Institute of Natural and Traditional
Knowledge
Nurturing Ancient Knowledge for the Future
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Founders, Directors and Officers

Patricio O. Dominguez - Founder - Director - President

Patricio was born in the summer of 1949 in a small traditional community and was cultured by the contact of not only his parents and Grandparents that lived in the community but he was fortunate enough to have a Great grandmothers influence until he was 13. His Great grandmothers specialty was herbs and his grandmother healed by the power of touch now called massage.
 
At the age of five Patricio was presented in a public ceremony to the medicine men to be blessed as a man of spiritual knowledge. In the summer of his life he married a nice Navajo Lady in the Native Tradition. They have two children, one Grandson and one Great Grandson. Patricio now lives in Albuquerque and is on the Board of Directors of two other non-profit corporations and on the advisory committee of the International Indigenous Coalition. He now dances and leads ceremonies with the tribe several times per year.

Tribe: Piro Manso Tiwa,  Education: Traditional and University of New Mexico

Emigdio Ballon - Director - Secretary

Emigdio Ballon, is a member of the Quechua Indian culture and was born in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He earned his Bachelors degree in agriculture at Major Bolivian University of Saint Simon in Cochabamba, Bolivia and his Masters degree in plant genetics in Colombia. He studied for his Doctorate at Colorado State University. As a plant geneticist he has specialized in research on quinoa and amaranth grains and has published many articles about them in both South and North America.

Emigdio has served as an organic certification inspector in the United States and has made many presentations at major conferences on agriculture. He has studied principles of bio-dynamic farming at the Josephine Porter Institute of Applied Bio-Dynamics and continues to study and make presentations at various seminars.

In his little free time, Emigdio pursues research into germination techniques for a wide variety of crops, including traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs and herbs indigenous to Northern New Mexico. His other interests include seed saving and sharing, bio-dynamic and organic farming and sustainable agricultural practices. He is also involved with Native American organizations which stress the importance of seed saving and promote the revival and continuation of traditional crops, both nutritional and medicinal. He employs traditional Quechua techniques and rituals which he learned at his grandfather�s side as a boy in Bolivia.

Ver�nica Iglesias - Director - Treasurer

Veronica was born in Mexico City, Mexico. She has a Bachelor�s degree in Library Sciences and a Master�s Degree in Mesoamerican Studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (La Universidad Nacional Aut�noma de M�xico). She grew up in a family that always honor the Earth, the plants and all the living beings. She was iniciated like sahumandora (bearer of the Sacred Sahumerio) when she was 8 years old. She studied about medicinal plants and she has taken courses in crystal therapy and healing with gems. She also was iniciated in the sacred knowledge of Mesoamerican shamanism and she became Portadora de la Palabra, bearer of the Sacred Word. She is currently researching Mexican gem stones and their therapeutic uses, specially obsidian, jade, turquoise, and others used since ancient times.
 

Research Areas:

                     Pre-Hispanic medicine.

                     Feminine Shamanism in Mesoam�rica.

                     The figure of the �nagual� as the alter ego of human beings.

                     Use of medicinal plants.

                     Use of gems for meditation.

                     Feminine rites of passage.

                     Phases of the moon and their influences in life.

                    The recovery of the traditional Mexican temazcal (steam bath)



KirmaniKirmani Montaocean - Director of projects in Oklahoma

2010 Associate degree in Aerospace Maintenance from the College of the

United States Air Force

2005-present obtaining a Master�s Degree in Museum Studies, Liberal

studies from Oklahoma University (On-Line)

2004 Bachelor�s Degree in Museum Studies, Institute of American Indian Arts

Phi Theta Kappa

2002 Associate Degree in Museum Studies, Institute of American Indian Arts,

Student body President

1998 High School Graduate from Emerson College Preparatory Institute, with Honors.

Poet laureate, yearbook and prom committee

  •          Active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces 02/2008 - 02/2018

  • Aircraft Mechanic

  • Oklahoma County Juvenile Bureau 05/2011-07/2012


uzoma imageUzoma Peter Lane - Board of Directors member

Uzoma was born in Washington DC and spent his early life in service to the community including job training, asset mapping, food distribution and building renovation. He studied history and English at Howard University, serving as a planner and records administrator for the Chancellor Williams Historical Society. He also served as the chess club's historian, worked with Circle K, and helped organize a political action committee. He contributed regularly to the university newspaper and had his poems published in three literary journals. After college, Uzoma worked as a tutor and volunteer professor, founding Wise Owl Services. To date, Uzoma has written over two hundred articles for various news sites, ghostwritten eleven novels, and penned dozens of short stories. Today he works as a private tutor in Washington DC's Brightwood community.




Flordemayo - Founder - Retired
Flordemayo is a  "Curandera Espiritu" (healer by divine spirit). Born in a small town in the big highlands of Central America. She grew up in a family of traditional healers, learning the art of �Curanderismo� in the traditional way: taught from mother to daughter, generation to generation. She worked from age four as her mother�s apprentice. She works with the sacred breath, laying on of hands, and application of herbs. She works directly with clients or just as effectively with absent or distant healing Flordemayo has had the gift of being able to see Work with the effects of physical, emotional and spiritual imbalance in the energy system.

Flordemayo has worked with alternative western healers, Native American and Mayan healers. She recieved her mayan priest training from Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaj a respected spiritual leader, and head of the Quiche Maya Council of Elders. Flordemayo is now recognized as a �priestess� by the Maya. She is a founding member and President of  the Institute of Natural and Traditional Knowledge.
Flordemayo has been a featured speaker on Curanderismo at many conferences on traditional medicine; both within the United States and internationally in addition to alternative healing practitioners, medical doctors, nurses and medical institutions have recognize her knowledge and natural healing skills. Flordemayo is a frequent presenter at international conferences such, as the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Bioneers and recipient of the Martin de la Cruz Award for Alternative Healing, a prestigious honor given by the International Congress of Traditional Medicine.
Since 1999 Flordemayo has been a part of the Wisdom of the Grandmother�s Foundation. Currently Flordemayo is a member of the Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Flordemayo and the grandmothers have traveled around the world uniting people in a circle of prayer.
Now with "The Path"

Cloud Eagle - Founder - Deceased
Ernest Eugene Mirabal Soe Huwa Ohuwa Tsay Cloud Eagle 1960-2011 Nambe Pueblo Tribe. He received an Associates of  fine arts from the Institute of American Indian arts having studied painting, sculpture and jewelry making. A lifetime member of Nambe Pueblo, he was dedicated to his people and his beliefs; by being a spiritual leader very involved in his traditions. Resume includes: Artist: Traditional Musician/Song/Dance Director/Founder. Cloud Eagle Multi-media Studios Gallery. Lecturer, Philosopher, Writer, Poet, Spiritual and Public Speaker. Sculpture of stone, wood, ceramic, metal etc. Painter in acrylics, oils, watercolors, etc. Graphic designer and architectural drawings AFA. 2 & 3 Dimensional Arts teacher/Program Coordinator.  Teacher and Educator: Teacher and Program Coordinator Vo-Ed teaching sculpture in stone and clay painting classes for various youth groups JTPA Job Training Apprenticeship Program Art a Cultural Youth Exchange Program.
Indigenous Arts and Philosophy. Pictographs and Petroglyphs of the Indigenous Peoples.
       


Kiaya and KirmaniKaiya Montaocean - Founder - Deceased(pictured with daughter Kirmani aka Zayan)

Kaiya was born in McAlester, Oklahoma, on November 11, 1945, of Irish and Native American (Appalachian Eastern Band Cherokee and Fort Sill Apache) heritage. She learned to respect her cultural roots from her father Johnny, who taught her woods crafts such as tracking and a love of the natural environment.
She studied arts and traditional healing methods with masters and elders in Japan, all over the Americas, and in Africa and was the first in her family to attend a university, earning a BFA in film and education and an MA in human relations from the University of Oklahoma and a doctorate (ABD) in human sociology from Antioch.
In the 1970s, Kaiya, known then as Brandy Wood, was an Assistant Professor in the Human Relations Program at the University of Oklahoma.
In New Mexico where her daughter Zayan attended the Institute of American Indian Art, Kaiya saw many students struggling with learning disabilities.  She worked as a volunteer tutor and mentor at IAIA and lobbied to expand resources for students who learn differently. In Washington, D.C., where she moved in 1980, Kaiya worked with young people, as well, helping them understand themselves and others through the arts, whether on a mural project or in original, student-written theatrical presentations under the auspices of the Latin American Youth Center and the GALA Hispanic Theatre.
   In 1988, Kaiya worked with Dr. Wu Jing-Nuan at the Green Cross of the Americas Clinic to organize The Cross-Cultural AIDS Conference, held December 12-16, 1988. The conference brought together acupuncturists and other medical practitioners from China with health personnel in the United States in Washington, D.C., to discuss treating HIV/AIDS using traditional herbal and other modalities to promote immune health and quality of life for AIDS patients.Feeling the project was moving beyond Green Cross�s scope; Dr. Wu offered Kaiya the third floor of Green Cross to start the Center for Natural and Traditional Medicines (CNTM), which she founded together with Vera Pratt and Dr. John Rutayuga, also of Washington. In the 1990s, through CNTM, Kaiya brought together teams that worked on community health projects internationally.  In South Africa, the efforts centered on HIV and AIDS, while the focus in Nigeria was about traditional ways to treat sickle cell anemia.  An extensive project in Jamaica centered on the village of Accompong, a rural Maroon community. The activities included preserving traditional healing knowledge and offering support to local traditional healers and establishing a birthing center and a community garden of medicinal herbs.  The project also produced a book, Traditional Plants of the Maroons, and a CD of traditional Maroon music.

Kaiya served as a director, treasurer and principle grant writer for The Confederation of Indigenous Elders of America and its educational branch Anuyu,(Today called INTK) A Native American advocacy groups with headquarters in New Mexico.  Anuyu, focused on the preservation of traditional cultures and Mother Earth through education, is now creating an educational institution based on indigenous values that serves the community and promotes the native peoples� positive vision of the future.  Anuyu has accumulated a store of knowledge from Indigenous Elders and will publish books and documentary videos to preserve and disseminate these
teachings.  Through Anuyu, Kaiya continued her work on community health projects, both in South Africa and Bolivia.  In South Africa in 2002, she met with traditional healers and cultural and spiritual leaders, working to create a knowledge and experiential exchange for the new institute that would go both ways.

Kaiya helped organize and facilitate three conferences:  The Curanderas Conference in 1999 brought together tradition healers from Central and North America with western medical academics to discuss common ground and the mutual respect and symbiotic survival of the two traditions. She passed into the spirit world in 2003.

E-mail:  [email protected]
        505-349-1851
        INTK 3094 Rosendo Garcia Rd SW Albuquerque, NM 87105