A memorial to the forced “march of tears” from the San Carlos Apache Nation in Arizona to Fort Marion in Saint Augustine, Florida, where Apache, Kiowa, Cado Cheyenne and Arapaho people were imprisoned.
Wherever his prayer journeys take him, Bill always honors the tribal leadership.
My Tribal Prayer Journey started in the Spring of 2009 after my Dakota nephew Seth Cloud Chief Eagle passed way from huffing “computer dust-off spray”. This led me to visit and gift every tribe in Arizona, bringing gifts for elders and asking their permission to offer prayers about the curses of Drug Abuse, Alcoholism and Suicide. Then I offered prayers of blessing and healing on the land and peoples.
On the first weekend of this Arizona Tribal Prayer Journey, I was led to three Apache elders on three different reservations. I started on the Yavapai Apache Nation and was led to an elder who had the same heart as I did for the people and these issues. After a really good day there I was headed back home to Flagstaff. On my way home at 4:30 pm, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart to go to the White Mountain Apache Nation community of White River.
So the next Monday at 5:00 a.m. I headed to the rez. I did not know anyone or where to go, but the Lord led me to a place and I shared my story with a young Apache woman who worked there. I told her the whole story and about being told last Friday at 4:30 pm to come here. Her eyes got big and she said she would talk to someone in the back. She came out and said the elder would talk with me. Then just before the door opened, she told me that this man’s niece had jumped from the bridge at 4:30 that Friday. I can’t explain the emotions I felt. I talked with this man and he shared many things with me and gave me his blessing to go anywhere I wanted to pray for the White Mountain Apache people.
I had an another awesome day and made some great connections as I visited across the rez. My plan was to go back to Flagstaff the next morning. But I had a plan and the Holy Spirit had a plan. In what was as clear as an audible voice, the Lord put on my heart to visit the San Carlos Apache Nation the next day. I called my wife and shared what I felt the Lord was telling me and she said, “Then go!”
So the next morning I headed through the Salt River Canyon to San Carlos Apache Nation. It was a great drive through land I had never seen before.
On San Carlos, I was led to an older building with a small arts and crafts sign on a post. This building ended up being a cultural building and I spent an hour or so reading about the history of the tribe and the area.
After a time there I got my gifts, gave them to an elder there and shared my story including everything that had happened over the last four days. This elder made a phone call and got me permission to go out to the newly dedicated memorial at the Old San Carlos site.
I felt very honored to be allowed to go to this place and to be allowed to offer prayers there, but as I was heading for the door, this elder shared that both of the other elders I had met are his cousins. Then he said the teenager who jumped to her death from the White River bridge was also his niece. At this point, I was totally overwhelmed with a wide range of emotions.
My prayer time at the Old San Carlos Memorial was beyond anything I could have imagined. Many supernatural things happened there. I do not share these things on e-mails, Facebook or in letters. I only share them face to face.
As I traveled to the other Arizona reservations and Indian communities, I met many elders and other Native people who are dealing with Drug Abuse, Alcoholism and Suicide. I have pages of stories about everything that happened and about the people I was led to.
During this Prayer Journey I was told by many elders that I needed to go to reservations all across the country and offer these prayers for all the Native communities. This was a hard and spiritually heavy word and I had a difficult time accepting it. It took me two years to accept this and that is a whole story in itself. But during those two years, I did start taking part in Yavapai Apache Exodus Days where the tribe celebrates their return to the land after 25 years of imprisonment at Old San Carlos.
Every February since 2009 I have traveled to Old San Carlos and offered prayers for all the tribes that had been relocated there and for all the families who had relatives who died at San Carlos or on the forced marches when the people were removed from their homeland.
Sometime after the Arizona Journey, I began to ride motorcycles again after giving it up over 30 years ago when I had a major wreck that was the result of drinking all day and then getting on my bike to ride home. When I started riding many people told me that I needed to do a lot of the Nationwide Tribal Prayer Journey on a motorcycle. After a while, my wife and others told me the same thing.
God provided us with a 2004 Victory Vegas and the journey began. My first trip was to Oklahoma, then California, Oregon Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Utah. It was an amazing 5000-mile, 21-day journey. I was led to many people who were very touched by what I was doing for the people: I was led to people who were thinking about suicide, had lost people to suicide and many who wanted me to pray for them about drug and alcohol issues.
This all led me to do a prayer/healing ride from San Carlos Apache Nation to Ft Marion, Saint Augustine, Florida, where many Apache, Kiowa, Cado Cheyenne and Arapaho people were imprisoned. It took a while for this to come together but back in May of this year, I did the ride. Again I was amazed at the people, the stories, and the support and encouragement for me doing these rides to see these curses broken and asking for blessing and healing to be poured out on the land and peoples across the land.
Again many things happened and stories were shared with me that I only share face to face. But we are seeing peoples lives changed and many hopeless and broken-hearted people encouraged.
On my return to Arizona, I visited some of the elders I have been working with and gifted them. Over the next few months we will be visiting tribal senior centers and gifting as many elders as we can, praying with them. We will pray for their people, asking forgiveness for the hurts of the past, many of which were done by people claiming to be doing so in the name of the Lord.
As I write this, I am on the second week of a Tribal Prayer Journey from Flagstaff, Arizona through Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and now back towards Arizona.
Please join me in offering prayers for healing of the Drug Abuse, Alcoholism and Suicide curses that plague our peoples.
Bill Gowey and his wife Jan minister with Reztoration and are based in Flagstaff, Arizona.
