the area of Cleveland. I hope to establish bonds of friendship with these relatives also.
Miguel