Where are all the birds?

sad.for true.
David Lewis, Jr. is the last living medicine person of the Bird Clan of the Muscogee in Oklahoma.  Lewis description of his role as medicine person to the clan, and the void that will be left if he is unable to find a replacement for himself underscores one of the ways in which Creek culture is being eroded by modern pressures and influences:  

 excerpt from Creek Indian Medicine Ways, by David Lewis, Jr. and Ann T. Jordan

" I know that I'm the only living, true medicine man left who has actually been initiated.  It is nothing to brag about; it makes me sad.  We have a lot of carriers (uninitiated medicine people) who practice our medicine and they are very strong people, but they do not know the history of the origin of our medicine.  The tribe has ceremonial grounds and they use these red roots all through the summer and the other medicine people use the red roots, but they don't know the history of where red roots come from.  The history of our medicine is only taught to the initiated medicine people.  I haven't found a replacement to initiate to carry on this medicine culture.  There is an old story that says you will be given time to find one.  Maybe that is why the medicine people lived to be old people; they put off finding a replacement.  But you just can't find a candidate as easy as it sounds because the selection process is so strict.  I don't think I will ever find one. "