Guest Author - Phyllis Doyle Burns
November will be American Indian Heritage Month.
Although the month is noted to honor all American Indians, let us not forget that there are over 1000 Native American tribes and each is as unique as their names. To lump them all together as being in the same cultural category is like portraying all Europeans as the same, regardless of race.
They were the first peoples on this continent and struggled with living and experimenting in farming, finding edible and nutritious foods in a new land, herbal treatments to help save lives and heal, learning to live in and of Nature and many other life-threatening trials that carried on thru today to give us all a legacy to be proud of. They respected Mother Earth and all Creation and lived with Nature, not against Nature. They learned what plants and herbs were possible to cultivate and grow in their land and they never took more from Nature than what they needed.
The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother. She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us....
Big Thunder (Bedagi) - Wabanaki Alonquin
The impact of the past affects today and what the future holds. No achievement is realized without first having a dream. To be of the first peoples in a new and strange land is to develope the first necessary instinct: how to survive. To teach and train a nation can begin with one person and this is how it began in this land we know today. With each generation it becomes a stronger pathway to a way of life. Although different in many ways, each tribe had one thing in common - reliance on The Great Spirit. They did very little without first asking for spiritual guidance from Great Spirit.
Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you -- the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live.
You have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road and road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things.
Black Elk - Oglala Sioux
There was a time when people of the new land came into this vast wilderness and tried to destroy and eliminate the First Peoples, the brave and noble peoples who found this land. Many wars and tragedies almost destroyed the Native Americans. However, because they knew from experience how to survive, they were not entirely wiped out and their Spirit was never conquered.
The Native American peoples have not vanished as scholars and our government thought they would - they are still here, still very much alive and still as noble and strong as they were before European contact. If we could become as noble and strong in our beliefs and desire to survive, then what a great Nation this could be.
Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past and what cannot be prevented should not be grieved for ... Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our lives - they grow everywhere.
Big Elk - Omaha Chief
I uphold the Native American, give them the respect they deserve and stand with them as one. If we could stand together as one and become one Nation- then we will survive. We need to let go of the past and build a future together for the good of us all and as a legacy to pass on to the children of the future.
All Quotes from First People.com, Native American Wisdom
Additional Information at National Alaska Native and American Indian Heritage Month
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