Wisdom Wednesday: “Tribal Elders Mindfulness Practice: Considerations for Buddhist Practice” with Karen Waconda-Lewis and Belinda Eriacho

Belinda Eriacho (Diné and A:shiwi) is a traditional healer, wisdom carrier, and founder of Kaalogii LLC, where she leads cultural and inner healing programs rooted in Indigenous knowledge. With academic training in Health Sciences, Technology, and Public Health, Belinda bridges traditional medicine with modern healing practices. is an international speaker on Native health, environmental stewardship, and ethical inclusion. Raised on the Navajo reservation, Belinda’s work is deeply grounded in ancestral teachings and the sacred relationship between people and the natural world.

Karen Waconda-Lewis is a tribal native of the Isleta and Laguna Pueblos. After her initiation into Native Medicine, she introduced traditional healing practices into an urban American Indian health clinic in Albuquerque, NM. She continues to expand this program into local hospitals, the Indian Health Service, the VA Hospital, and surrounding organizations. Karen integrates Western medicine with Native healing in preventive health, mental health, and overall well-being. She is the founder and director of the Center for Native American Integrative Healing, LLC, located in Albuquerque, where healers from various tribal nations practice their traditional medicine and extend their services to the community.

Karen is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program graduate and has been practicing mindfulness from a young age, guided by her grandparents in her traditional tribal practices of caring for the land, gardening, cooking and animals. She regularly provides dharma teachings incorporating Native teachings in her community and nationally. She has intertwined Native teachings with Vipassana meditation, incorporating these practices into ceremonies, sweat lodges, and her community at Laguna Pueblo. At Laguna Pueblo, the ancestral teachings of mindfulness have complemented the Buddhist teachings at the Detention Center, providing insight and wellness to inmates and their families. Additionally, Karen co-founded the Annual Indigenous and Native Healers Silent Retreat and the Albuquerque People of Color and Allies Sangha. She has also been appointed volunteer faculty at the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine, where she guides faculty and staff on tribal health issues and wellness support to medical students and residents.

In her personal life, Karen enjoys spending time with her family, including her daughter and two grandchildren. She manages the family ranch and loves spending time with ancestral lands and caring for its inhabitants.