Apache spiritual leader Jimmy Tenrivers, (left), and Maggid ben Yoseif have challenged followers of the Book of Mormon at Manti and Orem, Utah, to remember their obligation to help the descendants of Lehi ben M'nashe ben Yoseif.

At meetings held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings,  January 8-9, 2008, the two asked for help funding the 27th annual revived Sun Dance and the 7th year the dance has been held at the Apache ceremonial grounds near Gardner, CO., called "Aztlan," (the Homeland).

The two were also part of a Native American delegation who met with LDS Historian and Council of 70 Member Marlin Jensen.  The meeting was arranged by Dr. Stephen Jones, (pictured below with MbY).

"We met with several LDS members, other followers of the Book of Mormon and heads of Native organizations, including Robert Three Eagles and Donnel Adair, a descendant of James Adair, author of the 1775 London published classic, "History of the American Indians."

The book, which MbY said correlates 23 practices and customs of the Cherokee with similar practices and customs of the Hebrew priesthood, was partially reprinted in 1930, 1954 and 1998 as "Out of the Flame:  Cherokee Beliefs and Practices of the Ancients."

"We drove to Utah to challenge the faith of followers of the Book of Mormon. The Apache, who have faithfully stewarded the Eastern gate of the Sacred area of Aztlan (the Homeland) for 500 years, need help to fund their 7th annual Sun Dance. This year would represent a continuous chain of 27 years that this dance has been observed by Aztlan leaders since the ban on its observance in the 1890s was lifted in 1976.  See the dramatic sign in 2006 that validated the dance at the vortex of the Eastern gate.

"High gasoline prices and other consumer price hikes have hit these impoverished Apache and Indio-Chicano, who number about 60 families and growing, very hard. Several breadwinners are now unemployed because of cutbacks. Others are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.  But these are personal needs for which the community does not ask for charity. The Sun Dance, however, is for all of mankind and creature-kind.

"I had told Tenrivers and other leaders of Iglesia de Aztlan, the 501 c 3 under which they are chartered as a Native American "church," that the true followers of the Book of Mormon would understand their obligation to lend a hand to the people who are stewarding the Eastern gate, especially when they understand Tenrivers' and his people's vision to prepare a place for elders of all Native tribes to come. An Ogalala Sioux prophecy related to me shortly before his death by my late friend "Buffalo Man", an Ogalala medicine man, indicates the same place may one day be the 'place of governance' of the land shortly before, during and after the Purifications foretold by the Hopi.

"So in my study of the Book of Mormon with my mentor and RLDS Spokesman, Terry Weldon of Soldier, IA., two questions emerged for which Tenrivers and I traveled to Utah to seek and propose bold answers.  Since they pertain to the Sun Dance, the need to fund the Sun Dance also brought us to Utah.  If help is provided to fund the Sun Dance, the ties will be made and there will be much much more to discuss later.

Specifically, we discussed the covenant made between the God of Israel and the descendants of Lehi.  We propose that it was never abrogated.  Perhaps it has been "manashed" or forgotten by this family of Joseph-M'nashe "separated from its brothers," and Lamanites and Nephites both have not acted like the family of God, but neither the term "sefer critut" (book of cutting off) nor anything similar is found in the Book of Mormon. That decree in the prophet Jeremiah did apply however, to the remainder of the House of Joseph still in exile. It is remedied for these removed from the covenant through their faith in Y'shua (Jesus) as the mediator between them and God in a "renewed covenant."

The Apache have a relationship with Jesus as well but not as God. Jarrod, a young Apache prophet who was one of the first Sun Dancers at Aztlan along with Tenrivers and who also is a carrier of the sacred Chanupah (peace pipe), has walked and talked with Jesus many times in dreams, visions and appearances. "He's my bro," Jarrod said Jesus told him.

Tenrivers related to the Utah groups his desire to restore the "Dance of Welcome" given to the Native people by Jesus himself in 1890.  But this dance , similar to a Hebrew round dance but in a spiral, was changed and called the Ghost Dance by the Sioux leader, Sittingbull. According to Nevada newspaper accounts, the dance was given to the Native prophet Wovoca and 11 other Natives who were mysteriously drawn to Walker Lake, NV.  It was outlawed after the U.S. Calvary encountered more fierce opposition from the Sioux nation.

If all this be true and at least the history of the Book of Mormon be true -- we did not debate doctrine -- then the Sun Dance, sweat lodges and other ceremonies, the sacred tobacco, the sacred sage, the sacred cedar, the sacred sweet grass and other medicines being revived by descendants of the Lamanites and Nephites are of the correct and true "Spirit of the God of Israel."

Tenrivers passionately explained the Sun Dance as a time of self-sacrifice for which dancers prepare most of the year. It is also an integral part of the spiritual work of restoration to the ancient ecologically friendly and technologically sensitive paths, he said.  Since its first year at the Aztlan vortex, the dance has grown in attendance to more than 30 dancers and more than 350 participating family members, visitors and guests. The coming year 40 dancers and 400 to 450 guests, family members and visitors are expected. This includes people coming from the East and West coasts, Central and South America and parts of Europe.

"The sun dancers and other Indio-Chicano and Apache who attend the weekly sweat lodge in nearby Walsenburg suffer for the entire world or at least the Western Hemisphere as Tenrivers concedes that the prayers of others may keep the world upright on its other side."

MbY's personal challenge to the followers of the Book of Mormon was this question:  "Is it not high time that the proper protocol be paid to these spiritual warriors at the Eastern Gate?"