Ted Harrison is a Vietnam Vet, soon to turn 79 this May, who as a social worker has helped many on the road of recovery over many years. He was honored in 2007 with the Ron Herring Award for community service to the Minnesota Mankind Project and Central Plains communities, having worked with the Sioux City Iowa MKP Community in the mid 1990’s in their early years as a center.
In the autumn of 2022, Ted had many of his front teeth extracted as he said “The roots were rotten.” He had been exposed to Agent Orange during his naval duty time in the Mekong Delta, he described as a “river rat” and that they had barrels of agent orange he had moved around on his boat. After losing his teeth and having an ill fitted set of false teeth he could no longer chew -, he lost his passion and appetite for his favorite foods like a Burrito Grande from Chaska My Love, the Mexicano Restaurant in Chaska MN, his home town for many years.
Most of the funds well be used to get dental implants for Ted that is estimated to cost. Ted’s team of supporters, hope to get some disability funding from the VA to support assisted living housing, and this added funding, to fund the implants and perhaps food supplements and natural medicines for enhancing his immune system, that has been compromised by recurrent UTI’s over the past several weeks, that has reduced his energy and life force to support Wiconi, and Wicozani. Life and Balanced Heath for Ted.
Some of his values and mission of service with MKP and other non profits.
From the Beating Drum article written by Tom Weaver in 2007: “During MKP MN’s annual meeting in St Paul, Jan 20,Ted shared his mission: “As a man among men, I am a voice and vehicle of peace, balance, freedom and unity for the human tribe.” …”The four parts of my mission are like the medicine wheel: First, as a Vietnam Vet, Peace is really important. Balance is what the healing is about: health is about balance; dis-ease is unbalance. Freedom comes from one of my medicine wheel teachers. It has to do about claiming my spiritual right to act freely, having the
authority to be responsible and not harm. Unity, finally arose from my being from the South. I am a mixed blood, a métis (pronounced “may’ tee”) of Native Mohawk, Welsh and Dutch ancestry. I would turn real dark in the summer. Some wondered if I was in the right school back then and I would be teased about it a lot. I always knew deep in my soul that racism was not right. My mixed blood was a guarded family secret. My turning dark in the summer was a reflection of our family secret. I now claim Native Mohawk, Welsh and Dutch, and, I knew that if my great grandfather had been African rather than Mohawk I would have lived on the other side of the tracks. Unity is thus very important to me. We are all earth people. I have taken Vietnam Vets and kids to the boundary waters to support getting back to the earth.My work with non-profits: the Indian Health Board, Woman of Nations Shelter and with Masks Unlimited, where we assisted clients with HIV in making death masks, has been about the medicine wheel.”