THE RAINBOW WARRIORS
Frank Cipriani
by LOUISE "WIND WALKS WOMAN" BARTON (Cherokee/Mohawk)
This is the fourth in our Rainbow Warriors series and, as you can see, each warrior has a very different approach to protecting the Earth, the animals, and our environment.
Frank Cipriani, President of the Gatherer Institute, is a true rainbow warrior. He is a linguist, a scholar and an educator, an author, a naturalist, and a tracker. As he comes into contact with other people, especially those he considers to be "at risk," he creates libraries and programs to improve their situations. When vandals burned his forest meeting house, he tracked them down and taught them to respect their environment. Those boys joined Frank's youth programs and are now helping to rebuild the structure.
Frank has an MA TESOL, a BA in Linguistics and a BA in Hispanic language. He speaks English, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, German, and one endangered tribal language, with an understanding of Hebrew, Chinese, and Russian. Basically, he has two missions: One is to rebalance the environment and protect wildlife. The other is to rehabilitate humans suffering from the stresses of civilization and return them to Nature. He has a simple creed: OUTDOORS, GOOD; INDOORS, BAD!
Frank says that before others came across the sea to settle this land, there was a huge forest extending from the tundra up into Canada and down to the Okefenokee Swamp. This was called the Great North American Forest and it was said that a squirrel in this environment could travel from the tundra to the subtropics without ever touching the ground.
This forest acted as a lung and, as the Gulf Stream carried its warmth along and provided oxygen, it regulated temperature for the rest of the world. The Gatherer Institute, headed by Frank Cipriani, claims to have the knowledge and ability to restore 60% of that forest within 100 years.
As a first step, Frank managed to have 88 acres set aside in South Toms River, New Jersey, for the preservation of wildlife and to teach children how to respect themselves, each other, and their environment. Other offerings include women's groups, peer counseling, anti-drug and domestic counseling, anger-management classes, leadership dynamics, a summer camp, immersion in foreign languages and their cultures, entrepreneurships, learning survival skills and playing "Manhunt", and building wigwams and a fort.
In accordance with Frank's plan to rehabilitate humans born in "captivity" and release them to the wild, he brings naturalists into the woods and all activities take place out of doors in 88 Acres Park. Frank uses this name for the land in the hopes it will remind everyone, including politicians, exactly how much land is supposed to be there. In this way, he believes no one will be able to parcel off portions for other purposes.
These programs are sponsored by the local Board of Education, the South Toms River Municipal Alliance, The Golden Rule Foundation, and Walrus Internet (which has supported Frank's Web page since 1994). Other support comes from The Healing Works, ministers, RN's, and MSW's.
Those who attend the Tuesday night music and storytelling events, open to the public, at 88 Acres Park go straight to Frank's fort (also referred to as the "hut" or "meeting house"). Three tiers ring the inside of the deceptively small fort, permitting up a maximum of 150 people to be comfortably seated for a performance.
This is only the first such fort. More locations are planned, with hubs building off the main structure. Frank believes the economic motivations for development in creating a fort in early America still apply. He tells how settlers would build their homes and merchants would build their businesses in the protection and support of the central fort. The fort’s soldiers would then become customers for those merchants. As time passed, those farmers and businesses expanded into a city and the original fort was no longer needed.
Such a fortress strategy, as applied to primitive building, has a zero environmental impact and it is more economically feasible to tear houses down and restore forests than vice versa. Frank's strategy is to teach people how to survive and enjoy a more natural life, under what most of us would term primitive conditions.
Humankind’s existence should benefit the environment and the very nature of the way we live should lend itself to that. Frank hopes to change the paradigm by removing classrooms from solid structures and showing young people how to create a primitive environment, such as the fort, with their own hands and bring their laptops into those huts.
In Frank's Entreupreneurship programs, youngsters learn to run zero environmental impact businesses. He believes all people can raise their own money by using wireless resources in the woods. In this way, terms of pay and overhead costs are minimized, and people would prosper. Since each business must has its own disciplines in order to work, The Gatherer Institute teaches how important it is to have good English, math, and phone skills, and to be polite and articulate when dealing with customers.
These fort/hut/center house structures are designed to be built, utilized, and then grow old and die. As the natural material on the sides of the huts age, it is unable to stay on the walls. It is then raked up and put into sandy areas of the ground to renew the earth.
This type of structure is made of dead, standing cedar cut from a cedar swamp. Frank will only take what is beneficial to the forest. Living trees are never used and if enough dead cedar cannot be found, building halts until the situation changes.
Frank feels nothing should be killed unless you are going to eat it and questions as to whether, in the greater scheme of things, a person’s existence is really more important than that of an animal or a tree. Scientists have raised this question before, most recently when African wild areas were encroached upon; the question was posed as to whether the survival of an elephant's life shouldn't be considered equal to that of a human.
Frank points out that when damage is caused to the environment, it is not the problem; it is only the symptom. Rather, it is the human action that caused the damage that is the problem.
Frank says, "There is no such thing as a weed." He finds troubled, at-risk people, especially children, brings them together, and treats them with respect. He gives them whole meals and feels the price paid to flea markets for ceramic dishes and metal utensils, instead of paper and plastic, gives people a sense of worth.
Frank feels the best approach is to teach non-violence in every respect. He educates people, gives them a sense of purpose, and provides entertainment that is also a learning experience. Most recently, he has introduced Native American storytellers, performers, and musicians to Tuesday night's entertainment, as Native people are traditionally Keepers of the Earth and Keepers of the Animals. Bringing people of different backgrounds and temperaments together at these gatherings gives everyone a chance to come together, talk and share ideas. He also has a knack for finding the talent and funding he needs to make his plans work.
Frank's Gatherer Institute web site, which gives all the information about his activities calendar, special programs, the park, his mission statement, and his credentials may be reached at www.gatherer.org/institute. If you ever find yourself in New Jersey, in South Toms River, visit the site during the Tuesday night entertainment.
These are free events open to the public, and are held at the Center House in an outdoor “around the campfire” setting. Potluck is served around 6 p.m., so bring a dish to share and a folding chair. Be prepared to meet new friends and enjoy the great outdoors.
To get to 88 Acres Park, get on Rt. 9 South (where it comes off Garden State Parkway South, Exit 80, where Rt. 530 meets the tail end of Double Trouble Road, in South Toms River). Once on Rt. 9 South, turn right at first traffic light onto Ardmore; take second left onto Edgemont (a very short block and you are now facing 88 Acres Park). If your vehicle is up to it, drive onto the site, curving to the right, and park in the lot. Follow the happy laughter to the campsite.
References:
Interviews with Frank Cipriani and colleagues
On site visits to 88 Acres Park
http://www.gatherer.org/institute
Louise "Wind Walks Woman" Barton is listed in the Internet Public Library's Native American Authors Project.
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When it comes your time to die,
be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again in a different way;
sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Nation 1768 - 1813