It is Valentine’s day and it seems only appropriate for this story to be about my Valentine Guy, Tarwater. He is for sure my best friend and has put up with me longer than anyone other than my birth family..... and none of them lived with me for this long,. As you all know, Tarwater is the quiet riot behind the scenes of everything here at Hawkwind. It is his total dedication to chop wood, haul water that just keeps everything moving right along. Oh sure, I fluff up the energy and do the do, but it is his steadfast day to day that keeps this place alive.

Looking back to pull out the highlights of our multi faceted journey has been a chore. We have done so much together. So let is suffice that I should just go back to the beginning. I had been tracking his sweat lodge for over a year. I would stand in the PHOENIX & DRAGON bookstore and play his drums, and ask every one I could find if they knew how to hook up with his circle. All I was ever told, was, “There’s this crazy guy and a bunch of folks who have a few private lodges and land trusts, but you have to know someone to get invited.” I may have been a hot shot in the media world, but clearly I did not know the right someone. I kept on praying that I would find this secret lodge that would welcome me in the Atlanta area so I would not have to drive all the way to Four Winds Village to meet my Spiritual needs. And yet, it was at Four Winds that we finally met. There he stood in his old leather regalia, cigarette in hand, leaning back on his ancient red El Camino filled with his d rums and Spiritual crafts. I approached him and reached out to hug him as a long lost friend. WRONG. I was shrugged off as another annoying wannbe yuppie who was disturbing his moment of peace. It was my children who connected with him first.

When the Dali Llama came to town, we all met at Ansley Park to pray. There he was, again with all of the wonderful folks we had met at the Harmonic Convergence. Atma and Martin seeing our children, who had babysat their children instantly invited us to Tarwater’s house. It was one of those famous lodges that scorched the hair off the most dedicated ‘sweat hog’. From that day forward, my little family moved between Four Winds, his house and the land trust which we found amazingly to be a secret location within a few miles of our home in the suburbs. We had a family, at last. We spent time together with this new crew , every few days, and planned all of the ways we could make the world a better place by creating communities and healing centers around the country.

Hawkwind was purchased April of 1988. There were four of us with Cannunpa and a dream. Nothing else was on this land. A month later, almost 100 of us came together to bless the land and set Sacred intent. Within weeks, Tarwater was leading Vision Quest groups here on the land and things were alive. Missing my own Quest in Colorado that summer, (because the coordinator would not tell me where to meet the group, )it was Tarwater who offered to see me through the process. With the deed to the land in my name, I needed to figure out how to vision this place alive; along with the others, who seemed to be dwindling daily. After my Quest he moved to Virginia for awhile. Many weeks of trying to do this alone, I tracked him down him and called in the commitment. Others who made it disappeared and I was not knowing how to build this place, alone. His prayers began. Being a man of his word a couple of months later he came back as the builder. He worked with a budget of next to nothi ng each month to help me see this through. I took part time jobs and put on gatherings and he just kept working to build one portal after another. All the while, seldom complaining, and always grateful for someone who shared the vision at his side.

We lived without running water or electricity for the first few years. Electricity came long before running water which took almost 7 years to access. At first , I was a weekender with my daughter, until it got too cold to live outdoors. We then moved in next door to care take the property that was also going to be part of Hawkwind. We used the main cabin for workshops and Elder visits. Tarwater lived in the upstairs of the barn and Alethea and I lived in the little A- frame playhouse , a work in progress. The next year, we were working so hard that we all became much closer and in a romantic tale beyond compare, this earth warrior swept me off my feet with a dinner date in a cave. Having ducked and dodged rumors for almost two years, that night the candles flickered as he offered me a place at his side to care for the people first, from that our love and respect could grow. I took his feather and knew I had a partner in creation. He took on being a father to Alethea with full heart and together we chopped wood and hauled more water. Then one day he put a pump in the creek and we hauled less water. Yet the old trailer that now housed the three of us was what one resides in when things go from bad to worse, and worse to woserer, as the old guy who sold it to us said. Our dedication to the process was the one thing that bound it all together, as we built a real home.

When I went to my Spiritual father to ask about this Sacred union, he gave me some assignments, which included Tarwater and I Sun Dancing together and doing at least 250 lodges a year for two years. We did that and on Halloween, 1990, Wanbli Chikela brought us together in a Medicine Marriage with vows into the next world as we pledged our devotion to Cannunpa Wakan, and to the service of the people. We had danced hard to know if we could do that together. And we would.

We went about working this land as if on Spiritual auto pilot. Tarwater would design the building project and I would find the ways to gather the energy to make it happen. His team of fellas changed from day to day. Todd was steadfast and put many years into this place at his side. Wopila Todd. On the days when there was no fellas to help him, he still chopped wood and hauled water, and continued to build. Budget or no budget. He salvaged buildings and got what we needed to keep on growing. . He gathered the standing dead on the land and turned it into buildings. He made sure the out houses, moon lodge and sweat lodge were first. He made make shift kitchens out of mash army tents and hooked up electricity in ways that were beyond cleaver. He prayed, poured more lodges, danced, chopped wood and hauled more water. In between he crafted amazing drums and leather jackets and shields that grace Elder’s homes around the world. He blessed babies, lead dances and tried to be playful as he taught the next generation to chop wood and haul water. He built and he built and he built....a bunkhouse , before his own home. A kitchen for others before his own home. He built arbors and Sacred gardens. He mowed the campgrounds and stacked the wood he chopped and hauled more water. He gardens like no man alive. Enough that there were years that our extra veggies fed many others.

When it came time to make some money to pay off the land and the mounting bills, Alethea and I came up with the Red Queen Tattoo shop. A year later he joined us, and still manages to chop the wood and haul the water. He still manages to run the lodge, quests and amazing dances...NEVER MISSED ONE IN 25 YEARS. He still manages to finance my humanitarian dreams when the fund raisers don’t do it. He has fed more, clothed more and respected more people than you can imagine. He has taken over the Red Queen so I can be here on the land and write and heal and grow old with grace. He has put up with me fears and dark nights when I was ready to give up. And still today when I ask him what will we do when it gets realllllllly crazy out there? and he smiles and says he will get up and chop wood, haul water, garden and hunt, and still build cool things because he can! Tarwater’s great tribute to his brother Sun Bear was the creation of Medicine Wheel that took up every bit of two years . He christened it, along with the second bathroom on the side of the house, one for the people and himself. This house that we have built form scraps of life is still work in progress.. It happens in between the constant chopping of wood and hauling water, the time he takes to serve the people and sometimes even care for himself.

He calls himself a janitor with a drum. I call him the keeper of the most dedicated Altar of all time. He is a dance Chief, a Lodge Keeper, A loving Grandfather and a friend to countless. I call him my soul mate, my protector and half side.

For Valentine’s Day we finally picked out a wedding ring. I asked him if we could make vows for US now, not just vows that say we are for carrying for the old ones. It is time for us to honor what we have created in each other. We have made it 20 years, through thick and thin. We have made it through life threatening disease for both of us. We have chopped a whole bunch of wood and continue to haul water to our garden. This year he built a small greenhouse. A new place to haul water. Like the pump in the creek we wondered what took us so long, and yet we have filled our lives with so many amazing experiences, that some days we just forget time. What I never want to forget is Tarwater’s love and respect. I want to always see him the way I saw him the year he took three steps behind me and protected me as I Sun Danced. Then he took three steps to join me at my side and care with equal passion to honor the pledges the Elder’s to keep this Sacred path alive for the generations to c ome. I want to remember that he is the guy who takes on extra hours at work to keep the vision alive when finances are depleted, and still he comes home...and CHOPS WOOD AND HAULS WATER.

That’s my guy

Mitakuye Oyasin

Charla Hermann-Tarwater