Howard Bad Hand ’73

On finding harmony in a discordant world

"I grew up with a sense of'we' versus America. I had the good fortune of being raised by my grandparents, which connected me to older ways of thinking. My mother's generation was being assimilated."

"Losing your people's language takes away your cosmology. There's a disconnect between you and nature." "After I left the RosebudReservation for school, Iwas like a bird who had fallenout of the nest. Even if the other eagles don't treat you like one, you're still an eagle."

"Music has always been thecreative language to the divine. Sounds can do healing. People have always known this. Now science is figuring it out."

"I'm lucky to have been born into a family of singers. Singersbecome the holy people. When you dance and pray all day you are expressing a willingness to let your being go back to creation."

"Every time we go to war we turn back to beautifulmusic to counteract the depravity. We saw that during World War II and Vietnam. We're seeing it again. People who are using music to communicate their rage and frustration will come back to a sense of beauty."

"I don't like the term 'Native American.' America didn't always exist. Lakota people, Dine, indigenous people or first nations give a better sense of the reality."

"There was something a little Machiavellian about my decision to go to Dartmouth. Hearingabout the Dartmouth Indians got my ire up.I wanted to change things."

"Being Native at Dartmouth meant being racially different and being at the bottom of the socio-economic scale. You get hardened to racism on the reservation. The socioeconomic difference was the biggest divide."

"I was not a good student but I was a good revolutionary. Unlike the militants who were always angry, I tried hard to make friends with faculty members and administrators—John Kemeny, James Wright, Charlie Dye, Dick Jaeger '59 and others and with trustees. I was teaching them. I knew what that would mean. Good relationships create enduring things."

"I had my first real encounter with the / Ching (the book ofchanges) in Baker Library. Now I use it in my work. It gave me the language I needed to communicate the natural order. Daoism speaks to the truth in nature."

"Being an intuitive consultant means leaning on what youknow. Everyone has intuition but how many trust it? Very few. I teach realities; I help awaken people to their own truths. People are born with knowledge of the divine then they cover it with a lot of junk."

"Dreams are a point for reality to be made; every vision is yougoing outward. Without visions and dreaming we couldn't have memory. Memory is supposed to help you not repeat mistakes." "Good is that which furthers and endures; evil is that whichdepraves and prevents life. People do choose evil. That's when the ego takes over—when someone thinks 'I'm the greatest.' That separates one from the divine being."

"Healing is a balancing of the forces that can renewlife your life every single moment."

'Religion has a purpose of keeping order butit never reaches a truth. The moment you try to control others you're already in the wrong. The spirit will express itself. If you follow your personal good, religion is no longer useful."

"You have to demand time for yourself. The rest of the time, let the world be."

"The moment you fear losing something,you lose harmony. If you are in extreme dissonance, it will play out before ore harmonization."

Pr "A true leader influences from behind. The person in front uses a lot of energy being there."

"The wind is the greatest change agent because it is ceaseless. We should try to influence like the wind. Ceaseless influential activity is changing the world."

CAREER: Intuitive consultant/spiritual counselor; president, High Star Productions, a music and video company, Taos, New Mexico, 1983-present; lead singer of Red Leaf Takoja and Heart Beat, 1975- present; program analyst, National Indian Health Board, 1978-1982; education director and economic developer, Rosebud (South Dakota) Sioux Tribe, 1976- 1977; associate, Intercultural Studies Group, Boston, 1973-1975 NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS: Helped to establish Dartmouth's Native American studies program; given spiritual leader/healer status by the Lakotas; helped found Sinte Gleska University in Rosebud, South Dakota; author of Native American Healing; technical advisor on TNT drama Into the West EDUCATION: psychology major; masters course work at Harvard University FAMILY: Wife Terrie; children Erin (24), Erika (22), Jeremy (21) and Kristina (15)