ONAC Mother Church trying to clean up
The following email was set to Sachem Graves PRIOR to KM's decision to put our Mother Church on notice that we distrust them. We felt that we should go ahead and share it with you now so you're aware of what's in the works and planed for all ONAC churches future:
Nov 8, 2017
to branchleaders.., ONAC, Little, Linda, onaclaw, bcc: me
Dear Brothers and Sisters of ONAC,
Over the last few years, ONAC has undergone a tremendous amount of change with the introduction of Cannabis branches within the church. So much change, in fact, that many of the branch leaders may not realize that ONAC has and always will be a church deeply rooted and married to the medicinal sacrament of Peyote and its ceremonies. That being said, in addition to Cannabis, ONAC has also embraced many other earth-based sacraments, medicines and ceremonies such as ayahuasca, san pedro, mushrooms, iboga, sweat lodge, vision quest, etc. Prior to the introduction of Cannabis, ONAC was already approximately 70 branches and roughly 3,000 members strong and still boasts a steady increase in non-cannabis memberships to stand at roughly 7,500 to date. With the addition of Cannabis, however, in just a small handful of years we have more than doubled the number of ONAC branches to over 200 and made an even more impressive increase in our membership base to over45,000 ONAC members, to date. During this short timeframe of extremely rapid growth we recognized that we would be remiss if we didn’t establish policies and procedures that ensure our members understand what it means to be part of the ONAC family and that our branch leaders are set up for success with respect to educating, enlightening and enabling the responsible use of indigenous earth-based healing traditions and sacraments.
That being said, ONAC has, on multiple occasions since its inception, sought for and requested a number of individuals and groups of individuals that agreed to take on the great effort of establishing effective and responsible policies and procedures. Unfortunately, for ONAC, they did this with little to no success. As a result, this has left ONAC, its integrity and reputation extremely vulnerable and occasionally a victim of ill-intentions and greed.
Today, we are happy to announce that we have successfully initiated efforts to effectively and in short order, establish and implement the much needed policies and procedures of ONAC Mother Church, its branches and its cultivation centers. As you might imagine, this is not a trivial task. In order to ensure success, we are taking a phased approach to this effort and will start with the following areas, prioritized in the order listed below:
Members and Membership Requests (existing and new members); clarify legal rights and responsibilities, member requirements, renewed commitments, new member processes and contribution expectations, etc.
Existing Branch Operations: centralized systems and infrastructure, standardized sacrament offering quotas, ONAC representative (employee, volunteer, medicine persons, leader, etc.) requirements, branch advisor requirements, accountability expectations, transportation requirements, Mother Church contribution expectations, etc.
NEW Branch Application: prerequisites, application process and fees, branch establishment support, operations support, contribution expectations, etc.
Existing Cultivation Center Operations...
NEW Cultivation Center Application...
Member Benefits...
etc.
In parallel, and as part of this effort to establish policies and procedures, we are also making efforts to bolster our legal representation and taking a proactive approach to ensuring we remain in good standing with the authorities at all levels. We have retained a very reputable federal attorney that we will be working with to arm ONAC Mother Church and every branch and cultivation center with a position packet that will clearly articulate our position as a federally recognized church.
Some of the other changes you can expect and benefit from over the next few months are as follows, but not limited to:
● Updated and enhanced website
● ONAC mobile app
● Electronic membership request and real-time processing
● Standardized documentation, curriculum and training materials
● Legal and social media guidelines
What do we need from you?...
As ONAC branch and cultivation center leaders, you are critical stakeholders and ultimately will benefit a great deal from this effort. Your insights, spiritual and financial support and encouragement is greatly appreciated as we embark upon this journey to uplift ONAC to the next level.
Over the next few weeks and upcoming months, we will be reaching out to all the branch and cultivation center leaders to gather insight, collect feedback and ensure compliance to the ONAC endorsed policies and procedures as they begin to roll-out. Should you feel compelled to contact us before we have the opportunity to reach out to you, please feel free email us at: branchleaders.onac@gmail.com
Finally, as you can well imagine, this effort will not come without cost. The legal fees will be in the six figure range. Your contributions will help. Any amount will make a difference but we would greatly appreciate additional contributions in the amount of $2500 from ONAC branches and cultivation centers that find themselves in a position to do so.
In closing, we are very excited and looking forward to all of the great things we can accomplish together as a family.
Aho,
ONAC Council of Elders
As you ca see, our Mother knows that there's issues needing addressed and corrected within her structure, and remain willing to do all we can to unite the honorable churches and members together, but, we are concerned as to the directions being considered for she to go, and too, there is fear on the ONAC's who cannot stand on their own feet and merit. Obviously we are not referring to All the independent churches blessed by ONAC that can and do stand on their own merit and have won some legal respect for using cannabis as our focal sacred sacrament, such as Greenfaith Ministries in Colorado and too, to a lesser degree, we as ONAC KM have up in the pacific Northwest. As many know, we have been working diligently to gain guaranteed footing for the whole of Oklevueha on the cannabis sacrament legal standing since we were Requested to come in and be part of ONAC.
Many of you may not Realize that our sachem had already received many blessings of ordainment prior To our joining and reflecting ourselves as an Oklevueha Native American Church, including two faiths whom declare cannabis as their sacrament and also had incorporated a church in honor of legendary icon Jack Herer personally and whom entrusted her with sacred knowledge confirming the need of recognizing the fungi as a crucial and essential sacred sacrament, above even cannabis he told she and many. Those churches teachings were joined together for over a Year Before even having been blessed as "Kautantowit's Mecautea" and after that is when both sachem Graves and James Mooney agreed to join forces and further combined their attempts to preserve All of the earth based healing sacraments into the power that then began reflecting as ONAC KM, September 1st 2013 that decision was officially blessed and declared "born". Since that time ONAC KM has worked diligently in striving to attain a secure legal recognition for this endeavor.
What was agreed between the two, was that Graves would accept a blessing from James and ONAC of receiving her own standing as an ONAC church, and that he honored her as a medicine woman in exchange for she and her church being the "Martyr church" for all of ONAC when it came to cannabis sacrament. What that entailed was Mooey'ss instruction for her to coordinate and implement cannabis into ONAC KM's structure and that in turn it "would be the model for all other cannabis churches" and too that she would become the "ONAC figurehead over and regarding ONAC cannabis churches." Though Graves accomplished her end of all of this, Mooney didn't follow through with his ed of the promises made, and before she knew it, ONAC KM became their broom and dustpan and presented with messes still unable to fully be cleaned made well over a year ago.
Some of you may or may not be aware of the case ONAC KM caught intentionally in June of 2014 in the state of Oregon. It was our first official assignment from our mother church ONAC, to get ourselves into the legal position of question so that we could assert and have confirmed that we were legally a bona fide church and that cannabis specifically was our focal sacrament. We did so, which is confirmed by the literal arrest of two of our members, and the ultimate indictment of our sachem, who faced 20 years in prison had she been convicted and both members faced 16 years in Oregon state prison. Though the Mother Church failed to provide the financial support for the legal support we were initially promised would be in place, sachem Graves was able to get money from her families estate and cover the cost for a private attorney who was to oversee the case as their lead counsel "To represent the church" while each of the three were given court appointed counsel to represent themselves individually.
As that case pursued into about the middle of 2015, sachem Graves and one of the two members continued the battle head-on, immediately asserting "Religious Defense" and ultimately getting their cannabis sacrament recognized on record as being their religious sacred sacrament. During a pre-trial hearing of sorts, when sachem Graves and James Mooney both gave testimony not only confirming that "Cannabis is ONAC KM's primary sacrament and sachem Graves is and was to be honored as being a medicine woman of cannabis sacrament," ultimately the state opted to back-door out after for the first time in court history, Mooney and Graves both put the court and specifically the judge on notice that should they continue to progress the case against the church, they would not stop until they saw all who did prosecuted and imprisoned for knowingly and intentionally violating multiple federal and UN Laws attempting to prosecute and punish us for exercising our lights of religious freedom. That was when the judge entered an "opinion" in regards to the case calling for a request of dismissal of all charges by the defense.
Before the defense was made Aware of the opinion from the judge, the prosecution jumped into motion and actually obtained a dismissal of all charges, which ultimately gave room for them to threaten Graves with double charges should she and her church attempt to re-establish the sanctuary garden in Central East Oregon "Within three years of the dismissal". Of coarse this didn't sit well with Graves who Did set out and re-establish a garden there that following year, which though they were harassed a little, ultimately they were left alone and nothing resulted in that garden nor the garden that was established there the following year as well, at least by law enforcers. Though she was promised to have been re-payed for the costs incurred her in the case, Graves let it go, insisting that it was a worthy investment for her church and members and she ad the members who endured all that hoop jumping and circus show were content in just having been given the promise that ONAC would be "Forever Grateful" to them for having stood their ground in the face of legal battle and having obtained the ONLY legal recognition of cannabis being a sacrament under the name of Oklevueha Native American Church to date, though ultimately it never reflected as being an ONAC or "Church" case as far as the charges were concerned.
"We were promised just as James testified in court, that our sachem and church "Are equal to me as I am with Oklevueha Native American Church" and that "Cannabis is Joy's medicine" - those statements were on the record and guaranteed to us as a personal promise from James and our mother church, and was re-confirmed multiple times in ONAC church ceremonies from 2015 to date, and too, that we were thereby exempt from any future regulations and protocol the mother church might one day implement as their policy, and so confirmed in front of all members in attendance of those ceremonies." After this win, is when the mother church began the changing of the cards and promises of security and legal protections offered by the mother church in exchange for membership. Please take a look at the photograph immediately below of what the new now current cards issued By ONAC read as far as a members personal rights and legal protections please so you can see the reason for our concern, not only about the promises themselves, but too, the implied direction the mother church is preparing to take internally that will prove conflicting as far as whether or not members are or will have legal protection:
As much as many of us Want to protect and be able to ensure them that the promises of this legal protection could be so easily guaranteed as ONAC continues ahead utilizing the "controlled substance" earth-based medicines, however we know that it'a uncharted grounds and until the whole of ONAC gains a solid and indisputable standing in law assuring us so, we as KM do not feel comfortable misleading people into such a false sense of security of which could prove to be costly to our members as well as bring struggle upon other churches and their members as well, something we do Not want to do. The objective was originally planned ad agreed that we would first secure our right to secure legal protections over cannabis and Then move toward the battle over fungi and then go from there until we secured rights of them all, gaining support as we gain ground. We feel and continually express Concern in taking such the bold step to present having the ability ro protect sacraments we haven't legally gained legal recognition of having.
This is why we Continue to press ONAC on the PDX injunction, because that was the original plan agreed to between ONAC and KM. As it stands now, ONAC KM remains the one church that has gained recognition in court as using Cannabis as our focal sacrament. Though that Does give the whole of ONAC a thread to attempt to stand on elsewhere, we know and continue to insist it's not Enough if a stand to be able to "Guarantee" and legal protections From prosecution should the government choose to pursuit them. Right now it remains the Best hope at the protection All ONAC members need with the best hope of securing the forever protection ONAC has already been promising joining members, interested in the sacrament or not. Despite the situation between ONAC and KM, we are going to keep the whole of ONAC in the PBX Injunction and get it re-filed Before the statutes of limitations run out, which is very soon, even if we have to rep it ourselves Without any legal counsel, because it needs to be done and it's the honorable thing to do for all our members who Need this right and option secured for them.
More concerning proof is found validating our concern when you look to the members currently in prison who were convicted for cannabis Before ONAC KM was blessed and fought the battle we did in Oregon trying to secure cannabis as an ONAC sacred sacrament. Even-though churches such as Greenfaith Ministries in Colorado who had also won recognition in the legal system for having the right to use cannabis as a sacrament was also willing to extend that right to ONAC by accepting a confederation and blessing also offered by ONAC, and that ONAC has also since gained the blessing of cannabis sacrament from the Huichol tribe, ONAC still was NOT in a position to promise prospect members a guaranteed Right of legal protection to use cannabis "religiously" of else a handful wouldn't still be in prison because they believed it Years ago. If it were, none of the dozen plus churches would have had issue!
Though KM remains completely implemented in our handling of it as the sacred sacrament that it is, our mother and in turn, our sibling churches do not, and obviously what's going on throughout the state of California under the ONAC insignia this year Proves they urgently need to be for their own protection as well as for the future steps as the whole of Oklevueha. "Getting the mother church to even Acknowledge this has been slow going, but this being their first steps at doing so is highly scary for we who are viewed as being the warrior protectors of the whole of Oklevueha Native American Church... because we haven't gotten to That confident of a level for All of our siblings yet. ONAC needs at Least one or 2 more wins or at least Acknowledgments of cannabis being a Common practice sacrament for the Whole of ONAC, because the way it was testified by James in our case was that "Peyote is ONAC mother church's medicine, cannabis is Joy's and her churches medicine." This is why we were really Hoping the Kenwood case in California was Sooo Hopeful for us, because it Would have given ONAC that second thread of standing needed to weave the ground And too, it would have gave us state recognition In the state that obviously remains the profiteers focus. But in that case and too, in our efforts to secure it in the PDX injunction, thus far our mother continues to fail us in her promises of support again, and knowing that but then reading this, is too much for us to remain silent about it, especially to our sibling churches who know sit in danger because they believe they are already legally protected when realistically they could prove to be the next martyr, just without having realized it."
On the even bigger scope note, our concerns are also Clearly able seen in the recent conviction of one of our members for having been caught in possession of less than a 16th of a gram of fungi sacrament, something ONAC assured us they would handle but ultimately couldn't even present a letter on the members behalf when requested by the court to do so with the impression that the charge would then promptly be dismissed on the member, which ultimately wasn't because no letter was received and so the member spent 90 days in jail that he will never be able to get back, nor has he gotten any apologies for from the mother church for having failed him.Though we were willing to provide the letter the court requested that would have likely prevented his conviction and jail term, when our mother Insisted they would directly handle it and for us to stand down, we Trusted and believed it would be handled as promised.
We were not even told that the mother church had changed the membership cards to read that they Specifically included fungi until after the member got caught up with a court case and showed us the back of his card when he came asking for legal help" says KM president, "And after he got out of Jail is when we learned that when he reached out to James and the mother church as we were instructed to have him do, he was treated very dishonorably and ultimately told to never reach out to the mother church for such legal help again, which shocked and devastated the young man." According to KM, the man still remains an honorable member to ONAC KM on our ONAC roll, he insists that though he no longer puts his faith in ONAC, his trust ad respects for KM remains intact and he has gone on to aid we and our fellow members as well as KM's sibling churches as he can selflessly do, even since his conviction. We take that Seriously.
Please understand that we are not out here looking to question or even cause embarrassment upon our beloved mother church or it's leaders, founders or followers, or anyone else including ourselves or our members. We are simply expressing the concerns already long presented to the table of issue with them that remain unaddressed and overlooked in the hopes of getting them finally addressed and corrected. Our fear is that if they are not, that ultimately it could result in costing everyone the whole of ONAC, which none of us want to see afforded any of us. We remain confident in that through our unification and cooperation working with one another can ultimately only prove to make we and all of our standings that much stronger and too, that together we all can prove to be better benefit to all of our members and each of their unique needs, which is why we continue to push for unification and confederations in and Beyond the boundaries of Oklevueha. We just hope it can be achieved, especially now during such unsettling times encompassing our religious rights and too, our ability to use the sacred sacraments Creator freely gave us with the instruction to use, especially in communion with him.
Thank you for your continued interest and support as we continue striving to bring you the news and information pertinent to you. blessings to all, please go in a good way and make good medicine as you do.
