No one wants skunks to make a home under the house. 
Although many native people including me, believe we are related to every animal in Creation, we may also find that there are certain relatives with whom we are unable to share our home. Animals like skunk and all other animals both wild and tame, can teach us many things about ourselves and the ways of the natural world. Skunk reminds us to keep our distance from those who threaten us. He can teach us that we are equipped with everything we need in order to protect ourselves. It is rare for either my husband or I to even remotely consider killing any animal we are not intending to eat. There is no way we would eat skunk meat and these creatures had been fighting and spraying under there for over 2 weeks. A leak in the air ducts carried the strangling aroma throughout the entire house every time the heater came on. They were spraying every few days and the stench hung in the air for days after each assault. We were at the end of our ability to tolerate it any longer.
We tried to figure out ways to repel the skunks who had decided to live underneath our home, without causing them physical injury. Our neighbors had many effective ideas as to how to rid ourselves of these unwanted intruders. One neighbor told us the only way was to poison them. Another wanted us to trap them and another even brought us a gun to shoot them. Someone else suggested scaring them away with the sound of an air horn! We could smoke them out or blast light on them during the day to disturb their rest from their nocturnal activity. Interestingly, no one suggested making an ancient ceremony and approaching them from a more spiritual aspect. In the end that’s exactly what we decided to do. We made a ceremony the way our ancestors did. We prayed to the Creator for His help and then spoke directly to the skunks themselves, requesting that they leave our home immediately. We did not raise our voices. We sang an honoring song to all our relations and took turns telling the intruders what we expected. We let them know in our own words, that we would not tolerate them living under our house. We invited them to leave and let them know that we would force them out if they did not respect our wishes.
We prayed and purified our entire home inside and out the way our ancestors did in the past and continued to pray to our Creator for direction towards the next right thought and action. The next morning the skunks voluntarily moved out from under the house! At first we were amazed and then we laughed at ourselves because prayer has always worked better for both of us than combat, ever since we got clean and sober.
Many newcomers doubt the power of our Creator to help them stay sober and change them in ways that will enable them to really enjoy a life free of alcohol or drugs. Many modern native people also doubt the validity of the ancient teachings and medicines of our Tribal elders. The purpose of our “Red Road” meetings is to encourage native newcomers to listen and learn from traditional elders and give the “old ways” a chance to work in their recovery.
Today, my husband and I agree that the skunks came to remind us one more time, that the old methods used by our ancestors still work. If we honor and respect every living thing in Creation, we will in turn receive the respect of others. This works just as well for the animal beings as it does for the human beings. We may live in different environments and address our creator in a variety of languages and methods but all are sacred and deserve equal respect and dignity. We respected the lives and dignity of the skunk people but were able to set boundaries with them, just as they are able to set boundaries with others. We must each keep our distance from those with whom we do not choose to live. Spiritual boundaries are strong and we are reminded that if we are willing to negotiate, we can accomplish wonderful things for ourselves and others.
