The End Abuse family, with heavy hearts, mourns the loss of Cleveland (CJ) Doxtater, who served as the End Abuse Tribal & Elder Outreach Program Director.
CJ began his spirit walk after Covid-19 on Wednesday, November 4, 2020. There are no words to express the range of emotions the End Abuse community is experiencing; the outpouring of love, grief, remembering, and honoring says all there is to say.
Many who lived and worked alongside CJ hold beautiful memories and continue to be impacted by all he offered to those in his life and in this anti-violence movement. We welcome those who wish to share memories, stories, tributes, wishes, and photos of CJ on his Tribute Wall, found here.
This world is better for CJ’s life, work, & presence. As we mourn his passing, we celebrate his uniquely powerful and insightful soul. He gave many years filled with beauty, commitment, and healing to the anti-violence movement, serving first as an End Abuse board member, and for the last 15 years as staff. He impacted so many in our movement, always holding space for reflection, ceremony, and growth.
Our hearts are with his loved ones as CJ remains with us in memory, and in the legacy he leaves.
As End Abuse staff, some of us have known CJ for many years and some of us met him only recently and more briefly. We offer something we found that speaks to our memory of CJ: Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo.
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
Joy Harjo, “Eagle Poem” from In Mad Love and War. Copyright © 1990 by Joy Harjo. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press,
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress.
www.wesleyan.edu/wespress.
Source: In Mad Love and War (Wesleyan University Press, 1990);