The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth [Paperback]

Corbin Harney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 31, 2009

As a Native American medicine person, Corbin listened to his own medicine people describe prophecies that were shocking and unbelievable to him as a child. Today he sees these ancient prophecies coming true, one after another. Corbin Harney shares the native view of life and the importance of living in balance with nature. He is asking for "the human" to awaken to the emergency the Earth is in today. Nuclear testing and the transportation of radioactive waste on our highways and railroads is life-threatening to all of us because truck and rail accidents are inevitable. What can we do? "We all have a voice. By working together, as one people, we may still save our Mother Earth." "Corbin Harney stands as no one else does at the moment for that new alliance between indigenous peoples and environmental groups. I see him in the coming years as a very prominent figure in the global movement that eventually, I hope, will prevent major catastrophes from happening." Stephan Dompke, Director, Society for a Nuclear-Free Future, Berlin Endorsements "Corbin's words are not polished or eloquent; they are simply the truth ... and come directly from Corbin's heart to the reader." Napra ReView "This book will touch the spirit of anyone who is concerned for the Earth." Community Endeavor "What Corbin talks about is so basic and so real ... when he calls it Mother Earth and he talks about the land - it's so basic. It's just the way it is. It's not any high-tech anything; it's just basic living and life. He puts everything in perspective and gives everybody a sense of why they're here, and, like the burning in the heart, he gives you a renewed feeling that maybe you can make a difference." Claudia Peterson

Editorial Reviews

Review

Corbin Harney stands as no one else at the moment for that new alliance between indigenous peoples and environmental groups -- Stephan Dompke, Director, Society for a Nuclear-Free Future, Berlin

Corbin's words ... are simply the truth ... and come directly from Corbin's heart to the reader. -- Napra ReView

This book will touch the spirit of anyone who is concerned for the Earth. -- Community Endeavor

About the Author

Corbin Harney is an elder and spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone, a Native people indigenous to Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California. Born in Idaho, his mother died a few hours after his birth, and he was raised by medicine people of the Owyhee Indian reservation.

Since 1957 he has worked with medicine women of Battle Mountain, Nevada, running the Sundance Ceremony, sweat lodges, and helping sick people. As a medicine person, he has also been working steadily to preserve and protect the sacred sites and burial grounds of his people. In addition, he has been instrumental in helping to stop nuclear testing on Shoshone land at the Nevada Test Site. Corbin has spoken to the British Parliament, groups in Switzerland, Asia, and throughout the United States.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Blue Dolphin Publishing, Inc (July 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0931892805
• ISBN-13: 978-0931892806
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #906,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bridge Between Indigenous People and Environmentalists, June 22, 2000

By 

Ramona D. Gault - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth (Paperback)

Enmeshed in the high-tech, hyperspeed, information-age economy, it's easy for most of us to forget that we simply cannot survive without clean air, clean water, clean soil. It's also easy to shrug off your concerns by thinking, "What can one person do?" Corbin Harney, a spiritual leader of the Western Shoshone tribe, demonstrates what one person with a vision can do. "The Way It Is" is a wake-up call. It lays out Harney's vision of the law of life, the law that native peoples have always understood--that we have only one planet to take care of.

Since 1985, Harney and other Western Shoshone people have been fighting against nuclear weapons testing in Nevada. (The Nevada Test Site occupies land that the federal government illegally seized from the tribe in the 1940s to use for weapons testing.) The elderly Harney has totally dedicated himself to healing people, healing the land, and--most important--sharing his vision about the damage that nuclear pollution and other environmental abuses are doing to the land, air, and water. In down-to-earth, direct language, Mr. Harney lays out his beliefs and speaks directly to your heart.

His vision about water is alarming: "One time...when I was praying for the water, the water said to me, 'I'm going to look like water, but pretty soon nobody's going to use me.' Now, wherever I go, the people talk about their water being contaminated, and they can't use it."

Harney leads ceremonies and healing rituals on tribal land in Nevada and travels the Earth to talk to whomever will listen, telling them to pray for the Earth.

Over the years, he has achieved the stature of a moral authority for the Earth. He says, "I pray in the mornings for the sun, the air, the water, plants, the animals, the rocks. Those prayers have been passed on down from way back for thousands of years, but we haven't been doing enough of these things, of taking care of things, and now we have to come back to it. We are going to have to start taking care of things again."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most important message to every world citizen !, February 7, 2002

By 

Jan Ackermann (Courtemaiche , Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth (Paperback)

Get this book and read it , but read it with the eyes of your heart ! Your heart will understand this message easely - and then go and walk your talk in balace and beauty , and live it everyday , for the benefit of all what lives ! Give your children and the no-eyes , the unborn , a future which is worth to be lived !
We suggest to Amazon.com : sponsor a free copy to every US-citizen - this would be the most important action done so far , and Amazon would become famous for ever , Yeah !

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The World is as sharp as a knife", August 21, 2009

By 

Joshua Frank - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Way It Is: One Water, One Air, One Mother Earth (Paperback)

and the truth shall set you free. Read this book at all costs. Learn from someone who lives on the frontlines everyday, a man with so much humility and heart. Uncle Corbin left a good trail for us to learn from, now its time we make up our minds and get walking on our own straight path.


RIP Uncle, we miss your walk.