Apache Blessing

May the sun bring you new energy by day,
may the moon softly restore you by night,
may the rain wash away your worries,
may the breeze blow new strength into your being,
may you walk gently through the world and
know it's beauty all the days of your life.

Healing Prayer

Grandfather,
Sacred one,
Teach us love, compassion,
and honor.
That we may heal the earth
And heal each other.

-- Ojibway Prayer

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 wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the sunset.

-- Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator

Quotes and Inspirations

Treat the earth well. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
-- Native American Proverb

In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.
-- From The Great Law of The Iroquois Confederacy

There can never be peace between nations
Until it is first known that true peace is within the souls of men.
-- Oglala Sioux

We are all flowers in the Great Spirit's garden. We share a common root, and the root is Mother Earth.
-- Hopi Prophecy

When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up.... When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pinenuts. We don't chop down the trees.
-- Wintu Indian, quoted in Julian Burger, The Gaia Atlas of First Peoples, 1990

Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.
-- Chief Seattle, 1854 treaty oration

This is the Earth, healed again, growing green and blue.
I want you to remember this exactly as it is,
and then go and tell the people that if enough of us
hold this image in their minds, we can heal the Earth
and make it like it was a long time ago.
-- Grandfather Rolling Thunder, Cherokee Medicine Elder

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground they spit upon themselves.
This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
-- Chief Seattle

Sunset. Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy...
But anywhere is the center of the world.
-- Black Elk 3

DREAMER'S ROCK

This tall quartzite rock derives its name from a local Indian tradition that it was
used for dream visitation. On reaching puberty, Indian boys of the surrounding area
were sent to the summit where they fasted and, through dreams, received powers
from a "guardian spirit". The spirit would also advise them of their calling. Shaw-
wan-ossy-way, a famous chief and medicine man of the early 1800s, is reported to
have acquired his healing powers after several visits to this rock where he lay in the
shallow five-foot depression at the summit. Little used after the arrival of the
Europeans, "Dreamer's Rock", with its incomparable view of the surrounding
countryside, stands as a reminder of ancient Indian beliefs. (*But.. It is now being used again..)

-- Ontario; Canada

DREAMER'S

On top of the 300-foot-high bluff, you can look out over the broad sweep of the North Channel, Lake Huron, Manitoulin Island and the La Cloche passage, where voyageurs passed on their way west from Montreal.

The rock has a smooth, flat top where you can find an indentation the size and shape to hold a person sleeping on his side.

For generations, Indian children reaching adulthood have come to this promontory to begin their spiritual journeys. They fast and pray and seek their life vision. They stay for several days with drinking water and only a blanket to fend off the night chills.

Adults, too, climb to Dreamer's Rock seeking help with life problems.

Osche spins the legend of the rock and the famous Ojibway chief Shawonoswe (SHAH-woe-nahs-way), who came to seek wisdom on the rock long before white men came.

Shawonoswe climbed to Dreamer's Rock again and again to fast and pray. First he came as a boy and later as young man. He would sit for days facing where the sun set over the lake. And over time, his people gave him his name, which means "he who faces west."

But despite his visits, the spirits never came to him. Other boys had visions, but he did not. His friends felt sorry for him. So Shawonoswe, feeling that he needed to accomplish something with his life, took up the bow and the lance fighting his band's enemies without fear.

Years went by. His fame had grown. And once again he returned to Dreamer's Rock. But on this day, everything was different.

A great white thunderbird appeared. He took Showonoswe on his back and carried him east across Lake Huron's waters to the heights of a holy mountain called Nehahupkung.

There at the edge of cliff, Shawonoswe saw before him a figure sitting on a cloud, literally in midair. The figure was holding a dish of water in his lap.

"Who are you?" Shawonoswe asked.

"I am your creator," he said, and then asked Shawonoswe to step off the cliff, come to him and look into the dish of water.

Shawonoswe was afraid. But even so, he stepped off into thin air. Surprised, he found that he did not fall. Instead, he seemed to be walking on soft, firm moss.

He looked into the swirling water of the dish. He saw animals. He could understand their talk and could read their minds. "Animals are your relatives," the creator said. "You should not abuse them."

He saw the coming of men dressed in robes like women with hair on their faces. The French Jesuits who would arrive hundreds of years later. He saw that wherever the men in robes went, the land was swallowed up and his people fell as in death, speechless and unable to move. He saw his people killed in terrible wars.

The creator then gave Shawonoswe rules to live by, rules that he was to pass along to his people. These were rules like the Ten Commandments. They said the people should share so no one was in need, be grateful and brave.

Shawonoswe returned to his people and became a great leader and healer, a mighty medicine man.

SACRED PLACES

Native American sacred places are where Native Peoples who practice their traditional religions go to pray for the good day, the precious earth, the blessing waters, the sweet air and peaceful life for all living beings the world over.

Myriad Native American sacred places have been destroyed.

Today, far too many sacred places are being desecrated or threatened by development, pollution, poisons, recreation, looting, vandalism and by federal or federally-authorized undertakings.
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 was intended to change the policy of the United States from one of outlawing and disrespecting traditional Native religions to one of protecting and respecting them. The Act states:

"That henceforth it shall be the policy of the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rites."

There are numerous existing laws intended to protect Native American sacred places and even more that can be used to do so, but most of these laws are being ingnored and flaunted.

Among these existing legal authorities are the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Executive Order on Indian Sacred Sites, National Historic Preservation Act, Archaeological Resources Protection Act, National Environmental Protection Act and other environmental and cultural laws.

There are no existing legal protections for certain categories of sacred places and none that provide a specific course of action to defend sacred places against desecration or destruction.

It has been the experience of Native Americans that disclosure about the location, nature or use of sacred place leads to assaults on them. Many of these places are fragile and have been destroyed by too many visitors or vehicles or activities.

The following description of Native American sacred lands is taken from the �President�s Report to Congress on American Indian Religious Freedom,� August 1979:

"The Native peoples of this country believe that certain areas of land are holy. These lands may be sacred, for example, because of religious events which occurred there, because they contain specific natural products, because they are the dwelling place or embodiment of spiritual beings, because they surround or contain burial grounds or because they are sites conducive to communicating with spiritual beings. There are specific religious beliefs regarding each sacred site which form the basis for religious laws governing the site. These laws may prescribe, for example, when and for what purpose the site may or must be visited, what ceremonies or rituals may or must take place at the site, what manner of conduct must or must not be observed at the site, who may or may not go to the site and the consequences to the individual, group, clan or tribe if the laws are not observed. The ceremonies may also require preparatory rituals, purification rites or stages of preparation. Both active participants and observers may need to be readied. Natural substances may need to be gathered. Those who are unprepared or whose behavior or condition may alter the ceremony are often not permitted to attend. The proper spiritual atmosphere must be observed. Structures may need to be built for the ceremony or its preparation. The ceremony itself may be brief or it may last for days. The number of participants may range from one individual to a large group."

from ---> http://protectglencove.org/about/facts-about-sacred-sites/

"When you arise in the morning, give thanks
for the morning light, for your life and strength.
Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault
lies with yourself...."

-- Tecumseh / Shawnee

"Never pass up a chance to keep your mouth shut."

-- Will Rogers / Cherokee

"Hey-a-a-hay! Lean to hear my feeble voice. At the
center of the sacred hoop, you have said that I should
make the tree to bloom. With tears running O Great
Spirit, my Grandfather, with running eyes I must say....
The tree has never bloomed. Here I stand, and the
tree is withered. Again I recall the great vision you
gave me. It may be that some little root of the sacred
tree still lives.... Nourish it then, that it may leaf and
bloom and fill with singing birds! Hear me, that the
people may once again go back to the sacred hoop,
find the good road, and the shielding tree...."

-- Black Elk / Oglala Lakota

( I had a good smile & chuckle, with this one)

"I am the spirit's janitor.... All I do is wipe the
windows a bit, so you can see out for yourself."

-- Godfrey Chips / Lakota Medicine Man

(..and also with this one..)

"Humor is the WD-40 of healing."

-- George Goodstriker / Kainai Elder

"Prayer unfolds in the stillness of the soul."

-- Unknown

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does
is in a circle. That is because the power of the world
always works in circles, and everything tries to be
round.... The sky is round, and I have heard that the
earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The
wind in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their
nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing
and always come back again, to where they were. The
life of a man is a circle, from childhood to childhood.
And so it is in everything, where power moves...."

-- Black Elk / Oglala Lakota

"Creator gave you two ears....
and one mouth....
So you can listen,
twice as much,
as you speak."

- Two Hawks' Grandfather / Lakota

"One cannot sell the earth
upon which the people walk."

- Tacunka Witco (Crazy Horse) / Oglala Lakota

"You have driven me from the east
to this place, and I have been here
two thousand years or more....
My friends, if you took me away
from this land it would be very hard
for me. I wish to die in this land.
I wish to be an old man here....
I have not wished to give even a part
of it to the Great Father.
Though he were to give me a million dollars,
I would NOT give him this land...."

- Standing Bear / Ponca Chief

"The world of my childhood
was filled with wonder and magic.
Enchantment was the order of the day.
Mechanistic science has no place
for enchantment. If it can't be
measured, it doesn't exist.
The problem is, the important things
cannot be measured...."

- Anne Wilson Schaef (Cherokee) / Author- 'Native Wisdom for White Minds'

Oh Great Spirit, who made all races,
look kindly upon the whole human
family and take away the arrogance
and hatred which separates us
from our brothers....

- Cherokee Prayer

A good heart and a good mind- these are
what you need to be a chief.

- Louis Farmer / Onondaga Elder