Elder Alan Olson
As soon as Elder Alan had pants with pockets, they were full of rocks, and by the time he was 12, he was cutting and polishing them. After attending a program of study in jewelry, in 1978 he began working as a goldsmith, which remains his professional work today. Elder Alan loves working with rocks, precious metals and minerals and the act of forming new creations from them. One has only to walk through his house to see the beauty of the earth's treasures displayed with obvious reverence. However, while collecting and reforming rocks, precious metals and minerals is a passion, collecting fossils - "walking rocks" as he fondly refers to them - is a calling. While working at a solar observatory in New Mexico two miles above sea level and 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean, he found a fossilized piece of a sea shell which sparked his imagination - and he hasn't turned back since. He views fossils as a "diary of the earth", telling us how the earth rose and changed over eons, where each layer of sediment and fossil is a "page" which, when pieced together, forms part of the narrative of the earth's story, the "greatest story ever told" in his opinion. Many summers one can find him digging for fossils in Montana for weeks at a time. Currently, Elder Alan is Show Chairman of the Minnesota Mineral Club as well as the Minnesota State Director of the Midwest Federation of Mineralogical Societies where he facilitates the formation of local mineral clubs in the state.
At the same time he was developing his craft as a goldsmith, in 1975 Elder Alan began singing with a rock band, and he has worked off and on as a musician and singer to the present day. In 1977 he began working as an actor, writer, producer, builder and board member with the All Hallows Eve Players, who put on an annual Halloween show along Minnehaha Creek until it ended in 1995. More recently he has worked with the Barebones Halloween show and the May Day Parade. Elder Alan became involved with the Phillips Powerhorn Cultural Wellness Center in 1999, and was initiated into elderhood just this past year.
Coming of age in the 1960s and early 1970s along with his work with the earth have been the primary guides to Elder Alan becoming rooted in earth-based spirituality, and this process has also deepened and broadened his belief and understanding of who our ancestors are. Most recently, he has begun working with energy healers to learn more about the various energetic properties of rocks, precious metals and minerals and especially how they can help facilitate healing within people and communities. He aspires to bring this knowledge to the Tree and the Well along with the knowledge of the earth he has already gathered to teach others about the mysteries, beauty and power of the earth and of our ancestors.
Second photograph by Jayme Halbritter