Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr
Heove ve 'keso (Yellowbird), Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr, is a traditional (Northern) Cheyenne chief. His mother is Florence Whiteman (Bites), the Cultural Center at Chief Dullknife College is named after her, to recognize her work maintaining the Cheyenne culture, language and life teachings. Chief Phillip has been awarded an honorary Associate Degree from Chief Dullknife College for his ongoing work. His father is Chief Phillip Whiteman Sr., he also served as a traditional chief and drum keeper for the Northern Cheyenne People. Now these responsibilities have been bestowed upon Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr.. His parents and grandparents, who descended from lines of Chiefs, raised him in the language and in the ceremonies, although they were prohibited during their childhood, so they took them underground. He speaks about this more in the call to end genocide that he published in the Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/17/only-love-can-stop-war-a-call-to-the-world-from-a-northern-cheyenne-chief. It, alongside the editorial recently published in the Denver Post, addresses the bigger issues that Indigenous Peoples have been facing and how their teachings, that have been passed on from generation to generation, can help counter the inter-generational effects of genocide and climate change: https://www.denverpost.com/2023/07/10/sand-creek-massacre-genocide-indigenous-climate-change/
His Spirit Seeker Solution teachings are based on his lifetime of experience, understanding how Western linear thinking has been impacting our lives, and on his ancestral teachings. The teachings he has developed are unique they are universal, genderless, colorless and reconnect us to life. It is a right-brain-connected, holistic teaching tool; and a simple, common sense approach to affect transformation. It can help us reconnect and shift our thinking to tap into our unlimited potential. It enables you to go deeper with your inner work to learn, grow and heal. We have all been impacted by historical trauma and colonization, and the dispossession, oppression and dependency that go hand in hand with it. His teaching model really changes lives, he has been doing this work for over 20 years with Indigenous Peoples across North America and beyond. He has presented at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and other internationally renowned places about this work. His most important work has been with his community, empowering Indigenous children, including through horse medicine camps, and by organizing runs that commemorate Cheyenne Ancestors and reconnect to their way of thinking, including the Fort Robinson Spiritual Breakout Run (28 years) and the Little Bighorn Commemoration Run. Through these activities he shifts Indigenous children’s thinking back to one of resilience and breaking out from oppression. As a child he was (mis)diagnosed with dyslexia, like so many Indigenous children, who get diagnosed with learning disabilities, rather than looking at their gifts. Through research, therapy and treatment he has found out that indigenous right-brain connected ways of thinking are much more integrated and deeply connected to Indigenous language, land culture and identity. 80% of the children on Indian reservations are right-brained, only 20% are left-brained. It is important to shift our way of thinking to a way of un-learning that recognizes and celebrates Indigenous right brain connected ways of knowing.
He based his teaching tool on a universal language connected to body, emotion, mind and spirit. It is energy and spirit-based, circular, from the ground up and from the back forward. It acts as a mirror reflecting your body, emotion, mind and spirit. It is natural law and natural justice. Creator gave out her original instructions to life and nature still follows them, for example the horse. The horse when it gets domesticated, trained and broken, gets numbed and dumbed down. They still have an inner knowing and so do we. His teaching model guides us to Remind, Reconnect and Reclaim ourselves. NOW is the time to reclaim ourselves.
The best counter-remedy to the intergenerational effects of genocide and climate change are the teachings that have been passed down from generation to generation. This is why Chief Phillip’s teaching approach is so helpful because it reconnects to Indigenous right brain connected ways of knowing. He has presented his approach at the National Indian Mental Health Association. It has been endorsed by: Dr. Michael Yanuck, who was the second in command at Indian Health Services (IHS) in Maryland and wrote about it in his book: The Blue Light at the Center of Creation People; Dr. Roy Shelton, Doctor of Humane Letters, a university professor, scientist and right-brain specialist; and Peter and Jennifer Buffett of the Novo Foundation. Chief Phillip served as a language and culture consultant for the movie Hostiles with Scott Cooper, producer, and actors including Adam Beach, Christian Bale, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons and others. His teaching philosophy influenced the script, so much they even changed it.
Chief Phillip Whiteman Jr. comes from a long line of horse people, who are the caretakers of horse medicine and songs. Chief Phillip has taken on this responsibility on and is also working hard to bring buffalo back for his people who have a horse and buffalo culture. His great-grand parents traveled to the Great Basin and exclusively shared their horse medicine with Indigenous Peoples there in ceremony not to be shared beyond their circle. Still the teachings were misappropriated into what has since been referred to as natural horsemanship, yet missing the central dimension of working with the energy/spirit of the horse. Pressure and release horsemanship techniques are based on Western linear left brain dominated ways of thinking, horses are right-brained circular thinkers, connected to natural law. Chief Phillip developed a DVD on the Medicine Wheel Model to Natural Horsemanship, connecting spirit, horse and human. He opened the World Equine Games and has been recognized for his work in national publications, such as the Western Horseman. His life experience made him come full circle and taught him how to live in two worlds: He became a champion in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA), and a two times Indian National Finals Rodeo (INFR) World champion in the saddle bronc. He qualified 26 times for the INFR, won the Open Northern Rodeo Association title twice, and was a 7 times world finalist at El Paso, Texas. In 1990, he became the first PRCA European tour champion, in Helsinki, Finland and competed on the same tour in Paris, France, in 1991. He is a traditional storyteller, singer and flute player. Some of his traditional songs and stories are included in his CD Spirit Seeker, which won its category at the Indian Summer Music Awards; and was nominated in two categories for the Native American Music Awards.