Posted on 04/19/2002 4:11:50 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
OGDEN -- Local shaman Nick Stark was trampled by a moose when he came between the cow and her calf as he tried to call off his dog from barking at the big game family.
Stark suffered only minor bruises in the confrontation last week. He wasn"t even upset over the irony of the fact the moose is part of his ritualistic tie to his position in the Oklevueha Earthwalks Native American Church.
His medicine man name in fact is "Flowing Moose."
"If I was not protected, or part of the moose energy, I probably would have been busted up good in a violent attack of sorts. . . . This is technically the moose"s yard that I live in."
Stark"s is not the most traditional of religions. In fact he is currently being prosecuted for the use of peyote sacraments.
So far, the courts have refused to extend federal protections of peyote use in Native American rites to Stark, in part because he is not Native American.
Stark was out gathering firewood around his residence near The Oaks restaurant up Ogden Canyon when he heard his dog Rudy, a large shepherd-malamute mix, barking at the two moose.
Stark said the moose were browsing, pretty much ignoring Rudy, but he took the dog by the collar to get him away when he realized he"d crossed between the mother and child.
The "rather large" moose knocked him down, Stark said, then turned around and walked over the back of his thigh as it returned to its feeding.
"She may look beautiful but has the personality of a bulldozer especially when out dining with her son," Stark said of the encounter. "it was like getting run over by a big fur coat."
Stark said he had a vision of a moose standing in a river when he was deciding upon his medicine name.
Also, in 1996 upon his return to Ogden after his initial "shamanic initiations" in Peru, the day he came back a moose came into his yard, he said, wondering if it was possibly the same moose he offended last week.
"It stayed for three days just to be around me," he said. "That moose was in a much better mood and was not with a calf at the time."
His medicine man name: Dances With Moose
"She may look beautiful but has the personality of a bulldozer especially when out dining with her son," Stark said of the encounter. "it was like getting run over by a big fur coat."
What a funny statement: bulldozer, big fur coat LOL
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LoanPalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
He commented, "I'm fine, but I feel like I've got more holes than a piece of swiss cheese."
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