John John Brown: Sewing seeds of tradition for generations to come

(MUSCOGEE NATION) Autumn harvest crops like pumpkins and corn have been cultivated by Native Americans for thousands of years. This agricultural resilience was necessary for survival, ensuring families would be fed through the cold winter months. 

Today, there is another hunger for many Native American families; the hunger to connect to a culture colonizers forced their ancestors to give up. 

“It’s hard for someone to learn about our culture that is on the outside,” John John Brown told VNN. “Because if you’re not tied to a stomp ground, you may not get the answers that you’re looking for. I was lucky that I was just born and raised with it. I’ve been here all my life.”

Brown is a Muscogee Creek and Euchee tribal elder, though “elder” might not be a word he is used to quite yet. Last year, Brown received both the Living Legends Award from Muscogee Creek Nation and the AARP Native American Elder Award. 

He is the youngest recipient on record for each of them. 

“Grandpa was a medicine man,” Brown said. “He was chief. I got showed a lot of things when it comes to medicine. Indian medicine and ceremonial grounds.” 

Brown belongs to the Duck Creek ceremonial ground, located in Sapulpa. He said it is one of only three Euchee grounds left in the world. 

“Up until 1972 it was illegal for anybody to practice stomp dances or Earth celebrators,” Brown said. “That’s how recent these laws are. Not 1872. 1972. This was still illegal to do. But my grandpa started these grounds back in the 30s. We’re still thriving today.” 

Singing songs, Brown says, that the Creator gave them at the beginning of time. 

“Only He knows what they mean,” Brown said. “There’s no words in these songs that we sing; they’re sounds. And so, they say when we cross over to the other side, we’ll finally know what they mean.” 

“We start around March, we play our games. By May, we’re dancing. And by August we’re done. We call that the circle out there, with them three main arbors. Chief’s arbor and the warriors. And everything always faces the East, all that we do. They start dancing sometime around midnight and they dance until the sun comes up.”

Brown said the camp houses that surround the outside of the circle are for the different families that camp there during ceremonial times. 

“We have eleven camps where they camp at. And there’s no electricity,” Brown said. “We do have running water down here, but things down here be lit up by lanterns and they all got a firepit and they all cook over an open fire. And it’s just a fun time. It’s just like church for people.” 

Brown also works to preserve other traditions, such as carving canoes, crafting ballsticks, and “breaking rock” or flintknapping, the shaping or chipping away of stones to make things like arrowheads. 

And just as the harvest is celebrated as a connector to the cycles of nature, the land, and Creator, Brown is also a celebrated connector, through his positioning as a Special Projects coordinator for Muscogee Creek Nation and through mentorship. 

“Everything that I make, I also teach,” Brown said. “I teach it to our youth. I do the mentorship program with the Muscogee Creek Nation youth department every year. Been doing that for years. I’m usually the most popular one they pick out because I make stuff. I have two students that I’ve pretty much been taking every year just because they’re really learning.” 

Brown said he can’t help but teach the spiritual aspects, as well, but navigating those limits can be tricky.

“There’s some of this that needs to get out or our people will never know,” Brown said. “But then there’s some of it, too, that needs to stay where it's at.”

While they maintain their own distinct cultural identity, many Euchee are enrolled citizens of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. 

“In the Trail of Tears and in the movement, they grouped the Euchees with the Creeks when we got over here,” Brown said. “And so, the Euchees got Creek roll numbers.” 

Like his own grandfather, Brown said, who was full-blood Euchee but was registered as Muscogee Creek.

Though the Euchee ways are still very much oral tradition, those looking to learn more about the Muscogee Creek teachings have a limited number of resources available, including A Sacred Path: The Way of the Muscogee Creeks by Jean Chaudhuri and Joyotpaul Chaudhuri, which contains information about traditional values, views, and spirituality, and is available for purchase online. 

One major ceremonial commonality for both tribes, and many others in Oklahoma, across the nation, and throughout the world, is the sacred fire. And though different ceremonial grounds will have different protocols, Brown says, there is one thing that unifies them all. 

“The old ones tell us once you touch that fire it will always draw you back,” Brown said. “Something about that fire that will draw you back. And so, for a long time I thought, what does that mean? Does that literally mean touch that fire? But it’s the medicine and the whole spirituality aspect of it. Once you see it, once you hear it, once you experience it, you will want to come back. It will draw you back. And that’s what it’s supposed to do.”