CHRISTMAS THROUGH INDIAN EYES

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Everyday is our Christmas.
Every meal is our Christmas.
At every meal we take a little portion of the food
we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf
 of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged.
We pray - not the way most Christians pray -
but we thank the Grandfathers, the Spirit,
and the Guardian Angel.
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The Indian Culture is actually grounded
in the traditions of a Roving Angel.
The life-ways of Roving Angels are actually
the way Indian People live. They hold out their hands and
 help the sick and the needy. They feed and clothe the poor.
We have high respect for the avatar because we believe
 that it is in giving that we receive.
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We are taught as Traditional children
that we have abundance. The Creator has given us
everything: the water, the air we breathe,
the earth as our flesh, and our energy force: our heart.
We are thankful every day. We pray early in the morning,
before sunrise, to the morning star, and the evening star.
We pray for our relatives who are in the universe
that someday they will come.
We also pray that the Great Spirit's son will live again.
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Looks for Buffalo, Oglala Sioux Spiritual Leader
From the AAA Native Arts website
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As I sit quietly on this December 25th,
a day so holy to all of Christendom,
I reflect sadly on the memories of the ancestors, elders,
brothers and sisters who perished in the cold winter winds
and snows of the past; the victims of white diseases,
 of gunshots and swords, of starvation and exposure.
 My heart is heavy with their loss.
The words, "Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men,"
 have always,  and still are today, meant only for the chosen few.
Will it ever change? I pray to the Creator,
and to the God-Spirit of every person alive
 by whatever name it is called,
that peace and good will enter the heart of each
while there are still two-leggeds to walk the earth.
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Julia White
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A Native American Christmas Prayer In The Form Of A Poem

O Great Spirit, Grandfather, God of the Holy book.
Like the Hebrew children to Thee we pray, we look.
As a man I have troubles, my people many sorrows.
Sins of yesterday, have tainted even our tomorrows.
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For a redeemer I pray, a great messiah our people need.
Send Him to my heart first, my soul desires to be freed.
Is the Christmas manger where the savior laid His head?
Is the child from Bethlehem He who rose from the dead?
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Did God include the red man when His only Son He gave?
Can Jesus not only my soul heal, can He my people save?
I can find no other hope when I walk through a barren land.
So to this Christmas Jesus I will lift a trembling weary hand..
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" Let not your heart be troubled you believe in God.
 Believe also in me"....Jesus Christ
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Wesley Jones
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I ADD MY BREATH TO YOUR BREATH

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I add my breath to your breath

that our days may be long on the Earth,

That the days of our people may be long,

that we shall be as one person,

that we may finish our road together.

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Laguna Pueblo Prayer

(New Mexico)

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PLAINS INDIAN CEREMONIES - THE SUN DANCE

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From THE SOUL OF AN INDIAN

by Charles Alexander Eastman

(Ohiyesa)

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[Charles Eastman was a Santee Sioux born in 1858.

Educated in white schools, he eventually received degrees

from Beloit College, Dartmouth, and Boston University

Medical School.  He became an advisor to presidents

and worked actively to bring the voice of the Indian

into the American intellectual arena.

His story is fascinating, as are his writings.

Amazon has a large number of sellers with
books about and by Charles Eastman
 (Ohiyesa was his Santee Sioux name);
  used prices start at a penny plus shipping.]

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The public religious rites of the Plains Indians

are few, and in large part of modern origin,

belonging properly to the so-called "transition period."

That period must be held to begin with the first

insidious effect upon their manners and customs

of contact with the dominant race, and many of

the tribes were so influenced long before they

ceased to lead the nomadic life.

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The fur-traders, the "Black Robe" priests,

the military, and finally the Protestant missionaries,

were the men who began the disintegration of the

Indian nations and the overthrow of their religion,

seventy-five to a hundred years before they were forced

to enter upon reservation life.  We have no authentic study

of them until well along in the transition period,

when whiskey and trade had already debauched

their native ideals.

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During the era of reconstruction they modified

their customs and beliefs continually, creating a

singular admixture of Christian with pagan superstitions,

and an addition to the old folk-lore of disguised Bible

stories under an Indian aspect.  Even their music shows

the influence of the Catholic chants.  Most of the material

collected by modern observers is necessarily of

this promiscuous character.

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It is noteworthy that the first effect of contact

with the whites was an increase of cruelty and
barbarity, an intensifying of the dark shadows
in the picture!  In this manner the "Sun Dance"
of the Plains Indians, the most important of their
public ceremonials, was abused and perverted
until it became a horrible example of barbarism,
and was eventually prohibited by the Government.
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In the old days, when a Sioux warrior
found himself in the very jaws of destruction,
he might offer a prayer to his father, the Sun,
to prolong his life.  If rescued from imminent danger,
he must acknowledge the divine favor by making a
Sun Dance, according to the vow embraced in his
prayer, in which he declared that he did not fear
torture or death, but asked life only for the sake
of those who loved him.  Thus the physical ordeal
was the fulfillment of a vow, and a sort of atonement
for what otherwise might appear to be reprehensible
weakness in the face of death.  It was in the nature
of confession and thank-offering to the "Great Mystery,"
through the physical parent, the Sun, and did not
embrace a prayer for future favors.
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FROM SITTING BULL

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I am a red man.

 If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man

 he would have made me so in the first place.

 He put in your heart certain wishes and plans,

 in my heart he put other and different desires.

 Each man is good in his sight.

 It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows.

 We are poor... but we are free.

 No white man controls our footsteps.

 If we must die...we die defending our rights. 

 Sitting Bull (1831-1890)

 Hunkpapa Sioux War Chief

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