Native
American beliefs are deeply rooted in their culuture. We believe EVERYTHING is
sacred from the largest mountain to the smallest plant and animal. A lesson can
be found in all things and experiences and everything has a purpose.To sum up
Native Spirituality; it is about HONOR, LOVE, and RESPECT. Not only do we love,
honor, and respect our Creator and our Mother Earth, but also every living
thing. It is about being in touch with ourselves and everything around us. It
is about knowing and understanding that we are part of everything, and
everything is a part of us. We are all One. We also believe that our Elders
hold the answers. Our Elders keep our culture alive. We have much to learn from
our Elders, and they deserve and receive our utmost respect. Listed below is
some poems, quotes and rules that show the beliefs native americans hold. No
matter the person nor the tribe it is taken from. you can see a common string
that runs through them. I have been asked many times what it is to be Native
american. What it is we believe, and though I have given the above defintion to
this day I still refer to the simple words of a departed loved one and teacher.
White Feather; navajo/apache born medicine man. To him I dedicate this page.
"Native American isnt blood; it is what
is in the heart. The love for the land. The respect for it, those who inhabit
it; and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and the elders. That is
what it is to be indian."
White Feather
Navajo Medicine Man
White Feather
Navajo Medicine Man
Explanation of Native American Spirituality
"The Indian loved to worship. From birth
to death, he revered his surroundings. He considered himself born in the
luxurious lap of Mother Earth, and no place was to him humble. There was
nothing between him and the Big Holy (Wakan Tanka). The contact was immediate
and personal, and the blessings of Wakan Tanka flowed over the Indian like rain
showered from the sky. Wakan Tanka was not aloof, apart, and ever seeking to
quell evil forces. He did not punish the animals and the birds, and likewise,
he did not punish man. He was not a punishing god. For there was never a
question as to the supremacy of an evil power over and above the power of Good.
There was but one ruling power, and that was Good."
-Chief Luther Standing Bear -
Teton Sioux, Born 1868
-Chief Luther Standing Bear -
Teton Sioux, Born 1868
American Indian Commandments
Sacred Instructions Given By The Creator To Native People At The Time Of Creation
Sacred Instructions Given By The Creator To Native People At The Time Of Creation
Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon
with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.
Native Code of Ethics
1.
Each morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping, give thanks for the
life within you and for all life, for the good things the Creator has given you
and for the opportunity to grow a little more each day. Consider your thoughts
and actions of the past day and seek for the courage and strength to be a
better person. Seek for the things that will benefit others (everyone).
2. Respect: Respect means "To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or something with deference or courtesy". Showing respect is a basic law of life.
Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times. Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders.
No person should be made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.
Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you.
Respect the privacy of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment or personal space.
Never walk between people that are conversing.
Never interrupt people who are conversing.
Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers or others to whom special respect is due.
Do not speak unless invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present (except to ask what is expected of you, should you be in doubt).
Never speak about others in a negative way, whether they are present or not.
Treat the earth and all of her aspects as your mother. Show deep respect for the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world. Do nothing to pollute our Mother, rise up with wisdom to defend her.
Show deep respect for the beliefs and religion of others.
Listen with courtesy to what others say, even if you feel that what they are saying is worthless. Listen with your heart.
Respect the wisdom of the people in council. Once you give an idea to a council meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the people. Respect demands that you listen intently to the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist that your idea prevail. Indeed you should freely support the ideas of others if they are true and good, even if those ideas are quite different from the ones you have contributed. The clash of ideasbrings forth the Spark of Truth.
3. Once a council has decided something in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly against what has been decided. If the council has made an error, that error will become apparent to everyone in its own time.
4. Be truthful at all times, and under all conditions.
5. Always treat your guests with honor and consideration. Give of your best food, your best blankets, the best part of your house, and your best service to your guests.
6. The hurt of one is the hurt of all, the honor of one is the honor of all.
7. Receive strangers and outsiders with a loving heart and as members of the human family.
8. All the races and tribes in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator they must all be respected.
9. To serve others, to be of some use to family, community, nation, and the world is one of the main purposes for which human beings have been created. Do not fill yourself with your own affairs and forget your most important talks. True happiness comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the service of others.
10. Observe moderation and balance in all things.
11. Know those things that lead to your well-being, and those things that lead to your destruction.
12. Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms; in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude, and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.
2. Respect: Respect means "To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; to consider the well being of, or to treat someone or something with deference or courtesy". Showing respect is a basic law of life.
Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times. Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders.
No person should be made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.
Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you.
Respect the privacy of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment or personal space.
Never walk between people that are conversing.
Never interrupt people who are conversing.
Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers or others to whom special respect is due.
Do not speak unless invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present (except to ask what is expected of you, should you be in doubt).
Never speak about others in a negative way, whether they are present or not.
Treat the earth and all of her aspects as your mother. Show deep respect for the mineral world, the plant world, and the animal world. Do nothing to pollute our Mother, rise up with wisdom to defend her.
Show deep respect for the beliefs and religion of others.
Listen with courtesy to what others say, even if you feel that what they are saying is worthless. Listen with your heart.
Respect the wisdom of the people in council. Once you give an idea to a council meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the people. Respect demands that you listen intently to the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist that your idea prevail. Indeed you should freely support the ideas of others if they are true and good, even if those ideas are quite different from the ones you have contributed. The clash of ideasbrings forth the Spark of Truth.
3. Once a council has decided something in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly against what has been decided. If the council has made an error, that error will become apparent to everyone in its own time.
4. Be truthful at all times, and under all conditions.
5. Always treat your guests with honor and consideration. Give of your best food, your best blankets, the best part of your house, and your best service to your guests.
6. The hurt of one is the hurt of all, the honor of one is the honor of all.
7. Receive strangers and outsiders with a loving heart and as members of the human family.
8. All the races and tribes in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. All are beautiful. As children of the Creator they must all be respected.
9. To serve others, to be of some use to family, community, nation, and the world is one of the main purposes for which human beings have been created. Do not fill yourself with your own affairs and forget your most important talks. True happiness comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the service of others.
10. Observe moderation and balance in all things.
11. Know those things that lead to your well-being, and those things that lead to your destruction.
12. Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. Expect guidance to come in many forms; in prayer, in dreams, in times of quiet solitude, and in the words and deeds of wise Elders and friends.
This article is a reprint from the
"Inter-Tribal Times" - October 1994
Love of the Land
The old people came literally to love the
soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a
mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old
people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred
earth.
Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth, and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew.
The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing. This is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly.
He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
- Chief Luther Standing Bear -
Teton Sioux, Born 1868
Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth, and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew.
The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing. This is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life-giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly.
He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
- Chief Luther Standing Bear -
Teton Sioux, Born 1868
The Teaching of Tecumseh
Live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting
or passing a friend, or even a stranger,if in a lonely place
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again
in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long
and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting
or passing a friend, or even a stranger,if in a lonely place
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again
in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
Native American Prayer
Oh,
Great Spirit
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me, I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty
and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things your have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have
hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my Spirit may come to you without shame.
- Chief Yellow Lark -
Lakota -
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me, I am small and weak,
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty
and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things your have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have
hidden in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always ready to come to you
with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my Spirit may come to you without shame.
- Chief Yellow Lark -
Lakota -
Prayer for the White Man
And
now, Grandfather, I ask you to bless
the white man.
He needs your wisdom, your guidance.
You see, for so long,
he has tried to destroy my people,
and only feels comfortable
when given power.
Bless them, show them the peace we understand;
teach them humility.
For I fear they will someday destroy themselves
and their children
as they have done so Mother Earth.
I plead, I cry.
After all, they are my brothers......
the white man.
He needs your wisdom, your guidance.
You see, for so long,
he has tried to destroy my people,
and only feels comfortable
when given power.
Bless them, show them the peace we understand;
teach them humility.
For I fear they will someday destroy themselves
and their children
as they have done so Mother Earth.
I plead, I cry.
After all, they are my brothers......
Cherokee Prayer Blessing
May
the warm winds of heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your mocassins
Make happy tracks
In many snows,
And may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your mocassins
Make happy tracks
In many snows,
And may the rainbow
Always touch your shoulder
Traditional Cheyenne Saying
A Nation is not conquered
until the hearts of its women
are on the ground.
Then it is done,
no matter how brave its warriors
nor how strong its weapons.
until the hearts of its women
are on the ground.
Then it is done,
no matter how brave its warriors
nor how strong its weapons.
What is Life
What
is Life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is the little shadow
which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the Sunset.
- Crowfoot -
Blackfoot Indian
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is the little shadow
which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the Sunset.
- Crowfoot -
Blackfoot Indian
By Chief Seattle
"What is man without the beasts? If all
the beasts were gone,
Man would die from
a great loneliness of the spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts
soon happens to man."
Man would die from
a great loneliness of the spirit.
For whatever happens to the beasts
soon happens to man."
Guard your tongue in youth,
and in age you may mature a thought
that will be of service to your people.
(Minquass)
and in age you may mature a thought
that will be of service to your people.
(Minquass)
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