TULAROSA, N.M. (AP) -- If you're driving through south-central New Mexico any time soon, listen closely. You may find yourself swaying to the rhythm of a different drummer -- that of the New Native Indigenous People, based near Tularosa.
John Twobirds is the father and founder of this neo-traditional tribe. His mission, he says, is to share the wisdom and ways of the ancient American Indians with all who'll listen. It's an ancient message with modern applications, he says.Born in a small Oklahoma town 50 years ago to parents he says had origins in the Choctaw and the Ojibway tribes, Twobirds has lived a life steeped in Indian tradition. The ancient ways were passed to him by word of mouth from his Choctaw grandfather and other elders.
"I was tutored from the time I was born," he says. "My grandfather taught me to 'carry pipe' and, as we say, walk in the way -- or to be a pagan, as the missionaries and priests who wanted to convert him to Christianity called him."
Through the years, Twobirds says, he apprenticed himself to elders of many tribes and immersed himself in their often varying traditions.
Twobirds inherited his grandfather's sacred medicine bundle and pipes, prompting him to give up what he considered a successful business to "do the spirit's work and what I was trained for all of those years."
That training consisted of teaching others to "carry pipe" -- that is, perform the rituals associated with the medicine pipe central to American Indian culture. He also teaches survival skills and various ceremonies -- including the purifying rituals associated with the sweat or medicine lodge and the spiritual odyssey known as the vision quest.
Twobirds' mission to spread the way has taken him around the world, where he is building medicine circles, or followers, in England, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Canada.
"Medicine pervades every aspect of one's life and it's either good medicine or bad medicine," he says.
To partake of a medicine man's knowledge, Twobirds explains, one needs only to offer tobacco, which, in part because of the sacred role of the medicine pipe, has always been a precious commodity to Indians.
"If a medicine man can help you, he keeps your tobacco," Twobirds says. "If he can't, he gives it back."
For his followers, Twobirds has developed a traditional way of doing things that is unique and has applications for modern times.
For one, Twobirds allows no sex, gender or racial boundaries. He says most Indians disapprove of his teaching the sacred traditions to non-Indians and women. But he and others are coming to believe the Earth changes.
Much like biblical prophecies and those of Nostradamus, American Indian forecasts call for a cleansing of the Earth.
According to the time line embraced by Twobirds, life has existed on Earth for 22 million years and has consisted of four cycles. The fourth cycle is soon to end, he says, adding that the fifth and final cycle should begin around 2001.
These prophecies are based on the Mayan calendar, which proponents believe is 2 million years old. The Mayan calendar abruptly ends on Dec. 23, 2012, Twobirds says, following what prophecies indicate will be an unprecedented barrage of natural catastrophes.
Once the Earth is scrubbed clean, he says, an era of lawlessness will follow, in which some people may survive but under extremely primitive conditions. Only the strong and prepared will stay alive, he says.
Therefore, he also advocates learning to be self-sufficient, and members will be taught to grow and prepare their own food, tan hides, hunt, track and various alternative forms of medicine.
If the Earth and its inhabitants are to survive, Twobirds says, people -- male and female, young and old -- must learn to put aside their differences and pull together as one people.
At this point, he says, Earth's people do not realize they are one. Learning to live together as one is a primary goal of his group and an integral part of the "way" its members hope to pass to others.
As one member known as "the singing woman" puts it, "All life comes from the same primordial soup, so to speak. Each creature procreated and passed its genetic memory on."
Modern man may be more intelligent than members of the animal kingdoms, says another member, but more often than not that intelligence has gotten him into trouble.
People cannot heal the Earth until they heal themselves, and they cannot heal themselves until they change, Twobirds says.
"We have to get rid of our prejudices, bigotry and biases," he says.