I woke up this morning with a pit in my stomach, an ache for my friends, family, country, and indeed the world. And this after a wonderful weekend in Nespelem, Washington at a First Foods Feast with the walwa ma—sometimes called the “Joseph”—band of the Nez Perce Indians.

In Nespelem we stood with as many as nine drummers as they beat hand-drums and sang songs that tied them and us to a civilization that is older than our country by millennia. We relaxed while Native foods were placed on our tables: salmon, venison, several kinds of roots, and berries from chokecherry to huckleberry.

The tables were then filled with potato salad, Jello, apple pie and cakes, even a birthday cake for a few celebrants. I joked with my tablemates over the potato and Jello salads that took me back to church potlucks as a six and eight-year-old in Minnesota. There were more songs and prayers and then we ate, first tasting one food at a time, starting with water and salmon all the way to the berries, then settling in to feast. Savoring the Creator’s gifts.

There seem to be new native foods each time I eat a longhouse meal. This weekend it was the small, wild, North American potatoes. I learned that these potatoes of many names grow across what is now the United States. We—non-Native America—have adopted many foods native to the “new world” which have found homes across the entire world: tomatoes, avocados, corn, beans and squashes. And we all claim salmon and huckleberries as favorites. But we still have foods to learn from our Indian neighbors.

After closing again with spoonfuls of huckleberries and sips of water, there were testimonies and giveaways, recognitions of families who traveled far for this day, and recognition of good deeds in caring for loved ones, and thanks for sobriety. And then we drove home, a six-hour ride that was small pay for a wonderful day.

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And this morning the president of the United States warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. Eastern time. He promises to bomb every bridge and every power plant in the country, Former military officials and legal scholars are on the news too, telling us that “indiscriminate” attacks on targets that mix the military and civilian, that threaten patients in hospitals and innocents across a country are illegal by International and American law. Our president dismisses all such claims, and sticks to his harsh deadline talk.

So, we—a country, including tribal friends who have just celebrated the gifts of Creation, and Christian friends who just celebrated rebirth and resurrection—wait with dread. And know that people across the Middle East, not only Iranians, but Arabs from the Gulf States, Turks and Kurds across the region, are all counting hours and hoping desperately for some reprieve.

Life does go on, but this day feels as heavy as any in memory, as long as Sunday’s drive from celebration to home.

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