This Is The Living and Sacred Land of Native America
"When I was ten years of age I looked at the land and the rivers, the sky above, and the animals around me
and could not fail to realize that they were made by some great power":
----Brave Buffalo, Sioux
Before people lived on this sacred land, the continent was and Eden that had evolved
freely for millions of years. For eons the seasons had turned in their cycles, the grasses had
sung in the wind, waters has sparkled in the light of the rising sun and had turned to fire at
sunset. For millennia the streams, lakes and rivers had teemed with fish, birds had soared into
the sky and sung in the branches of flowering trees, and many kinds of animals had flourished
in the rich and complex ecologies of the of the virgin continent. The land belonged to these
creatures and they belonged to the land. This had been so for a time as timeless as the morning
sun and the distant stars that burned in the night skies over the bast wilderness, as timeless as
the moon, the thunder, the rain and the wind.
Then humanity came into this land, and as the first people moved across the continent in
pursuit of game and other sustenance, they felt reverence for the living land and all of its life
forms. Surely, sickness and hunger, suffering and hardship, failure and disappointment were
not unknown to them. They wondered at the causes of these things and sought their remedies.
They knew death and feared sickness. They felt gratitude and joy for the generosity of the
Earth. As the seasons continued to turn, the newcomers spiraled across the continent and
increased. Game was abundant, and the land was a garden to the people. They found many
edible and useful roots, plants and fruits. As generation succeeded generation, for a thousand
generations and more, they learned the lore of the animals and the plants, and as their
reverence for the Earth deepened, they grew in the wisdom of the land. For everything was
one, and they were one with everything. And they are still among us, for their life is in this land.
America. Some lived in permanent villages, tending crops; some were nomadic, hunting and
gathering as the moved; still others had seasonal homes, gathering resources and preserving
foods during the busy summer months, then settling down in protected lodges for the winter.
These peoples spoke a richly diverse range of hundreds of languages, many of which may be
associated with six major linguistic families: Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian-Wakashan, Na-Dene,
Penutian, Hokan-Siouan and Aztec-Tanoan. Despite the pronounced differences in lifeways
and beliefs that spanned the continent at this time, the common links among the peoples were
strong. Perhaps they were once one family, whose descendants had migrated along paths
reflected in their language patterns. But few myths and legends speak of migration: Most
believed that they ahd been born into the land that they occupied.
All tribes possessed an oral literature of myths and legends. These stories embodied
their ancestral memories and formed the foundations of their culture. These myths, tales and
stories, whose transmission to the generations was entrusted to holy people and wise elders
with gifted memories, express wisdom and spiritually developed over countless generations.
Many of them preserved to this day, have recurred, in whole or in part, in various versions
throughout North America. They offer and entrance to the wisdom of a heritage that still lives
among us. But we must remember that the tales themselves are not the living wisdom. They
served to show the way to it.
village of closely related souls. These groups often shared a tribal identity with their neighbors,
and the tribes themselves would sometimes form intertribal confederacies. Most small groups
joined in large gatherings at certain times of the year for feasts and ceremonies. While most
bands and villages wer small, some settlements, especially in the East, might count up to 1,000
in habitants. Among the Cherokee and other tribes of the Southeast, the populations of some
larger villages exceeded 2,000. Although many tribes practiced a seminomadic hunting and
gathering existence, before the introduction of the horse and the disturbance of their villages by
the arrival of the Europeans, most Native American communities were settled in relatively small
territories that their inhabitants knew intimately.
Indeed, this knowledge of the land and its ways was at once the most immediate and
inclusive truth of identity and belonging in relationship with all the living spirits of creation, from
Mother Earth to the overarching presence of Father Sky. Native Americans lived in union with
the Earth, which they revered almost universally as their mother. They were of the Earth and it
was from the Earth that they and all living creatures drew their substance and their
substenance, both materially and spiritually. This reverence for the Mother and for the Earth,
this identification of all living things as being of the same family, this mystic sense of oneness
was at the heart of Indian life and spirituality. Everything around them was alive. They hunted
with reverence for the spirit of their prey. They gathered and cultivated sacred plants with
reverence for the gifts of the Earth. They related tales of their sacred origins and of all the
shapes and spirits of life that surrounded them, that had preceeded them and would follow
them and succeeding generations.
Although their expression of beliefs and practices varied, the native peoples shared
many of them, held also by tribal peoples throughout the world.
Above all, they lived in profound identification and relationship with the living land and
all its creatures. The "boundary" between the human and the natural worlds was permeable
and mediated by powerful spirits representing all the phenomena of nature. Human beings did
not place themselves above nature. They were part of it, respectful and dependent upon it.
Through direct spiritual communion with the natural world, they could partake of its powers.
Hunting peoples asked forgiveness of their prey and observed a host of taboos to
avoid the danger of offending them. Animals were objects of respect and gratitude. Their meat
provided nourishment; their fur and skins provided clothing and shelter; their very bones and
sinews provided material for any number of tools. Most hunters believed that animals
voluntarily offered their bodies for the kill. Indeed, many tribal stories reflect the view that
animals created the world and had a place in it before humankind. Animals were worshipped
for the beauty of their adaptation to the integrity of the environment. They were often regarded
as superior to humans in intelligence and cunning and as emblems of speed and power. People
patterned themselves on totemic animals and sought their power to ensure human survival in
the natural world.
many amulets and totems. They sought the protection of these objects and preserved them
carefully in sacred bundles. Their power could aid in any of life's challenges. These objects had
the power to bring good fortune in many forms. They could cure sickness, ensure good
weather or success in the hunt. Often the power of these amulets was directly associated with
their nature. A necklace of bear claws brought to the wearer the strength and courage of a
bear, or a garment of eagle feathers the freedom and speed of an eagle's flight. Sometimes
these objects had been used successfully in a healing rite could be used again to the same
effect. These amulets and totems were often passed down from one generation to the next,
binding the generations each to the other. Above all, they bound the people in close relation to
the natural world: This bond was the real magic of any object that became a focus of
reverence.
The men of many tribes sought the power of the world of animals and spirits in their
dreams and their quests for visions. But the women were perceived as possessing the great
powers of creating life within themselves. Men respected and feared this power. Women were
closely identified with the Earth that was the mother of all creation and the source of all
sustenance. And just as men knew that they were born of the Earth, they knew that to the
Earth they must return in death. This dark power of generativity was held in awe. Menstruation
was a rite of passage surrounded by ceremonies and taboos across the continent. The fertile
powers of women were both worshipped and dreaded.
Native Americans looked to those among them who were gifted to commne with the
natural world, who had special powers, taught or conferred upon them through their privileged
contact with the supernatural. These shamans and medicine men were among the natural
leaders of the hunting communities. Where native societies evolved into more stable
communities based on agricture, the pre-eminent role of the shaman was often assumed by a
priestly class of male and female leaders who were responsible for the ceremonies and rituals
that ensured economic and political order.
This story has been a dream of spirit and religion shared by all the first people of the
diverse regions of the North American continent. This spirit is alive in the memory of the
landscape and in our memory of all who breathed and dreamed and walked upon it before our
present day. This spirit of Native America is alive to us and can enrich the lives of all among us
who reach for its treasures. Let us venture as eagles in flight into the mystic wealth of the spirit
of Native America.
