Welcome to the KWAHADI MUSEUM in Amarillo, Texas
Recently we were invited to an event called The Cowboy Christmas featuring
Michael Martin Murphy
MMM is a great friend of the old west Cowboy and Native American Indian
and he was a good friend of my mother
Each year he has this event and donates his time and the proceeds to the Kwahadi Center
~we were delighted to be invited~
but as I walked into the museum that evening, I realized the last time I had been to the center was for my mother's funeral ceremony in February. The day before (December 10) was her birthday and I had not expected the emotion I would feel walking in again
(...BACK STORY...
for many years Mr. Pura Vida and I had been on the look out for a nice "something" for his library/office, maybe a barber pole or chair, a cigar Indian??? we knew when we found the right thing we'd get it)
as we entered the gift shop at the center before the music---I saw this
I have visited the gift shop several times but this is the first time I had ever noticed this very cool and perfect cigar Indian...so I asked the clerk if it was for sale and she said you need to speak to the gentleman behind you
Mr. Charles Richey..director of the center
ME: Is this carved Indian for sale?
HE: well, I have had this carving for many many years and no one has ever offered to purchase it
Me: well, I have been looking for one for many years and I'm very interested in it
HE: it belonged to a very dear friend of mine, who without her this museum wouldn't even be...
her name is Charlene....
ME: as I interrupted him...she is my mother
yes that's my man taking the cigar Indian to my car a few days later
that's our cigar Indian on our hearth waiting to decide where it will be
when we picked up the carving I looked down at the counter and saw the amulets my mother had made and donated to the gift shop
This is her buckskin dress...I wore it to her ceremony and here it has been since I took it off and laid it here February 14, 2019. It will soon live on at the Kwahadi Museum
I understand that many people would believe the whole situation of me seeing the cigar Indian for the first time ever and finding out it belonged to my mother and never knowing she even owned a cigar Indian, would think this could be explained as a random occurrence and somehow scientific...quantum physics
but...
that person is not me
and this is her clan who will learn the story of the
miracle of the cigar Indian as we tell it over and over
Charlene
Many Feathers
December 10, 1934-February 14, 2019
