There are four rounds where the door or flap of blanket is closed. During each round, prayers are made to
a new direction. The first round is usually the East where the sun rises and new beginnings take place.
This is the color of yellow as the meadowlark has upon his chest.
The second round is to the south where the day is young as in our youth and the color is black like the
buffalo. The following round is to the west where red sunsets take place and one could visualize the
silhouette of wolves howling as the sunsets on the horizon. The final round is usually to the North and is a
tribute to old age and the white hairs. The bald eagle and his wisdom are symbols for this time in our lives.
Often there is mention of the other three directions: up, down, and in. Father sky is up and is symbolized by
the color blue. Mother Earth is down and is symbolized by the color green. Inward is what is inside of us
and is where our prayers originate.
The day after my father’s funeral at the funeral home, I attended a sweat lodge. Several women that I’d
never met called this lodge and even brought a feast of food for afterward. I was still mourning my father
terribly and upset by events that had transpired between him and me and my sisters. Yet, I had not told the
people at the lodge of this.
While the grandfather rocks were being heated on a fire pit. People often sat around and visited. It took
many hours of tending the fire to get them hot enough. While we were visiting many people showed up and
we knew that it would be a full house so to speak. While we waited, it snowed very gently. Then an amazing
thing happened, two snowy white eagles showed up and literally circled right above the sweat lodge. The
lodge pourer said that it was an omen that something important was to take place in the lodge that day.
In the lodge, I immediately felt my father’s spirit was present. The lodge pourer was very connected to spirit
and soon he too began speaking for this spirit. He let us know that the spirit that was present didn’t want to
move on until he knew that the family left behind was okay. He wanted them to know that he loved them very
much.
The people in the lodge have a time to express their prayers. Each in turn told of a time they had mourned,
one woman still mourned her dead pets. It was a very surreal experience as I sat in the dark and sobbed.
Yet as they spoke and said a prayer for people who are mourning and for people who have passed and
need to move on; it was very healing. It helped me to heal my relationship with my father and release his
spirit.
The sweat lodge was something that originally I did not believe in; there are many misconceptions out
there. I know that when I was in lodge there were never any drugs like peyote, although I have read that
Southwestern tribes do use peyote in their ceremonies. The ceremonial herbs used were sage, cedar, and
sweet grass. Occasionally bitter root bark was chewed on for headaches from the heat and dehydration.
People did not sweat in the nude, as there were always men and women present. Women were always
directed to dress appropriately and wear full, length sweat lodge dresses. They also often wore a towel or
blanket as a shawl. Women were encouraged to cover up and protect themselves from the extreme heat.
Men on the other hand did wear shorts with no shirt. They were encouraged to tough out the heat and suffer
for the good of the people. Often in a crowded lodge, men were directed to sit on one side and women on
the other. Everyone was very polite and proper.
Religion comes in many forms, and whenever a group of people gathers to sing and pray, it is a good
thing. We often prayed for people we’d heard about who were sick or in despair even if they were not
present. We also prayed for all of God’s creatures. Plants, animals and all of nature were always
mentioned in our prayers.
Many churches hold prayer groups because group prayer is exponential. Native American religion seems
to focus on sharing and group prayers. Also, the muggy heat in the sweat lodge is a great equalizer as
clothes are wet and makeup is useless. It is a very humbling experience.
Sundance Ceremony
We were invited to go up north to a Lakota Sundance ceremony one summer in northern Montana. We
camped with a dozen friends from our lodge. No one knew exactly when the ceremony would begin, so we
camped at a campground for several days first.
The first day we arrived, a double teepee was erected. This was quite a treat to watch as several men with
extra-long poles lifted the two giant canvases over the wooden tripods placed earlier in the ground.
Overlapping as they went, this created one canvas perimeter with wooden columns in the center. It could
hold several hundred people at once.
That night, a huge feast was provided and the men in our group had to serve. There was watermelon,
beef, rolls, several salads, chocolate cake and pop. There also were more traditional items like Indian
bread and fresh berries mixed with just a little sugar. There was so much food and it was bad luck to leave
any, so men gathered up the leftovers and drove around to pass it to those people still setting up their
campsites.
Elders were present and sat in a place of honor. A fire burned continuously to provide ambers to light the
ceremony pipes. Sweet grass and sage smudge sticks, sacred herbs, were burned to clean the air. People
were happy and very welcoming. It was a beautiful evening.
The next day, the men gathered tree limbs to build the ceremony lodge. This too was a spectacle worth
watching. Huge poles were adorned with brightly colored cloth that had been offered with prayers for those
sick or in need. Huge timbers formed a large circular outdoor gazebo. Branches were strapped up around
the outside to provide walls. Only the brightly painted center pole would remain after the ceremony.
The collecting of the center pole was a ceremony in itself. A few men in animal costumes went out and
selected the pole and counted coup on it. Then they snuck into the lodge to tell the audience and invite
everyone to help capture the enemy.A horse drawn wagon was there for the women and children to ride
upon. Most men rode in pickups or walked.
The pole was always the most beautiful, straight tree that could be found. It had to be smudged with
sacred herbs and the men had to smoke the sacred pipe before it could be cut. Then the tree was de-
limbed and cut down with a chain saw. Everyone had to help carry it through the woods to the wagon.
Smaller branches were gathered by everyone to take home. These would be hung as a sign of protection
as they were a part of the center pole and had been blessed.
Another ceremony was the arriving of the clowns. Clowns dressed with gunnysacks over their heads came
into the lodge and pulled pranks on people. They tickled their faces with branches and tried to make them
laugh. Everyone stayed somber and did not make eye contact. Then the clowns went to the campsites and
continued to be a nuisance. People gave them canned goods as an offering.
Clown medicine is backward medicine. The clowns actually would steal from the people who gave no
donation. One man had his cooler stolen when he wasn’t around. The clowns always gave what they took
to someone else and that was lucky for the recipient.
One night, a strange storm blew in. This night we were camped at the Sundance ceremony in northern
Montana was more than weird. The Sundance was located on a hill top plateau that was actually at the
base of the mountains. A mountain pass connected the two and storms seemed to funnel down this alley.
Four people in our group were dancing. They would dance until the middle of the night and then lay down
in place on their bedroll. Two people in our group were helping keep the fires lit for the ceremony. All that
was left was a twenty-year old girl in a small tent, us in our pop-up camper, and another woman in her
trailer.
We were awakened by a terrible windstorm that had a desire to blow our trailer apart. We braced our arms
and legs on the two interior walls to keep it upright. Soon, the young woman was knocking on our door. Her
tent stakes had come undone. We helped her and then watched in amazement. The wind would flatten her
tent completely for a count of three. It then would pop up straight for a count of three and then back down for
a count of three. It seemed to be following the drumming in the main lodge. We went back to our trailer and
soon fell asleep.
The next day seemed the most powerful in the lodge as many people were piercing. Piercing is a hard
concept for outsiders or newcomers to understand. It goes along with the idea of suffering the heat in the
sweat lodge for the good of the people. What people you may ask, those sick or less fortunate than you.
Often a person dances and commits to three years of dancing because they have an older parent or friend
who is dying. Some also feel the need to do more, so they pierce.
Nothing in my Methodist upbringing could prepare me for piercing. People are attached by a wooden pin
through their skin to leather chords attached to the center pole. They must dance, pray, and break free.
There is some blood and it is evident they are suffering. I think it does relate to how Jesus was nailed to the
cross and suffered for the sins of others. Most churches just talk about physical sacrifice; they don’t have
volunteers demonstrate it. Native American religion is very active learning and a little graphic at times. It is
highly emotional and one cannot watch it without being affected.
The second day of piercing, an elder from the neighboring tribe and his son were doing the piercing
ceremony. The elder sat in a chair and the people to be pierced, knelt in front of him and whispered in a sort
of confession style about why they were being pierced today. This was to make sure that people
understood the seriousness and importance of the thoughts behind the act, I believe.
The fact the tribes shared resources like this is astonishing, for they were totally different tribes. Both tribes
also had worked together to gather the poles to build the ceremony lodge. They had been neighbors so
long, that they always helped each other out for the big ceremonies.
At this ceremony, I was praying and singing like all the women gathered on the women’s side. The women’
s side was crowded. Some brought their own lawn chairs to sit on and filled three rows. Others in front sat
on blankets on the ground. I had a chair and sat by a girl from our group. We always had to wear floor length
dresses and usually covered our shoulders with a shawl or blanket.
Women weren’t passed the peace pipe, but rather cigarettes. I never smoked but always took a cigarette
out of politeness to accept the gift. Tobacco is one of the four sacred herbs, along with sage, cedar, and
sweet grass. Pipes were filled with Indian tobacco, which is closer to tobacco than a drug. I think people are
quick to judge that Native Americans are using drugs like peyote or smoking drugs. I never saw any
evidence of this and to the contrary. Ceremony was so sacred that people were forbidden to drink alcohol
on the ceremony grounds.
The men in our group who weren’t dancing were sitting on the men’s side. They sat on the ground. Most of
the Native American men from the tribe in attendance had jobs to perform. Some tended the fire. Some
watched the entrance and directed when people could enter or not. Some kept the pipes filled. Others
watched the dancers and escorted them to and from the port-a-potty when needed. Many sat in the drum
circle and beat on the giant hide.
At one point, one of the drummers needed a break. One of the helpers quickly asked one of the men in our
group to join the circle. The drumming was the inspiration to keep the dancers up and dancing round the
clock. It is hard work to sing and drum for hours. I knew that my man friend was an excellent drummer and I’
d seen him drum with a great deal of force. I prayed that he would get asked to join the drum circle, as I
knew he felt left out.
Then a weird thing happened. I heard almost aloud. “What! Why are you thinking of such silly things? Why
aren’t you standing and singing? Why aren’t you supporting these people who are suffering, these people
who are piercing and hanging from this pole?”
I looked around in bewilderment. Who was talking to me? Who could be saying these things? The elder in
the chair by the piercing, he was looking right at me. Could I really be reading his mind? Better yet, had he
really read my thoughts?
While I contemplated this further. A strange thing happened. The girl directly behind me jumped up and
started singing real loud. Then another girl stood to the side, and another, and another. With eyes great
big, I finally gave in and stood to support the people. The elder seemed to have a look of content on his face
and looked away.
The next day, a beautiful middle aged woman dressed in a traditional fringed leather dress did a different
piercing. She was dragging a buffalo skull that was attached to her shoulders and she circled the
parameter of the lodge twice. She made a very heroic figure in her suffering for the good of the people. I
believe she was reminding everyone of the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.
In the mythological story of the white buffalo woman, the tribe has taken on promiscuous and drunken
ways. They have forgotten their sacred ways. The beautiful woman appears with a sacred pipe and teaches
them a pipe ceremony as a cleansing. She teaches them what the parts of the pipe mean and how to fill it.
She reminds them that they are to pray for all creatures, even the four legged, and that “Mitakuye oyasin” or
we are all related. She teaches them to use all the parts of the buffalo, wisely.
She then says that she must leave but promises to return again. She then drops and rolls four times each
time turning another color. These colors are the colors of the four nations: First black then brown, then red
and finally white. Herds of black buffalo then appear over the hill and the Lakota people begin a period
where they are spiritual and well sustained.
There have been several different reports of white buffalo being born in recent years. Wikipedia states that
only seven true genetically pure, white bison exist and all are residents of Spirit Mountains Ranch in
Flagstaff, Arizona. To many, it is a sign that White Buffalo Calf Woman has kept her word. The time for all
four nations to come together is now, no more fighting over skin colors and religion. How does that
childhood song go? ”Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little
children of the world.”
There is a church in Wyoming called St. Stephens Catholic Church, which is located near a school of the
same name on the Wind River Indian reservation. There the white and the red traditions seem to have
found a peaceful co-existence. It was built in 1928 and the tinned tiled ceiling is a work of art. It is painted in
a geometric, quilt patterns with a Catholic cross at the center, similar to the beautiful, Native American star
quilt patterns that I have seen.
The stained glass windows have similar patterns. The paintings of the Catholic stations of Jesus are of
Native Americans and the altar and holy water stand are both, huge leather drums. The podium is a
wooden Thunderbird and behind it a wooden Teepee skeleton creates a backdrop for the Crucifixion. On
either side, there are huge murals of Native American scenes. The one on the right was an Indian riding
into the sunset with a white buffalo calf near by. The one on the left was White Buffalo Calf Woman and the
calf she becomes. She holds a butterfly, the symbol of transformation.
When we visited this church, it was late afternoon; the sun was shining through one of the stained glass
windows on the west side. This illuminated just the white buffalo calf near the woman in the mural. It picked
up shades of blue and turquoise from the window; leaving me wondering, did the artist plan this effect? For
me, it was a visual sign that was quite magical.
In conclusion, what did I learn? I learned that Native Americans have a closer connection to nature and
suffering. They also value tradition and ceremony, talking openly of the presence of their dead ancestors
and their help and direction. They believe in visions, animal spirit totems, and signs.
I also learned that Native American religion has many similarities to traditional religions such as group
prayer, singing hymnals or chants, and sharing food and communion. One person leads the service or
ceremony, but others help with the process. Anytime people get together to share and pray it’s a good thing.
Save 10% in January with Coupon Code: READMORE2010
a new direction. The first round is usually the East where the sun rises and new beginnings take place.
This is the color of yellow as the meadowlark has upon his chest.
The second round is to the south where the day is young as in our youth and the color is black like the
buffalo. The following round is to the west where red sunsets take place and one could visualize the
silhouette of wolves howling as the sunsets on the horizon. The final round is usually to the North and is a
tribute to old age and the white hairs. The bald eagle and his wisdom are symbols for this time in our lives.
Often there is mention of the other three directions: up, down, and in. Father sky is up and is symbolized by
the color blue. Mother Earth is down and is symbolized by the color green. Inward is what is inside of us
and is where our prayers originate.
The day after my father’s funeral at the funeral home, I attended a sweat lodge. Several women that I’d
never met called this lodge and even brought a feast of food for afterward. I was still mourning my father
terribly and upset by events that had transpired between him and me and my sisters. Yet, I had not told the
people at the lodge of this.
While the grandfather rocks were being heated on a fire pit. People often sat around and visited. It took
many hours of tending the fire to get them hot enough. While we were visiting many people showed up and
we knew that it would be a full house so to speak. While we waited, it snowed very gently. Then an amazing
thing happened, two snowy white eagles showed up and literally circled right above the sweat lodge. The
lodge pourer said that it was an omen that something important was to take place in the lodge that day.
In the lodge, I immediately felt my father’s spirit was present. The lodge pourer was very connected to spirit
and soon he too began speaking for this spirit. He let us know that the spirit that was present didn’t want to
move on until he knew that the family left behind was okay. He wanted them to know that he loved them very
much.
The people in the lodge have a time to express their prayers. Each in turn told of a time they had mourned,
one woman still mourned her dead pets. It was a very surreal experience as I sat in the dark and sobbed.
Yet as they spoke and said a prayer for people who are mourning and for people who have passed and
need to move on; it was very healing. It helped me to heal my relationship with my father and release his
spirit.
The sweat lodge was something that originally I did not believe in; there are many misconceptions out
there. I know that when I was in lodge there were never any drugs like peyote, although I have read that
Southwestern tribes do use peyote in their ceremonies. The ceremonial herbs used were sage, cedar, and
sweet grass. Occasionally bitter root bark was chewed on for headaches from the heat and dehydration.
People did not sweat in the nude, as there were always men and women present. Women were always
directed to dress appropriately and wear full, length sweat lodge dresses. They also often wore a towel or
blanket as a shawl. Women were encouraged to cover up and protect themselves from the extreme heat.
Men on the other hand did wear shorts with no shirt. They were encouraged to tough out the heat and suffer
for the good of the people. Often in a crowded lodge, men were directed to sit on one side and women on
the other. Everyone was very polite and proper.
Religion comes in many forms, and whenever a group of people gathers to sing and pray, it is a good
thing. We often prayed for people we’d heard about who were sick or in despair even if they were not
present. We also prayed for all of God’s creatures. Plants, animals and all of nature were always
mentioned in our prayers.
Many churches hold prayer groups because group prayer is exponential. Native American religion seems
to focus on sharing and group prayers. Also, the muggy heat in the sweat lodge is a great equalizer as
clothes are wet and makeup is useless. It is a very humbling experience.
Sundance Ceremony
We were invited to go up north to a Lakota Sundance ceremony one summer in northern Montana. We
camped with a dozen friends from our lodge. No one knew exactly when the ceremony would begin, so we
camped at a campground for several days first.
The first day we arrived, a double teepee was erected. This was quite a treat to watch as several men with
extra-long poles lifted the two giant canvases over the wooden tripods placed earlier in the ground.
Overlapping as they went, this created one canvas perimeter with wooden columns in the center. It could
hold several hundred people at once.
That night, a huge feast was provided and the men in our group had to serve. There was watermelon,
beef, rolls, several salads, chocolate cake and pop. There also were more traditional items like Indian
bread and fresh berries mixed with just a little sugar. There was so much food and it was bad luck to leave
any, so men gathered up the leftovers and drove around to pass it to those people still setting up their
campsites.
Elders were present and sat in a place of honor. A fire burned continuously to provide ambers to light the
ceremony pipes. Sweet grass and sage smudge sticks, sacred herbs, were burned to clean the air. People
were happy and very welcoming. It was a beautiful evening.
The next day, the men gathered tree limbs to build the ceremony lodge. This too was a spectacle worth
watching. Huge poles were adorned with brightly colored cloth that had been offered with prayers for those
sick or in need. Huge timbers formed a large circular outdoor gazebo. Branches were strapped up around
the outside to provide walls. Only the brightly painted center pole would remain after the ceremony.
The collecting of the center pole was a ceremony in itself. A few men in animal costumes went out and
selected the pole and counted coup on it. Then they snuck into the lodge to tell the audience and invite
everyone to help capture the enemy.A horse drawn wagon was there for the women and children to ride
upon. Most men rode in pickups or walked.
The pole was always the most beautiful, straight tree that could be found. It had to be smudged with
sacred herbs and the men had to smoke the sacred pipe before it could be cut. Then the tree was de-
limbed and cut down with a chain saw. Everyone had to help carry it through the woods to the wagon.
Smaller branches were gathered by everyone to take home. These would be hung as a sign of protection
as they were a part of the center pole and had been blessed.
Another ceremony was the arriving of the clowns. Clowns dressed with gunnysacks over their heads came
into the lodge and pulled pranks on people. They tickled their faces with branches and tried to make them
laugh. Everyone stayed somber and did not make eye contact. Then the clowns went to the campsites and
continued to be a nuisance. People gave them canned goods as an offering.
Clown medicine is backward medicine. The clowns actually would steal from the people who gave no
donation. One man had his cooler stolen when he wasn’t around. The clowns always gave what they took
to someone else and that was lucky for the recipient.
One night, a strange storm blew in. This night we were camped at the Sundance ceremony in northern
Montana was more than weird. The Sundance was located on a hill top plateau that was actually at the
base of the mountains. A mountain pass connected the two and storms seemed to funnel down this alley.
Four people in our group were dancing. They would dance until the middle of the night and then lay down
in place on their bedroll. Two people in our group were helping keep the fires lit for the ceremony. All that
was left was a twenty-year old girl in a small tent, us in our pop-up camper, and another woman in her
trailer.
We were awakened by a terrible windstorm that had a desire to blow our trailer apart. We braced our arms
and legs on the two interior walls to keep it upright. Soon, the young woman was knocking on our door. Her
tent stakes had come undone. We helped her and then watched in amazement. The wind would flatten her
tent completely for a count of three. It then would pop up straight for a count of three and then back down for
a count of three. It seemed to be following the drumming in the main lodge. We went back to our trailer and
soon fell asleep.
The next day seemed the most powerful in the lodge as many people were piercing. Piercing is a hard
concept for outsiders or newcomers to understand. It goes along with the idea of suffering the heat in the
sweat lodge for the good of the people. What people you may ask, those sick or less fortunate than you.
Often a person dances and commits to three years of dancing because they have an older parent or friend
who is dying. Some also feel the need to do more, so they pierce.
Nothing in my Methodist upbringing could prepare me for piercing. People are attached by a wooden pin
through their skin to leather chords attached to the center pole. They must dance, pray, and break free.
There is some blood and it is evident they are suffering. I think it does relate to how Jesus was nailed to the
cross and suffered for the sins of others. Most churches just talk about physical sacrifice; they don’t have
volunteers demonstrate it. Native American religion is very active learning and a little graphic at times. It is
highly emotional and one cannot watch it without being affected.
The second day of piercing, an elder from the neighboring tribe and his son were doing the piercing
ceremony. The elder sat in a chair and the people to be pierced, knelt in front of him and whispered in a sort
of confession style about why they were being pierced today. This was to make sure that people
understood the seriousness and importance of the thoughts behind the act, I believe.
The fact the tribes shared resources like this is astonishing, for they were totally different tribes. Both tribes
also had worked together to gather the poles to build the ceremony lodge. They had been neighbors so
long, that they always helped each other out for the big ceremonies.
At this ceremony, I was praying and singing like all the women gathered on the women’s side. The women’
s side was crowded. Some brought their own lawn chairs to sit on and filled three rows. Others in front sat
on blankets on the ground. I had a chair and sat by a girl from our group. We always had to wear floor length
dresses and usually covered our shoulders with a shawl or blanket.
Women weren’t passed the peace pipe, but rather cigarettes. I never smoked but always took a cigarette
out of politeness to accept the gift. Tobacco is one of the four sacred herbs, along with sage, cedar, and
sweet grass. Pipes were filled with Indian tobacco, which is closer to tobacco than a drug. I think people are
quick to judge that Native Americans are using drugs like peyote or smoking drugs. I never saw any
evidence of this and to the contrary. Ceremony was so sacred that people were forbidden to drink alcohol
on the ceremony grounds.
The men in our group who weren’t dancing were sitting on the men’s side. They sat on the ground. Most of
the Native American men from the tribe in attendance had jobs to perform. Some tended the fire. Some
watched the entrance and directed when people could enter or not. Some kept the pipes filled. Others
watched the dancers and escorted them to and from the port-a-potty when needed. Many sat in the drum
circle and beat on the giant hide.
At one point, one of the drummers needed a break. One of the helpers quickly asked one of the men in our
group to join the circle. The drumming was the inspiration to keep the dancers up and dancing round the
clock. It is hard work to sing and drum for hours. I knew that my man friend was an excellent drummer and I’
d seen him drum with a great deal of force. I prayed that he would get asked to join the drum circle, as I
knew he felt left out.
Then a weird thing happened. I heard almost aloud. “What! Why are you thinking of such silly things? Why
aren’t you standing and singing? Why aren’t you supporting these people who are suffering, these people
who are piercing and hanging from this pole?”
I looked around in bewilderment. Who was talking to me? Who could be saying these things? The elder in
the chair by the piercing, he was looking right at me. Could I really be reading his mind? Better yet, had he
really read my thoughts?
While I contemplated this further. A strange thing happened. The girl directly behind me jumped up and
started singing real loud. Then another girl stood to the side, and another, and another. With eyes great
big, I finally gave in and stood to support the people. The elder seemed to have a look of content on his face
and looked away.
The next day, a beautiful middle aged woman dressed in a traditional fringed leather dress did a different
piercing. She was dragging a buffalo skull that was attached to her shoulders and she circled the
parameter of the lodge twice. She made a very heroic figure in her suffering for the good of the people. I
believe she was reminding everyone of the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman.
In the mythological story of the white buffalo woman, the tribe has taken on promiscuous and drunken
ways. They have forgotten their sacred ways. The beautiful woman appears with a sacred pipe and teaches
them a pipe ceremony as a cleansing. She teaches them what the parts of the pipe mean and how to fill it.
She reminds them that they are to pray for all creatures, even the four legged, and that “Mitakuye oyasin” or
we are all related. She teaches them to use all the parts of the buffalo, wisely.
She then says that she must leave but promises to return again. She then drops and rolls four times each
time turning another color. These colors are the colors of the four nations: First black then brown, then red
and finally white. Herds of black buffalo then appear over the hill and the Lakota people begin a period
where they are spiritual and well sustained.
There have been several different reports of white buffalo being born in recent years. Wikipedia states that
only seven true genetically pure, white bison exist and all are residents of Spirit Mountains Ranch in
Flagstaff, Arizona. To many, it is a sign that White Buffalo Calf Woman has kept her word. The time for all
four nations to come together is now, no more fighting over skin colors and religion. How does that
childhood song go? ”Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little
children of the world.”
There is a church in Wyoming called St. Stephens Catholic Church, which is located near a school of the
same name on the Wind River Indian reservation. There the white and the red traditions seem to have
found a peaceful co-existence. It was built in 1928 and the tinned tiled ceiling is a work of art. It is painted in
a geometric, quilt patterns with a Catholic cross at the center, similar to the beautiful, Native American star
quilt patterns that I have seen.
The stained glass windows have similar patterns. The paintings of the Catholic stations of Jesus are of
Native Americans and the altar and holy water stand are both, huge leather drums. The podium is a
wooden Thunderbird and behind it a wooden Teepee skeleton creates a backdrop for the Crucifixion. On
either side, there are huge murals of Native American scenes. The one on the right was an Indian riding
into the sunset with a white buffalo calf near by. The one on the left was White Buffalo Calf Woman and the
calf she becomes. She holds a butterfly, the symbol of transformation.
When we visited this church, it was late afternoon; the sun was shining through one of the stained glass
windows on the west side. This illuminated just the white buffalo calf near the woman in the mural. It picked
up shades of blue and turquoise from the window; leaving me wondering, did the artist plan this effect? For
me, it was a visual sign that was quite magical.
In conclusion, what did I learn? I learned that Native Americans have a closer connection to nature and
suffering. They also value tradition and ceremony, talking openly of the presence of their dead ancestors
and their help and direction. They believe in visions, animal spirit totems, and signs.
I also learned that Native American religion has many similarities to traditional religions such as group
prayer, singing hymnals or chants, and sharing food and communion. One person leads the service or
ceremony, but others help with the process. Anytime people get together to share and pray it’s a good thing.
Save 10% in January with Coupon Code: READMORE2010
© Craig Carpenter, 2010 All Rights Reserved |
Tien Tao Meditations LLC
Benefits
Benefits
Chapter 12 Native American Ceremonies
Rejoice
Rejoice in your gift of existence.
Jump and dance because you are alive.
Sing praises of the energy that races through your veins.
Sing praises of the connections that you have with all beings;
For your brothers and sisters are the stars in the sky,
And the flowers in the field.
Celebrate your life and who you are!
The Sweat Lodge
My children grew up and went away to college. I had several
years of dating new people and learned a great deal from each of
them. My second husband, a lodge pourer, introduced me to the
Native American culture. A sweat lodge is a small tarp covered,
round tent. In the middle is a pit for hot rocks to be placed. The
lodge pourer leads a ceremony and pours ladles of water on the
rocks. This creates a cleansing sauna for the body and soul.
Rejoice
Rejoice in your gift of existence.
Jump and dance because you are alive.
Sing praises of the energy that races through your veins.
Sing praises of the connections that you have with all beings;
For your brothers and sisters are the stars in the sky,
And the flowers in the field.
Celebrate your life and who you are!
The Sweat Lodge
My children grew up and went away to college. I had several
years of dating new people and learned a great deal from each of
them. My second husband, a lodge pourer, introduced me to the
Native American culture. A sweat lodge is a small tarp covered,
round tent. In the middle is a pit for hot rocks to be placed. The
lodge pourer leads a ceremony and pours ladles of water on the
rocks. This creates a cleansing sauna for the body and soul.
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| Excerpt From "Eye of God: Finding Love and Light in Changing Times" |