Home: Spirituality: Native American: Red Willow’s Quest

See also: Shamanism in Red Willow's Quest

Interview by Mike Flanagan.

Heidi: The story covers quite a few states. The Shoshoni are a nomadic tribe. They cover Montana and down into the Yellowstone area and into Idaho.

Mike: Tell me about the quest? What got you interested in Native American spirituality?

Heidi: I love the beauty of the Rocky Mountains. I used to backpack there. As I uncovered more and more information about Native American spiritual values I found it very interesting. They would go on quests to connect with their inner selves. Native Americans were very connected with Nature. Now days people feel disconnected from nature.

Mike: So much of our literature about Native Americans is about when white man came and there was conflict. You've set your story a few years before that time.

Heidi: Actually there was conflict at that time only on the East Coast. Tribes in the east had been killed and other tribes were pushed west onto other tribal land causing conflict with those tribes. The Louisiana Purchase had been made by Jefferson just a few years before the story starts. Lewis and Clark had gone west with Sacajewea who was also Shoshoni. They went to the ocean and back. A gold commemorative coin just came out with Sacajewea on one side and an eagle on the other.

Mike: Neat coin, too, first coin I've seen with a baby on it. Little Pomp looking out there.

Heidi: It's amazing to think of a teenager crossing the country with a group of men with a little baby on her back.

Mike: Tell us about Red Willow. How old is Red Willow during this quest?

Heidi: She is 16, a young woman. The first quest she goes on is when she is seven. She is guided on the inner to go and leaves with her horse. Her father and grandfather come to find her. She is a young woman drawn by her inner visions and dreams to become a Medicine Woman.

Mike: The material I have is wonderful. Your publisher provided this great package. It talks about you. You do spiritual workshops. You have an interest in past lives. Is that correct?

Heidi: Yes, This book is based on a past life. When you asked where the story comes from this is where. I started writing the book as fantasy and as I continued I discovered I was writing about my own past life. While I debated writing it as a past life I found a hawk feather in the yard on each of the next two days I found another hawk feather. The hawk means clear spiritual vision. Outer and inner experiences confirmed that it was a past life. Another time right before a radio interview I was handed three gold coins with Sacajewea on them in change. We are given guidance and have affirmations. Another experience I had was when traveling out west; I bought a book and when I turned it over I saw that it was about a Kootenai girl. I had never heard of the Kootenai tribe but I had called one tribe Kootenai when writing the book as fantasy.

Mike: That gets eerie. You probably had denial going into writing book and then get these affirmations. I must be losing it, then have these reaffirming things. I mean to start out a book of fiction then get these feeling. Got to change what planned this story to be.

Heidi: I really did. I wrestled with this. Do I want to rewrite this book? Then I realize I had learned a lot in that lifetime. When we're open to learning about the past lives and open to hear the message they come. The message I got from Red Willow was to have the courage to follow you dreams or calling in life.

Mike: It's a fascinating topic. I can't figure out if I've done this before. People who believe they've had past lives probably have. They are getting signals. Do you have any suggestions for people to remember their own past lives?

Heidi: Pay attention to little nudges like a people you meet who seems familiar or you instantly dislike. If you have an affinity for a certain place travel to it. Keep developing this awareness. Go to art museums, libraries do research and take what pieces you do remember. Ask to remember past lives. Contemplate or chant the words past lives. Write down dreams you've been given.

Mike: Dreams are thing you can't nail down. Who knows what happens with those. You can be as skeptical and have the door as closed as you want and then have a dream. Oh my goodness what does this mean? Do you get into the subconscious of Red Willow? Does she find herself dreaming and thinking of the larger picture?

Heidi: Yes, she does. She's given visions and travels to a cave based on her inner guidance. That is what makes it so hard. She has to go against tribal custom and follow her visions and dreams. They are so illusive to go into the dangers of the wilderness based on.

Mike: The book is unique, a woman's story. Women didn't have the easiest or best lives in the Indian culture.

Heidi: That's true. She was given resistance from her camp. They wanted her to marry and stay in the tribe. They can't understand why she was going off on those visions. But she also had her grandfather, the medicine man, to help her.

Mike: No matter what life in there is an affinity for animals. Animal imagery in this book.

Heidi: We can learn a lot from animals. They are companions. Red Willow has a wolf-dog companion and a horse as well. Some animals are symbols. Hawk are sacred animals. Indians believed different things about different animals. Bear a symbolic of meditation because it goes into the cave all winter and meditate. .

Mike: Congratulations with this book . Are we going to hear more about Red Willow or move on to other subjects?

Heidi: I'm doing research on another past life. I went to Norway in May doing research for a lifetime there. It was exciting to find the actual place I lived. I was kidnapped from England and taken there by the Vikings.

Mike: Aren't you getting tired. You had some active lives. Weren't there anywhere you farmed and had a little sleep?

Heidi: I think those lives aren't as interesting to remember.

Mike: That will be fascinating.

Heidi: They are fun to research. I'm like Red Willow. My life is parallel to hers. I'm trying to follow my dreams.

Mike: Well sometime two or three hundred years from now you are going to visit this person. Well this person was interesting. Thank you for being on the show.

Heidi: I did want to tell you I have a book tour. Gave out the tour information.

Mike: Heidi Skarie is our special guest. Thank you for being on the show. Red Willow;'s Quest about her past life as a young Shoshoni maiden. I'm Mike Flanagan, you're listening to Real Time, Radio for Change.com.

  Read the author interview, Part 1: "The sign of the Hawk appears"       

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