Sacred Texts

1. Introduction to Textual Resources

Sacred texts are among the aspects of indigenous spiritual ecology which evidence the tendencies among many if not most indigenes to think, feel, and live in unity with nature as the sacred. Such indigenes have an especially intimate, profound, and sensitive relationship with nature, including in their ideas, actions, and consequences. They emphasize kinship, interdependence, and reciprocity with nature as well as care, respect, and reverence for nature. Thus spiritual ecology for such indigenes is more likely to involve worship in nature rather than in human buildings apart from nature. All beings and things are seen as a sacred community and are involved in communication spiritually. Spirituality and nature coincide. At the very least, the sacred is manifest in and through nature in special sacred places. Accordingly nature is humanized and personified, while humans are naturalized and spiritualized. The following is a small sample of sacred texts that exemplifies such tendencies in the spiritual ecology of many indigenes.

 

2. Classic Resources

Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony

In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again
Hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…

Linguistic Note: The word “Hozho” in Dine’ (roughly translated) Concept of Balance and Beauty. Consideration of the nature of the universe, the world, and man, and the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycle includes all these other Navajo concepts expressed in terms quite impossible to translate into English. Some Navajos might prefer the term: “Nizhoni” meaning ‘just beauty.”

Written by Robert S. Drake, for Tom Holm, PhD, University of Arizona American Indian Graduate Studies Program, Native American Religions and Spirituality.

 

The Introduction of the Child to the Cosmos

Alice C. Fletcher described The Introduction of the Child to the Cosmos by the Omaha Peoples in this way: (27th Ann. Rep., Bur. Eth.)

“This ritual was a supplication to the powers of the heavens, the air, and the earth for the safety of the child from birth to old age. In it, the life of the infant is pictured as about to travel a rugged road stretching over four hills, marking the stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age.” (p. 115) 

“The ceremony which finds oral expression in this ritual voices in no uncertain manner the Omaha belief in man's relation to the visible powers of the heavens and in the interdependence of all forms of life… . It expresses the emotions of the human soul, touched with the love of offspring, alone with the might of nature, and companioned only by the living creatures whose friendliness must be sought if life is to be secure on its journey.” 

This ceremony takes place when the child is eight days old. At the appointed time, the priest is sent for. When he arrives, he takes his place at the door of the tent in which the child lies, and raising his right hand to the sky, palm outward, he intones the following in a loud, ringing voice: 

Leader : 

“Ho! Ye Sun, Moon, Stars, all ye that move in the heavens, 
I bid you hear me!” 

Group  

“Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the first hill!” 

Leader  

“Ho! Ye Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all ye that move in the air, 
I bid you hear me!” 

Group  

“Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the second hill!” 

Leader  

“Ho! Ye Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes, Trees, Grasses, all ye of the earth 
I bid you hear me!” 

Group  

“Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the third hill!” 

Leader  

“Ho! Ye Birds, great and small, that fly in the air, 
Ho! Ye Animals, great and small, that dwell in the forest, 
Ho! Ye Insects that creep among the grasses and burrow in the ground, 
I bid you hear me!” 

Group  

“Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, I implore! 
Make its path smooth, that it may reach the brow of the fourth hill!” 

Leader  

“Ho! All ye of the heavens, all ye of the air, all ye of the earth: 
I bid you all to hear me!” 

Group  

“Into your midst has come a new life. 
Consent ye, consent ye all, I implore! 
Make its path smooth–then shall it travel beyond the four hills!”

 

3. Contemporary Resources

Gregory Cajete, Look to the Mountains

American Indians believe it is the breath that represents the most tangible expression of the spirit in all living things. Language is an expression of the spirit because it contains the power to move people and to express human thought and feeling. It is also the breath, along with water and thought, that connects all living things in direct relationship. The interrelationship of water, thought (wind), and breath personifies the elemental relationship emanating from “that place that the Indians talk about,” that place of the Center where all things are created.1

Martin Louie/Snpakchiin, Kettle Falls Okanagon/Salish elder

[I]t’s not only the Indians that sing the song at the Winter Dance. It’s all over the world. All nations, they all have a song. That’s what my people say. When you’re a baby the first thing you do is learn to hum, to make a little noise. That’s what they call a song. Each nation in their own language in their own way have a song. Clear ’round the world [the centering tree] in all the four directions … don’t matter what nation it is. The world has a song. The rivers, the creeks, the winds, the trees, everything has a whispering sound.2

Wub-e-ke-niew People, Wub-e-ke-niew We Have the Right to Exist

There are two very different religious philosophies on this Continent. One is the aggregate of the centralized, hierarchical world religions and the other rigid schools of thought, including Indian religion. The other is the philosophy and world-view of the Ahnishinahbaet jibway and other Aboriginal Indigenous people. The Ahnishinahbaet jibway Mid is a way of living in harmony and community; a facilitation of each person’s Sovereign relationship with Grandmother Earth, with Grandfather Mid, with the Circle of Life which encompasses us, and with the Great Mysteries of the Universe. The Mid is experienced, it is directly connected to Grandmother Earth; they are married. This is where we come from.3

Douglas Cardinal, vision quest narrative of a contemporary Canadian architect whose design for the Museum of the American Indian will occupy the last public space on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Cardinal opens his 1989 interview saying:

So I said, “I’m ready to go. I feel at peace with myself.” He said, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re ready or not, you’re coming anyway. You’re still arrogant you know.” “Yeah, I know, I’m a human being,” I said. So I finally went. It seemed like I was a part of everything, and I felt very, very powerful. I just wasn’t there.

The elder came out in the morning and he untied the lodge. He tried to help me come back with sweetgrass and whatever. I could hear him in the distance, “Come back.” He was pulling me back. I thought, “I don’t want to go back. There’s no way I’m coming back. Why would I want to go back? I’m already on the other side and if I come back as a human being, I’m going to have to go through death again. Why should I come back? Then I’d be confined and limited and I would screw up and do all the stupid human being things. I’d be out-of-tune with myself and I’d have to go through all this pain and remorse and suffering. I’m already over here and why do I have to do all that again. Besides, I’m free.” The elder said, “You have to come back, just to see this day. You’ve never seen a day like today. There’s dew on the grass, and sun shining on the dew and this golden hue is all over everything. The clouds are all red. The sun is brilliant and the sky is blue. It’s the most beautiful day. You have to come back and see this beautiful day. It’s wonderful to be alive and walk on this earth.”

I thought, “It is wonderful to experience life.” I said to that being, whatever it was, “Can I go back for a minute and see that day?” He said, “Well, you’re a free spirit, you make your choice.” I said, “I’ll just check in for a minute and come right back.” I came back in my body and opened my eyes and saw that day. It was a beautiful, fantastic day. I never had seen a day like that. I’d never really looked. The elder said, “See what a beautiful day it is and how wonderful it is to be alive?” I said, “Yes, it’s just beautiful.”

He said, “Are you afraid of death?” I said, “No. I’m just afraid I ain’t gonna live right.” He said, “Then you’re a fearless warrior.”4

 

Endnotes
[1] Gregory Cajete. Look to the Mountains: An Ecology of Indigenous Education (Asheville, N.C.: Kivaki Press, 1994) 42.

[2] Martin Louie/Snpakchiin (Kettle Falls Okanagon/Salish elder). Quoted in John Grim, “Cosmogony and the Winter Dance,” Journal of Religious Ethics 20 (Fall 1992) 401.

[3] Wub-e-ke-niew. We Have The Right To Exist: A Translation of Aboriginal Indigenous Thought (New York: Black Thistle Press, 1995) 198–99.

[4] Douglas Cardinal quoted in Dennis H. McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb. Indian From the Inside: A Study in Ethno-Metaphysics. Occasional Paper No. 14 (Thunder Bay, Ontario: Centre for Northern Studies, Lakehead University, 1993) 73.

 

Reprint Permissions
Permission to reprint the above materials has been given by the following publishers.

Contemporary Resources
Gregory Cajete. Look to the Mountains: An Ecology of Indigenous Education (Asheville, N.C.: Kivaki Press, 1994). Excerpt from Look to the Mountains by Gregory Cajete Copyright © 1994 Gregory A. Cajete by Kivaki Press is reprinted with the permission of Kivaki Press. All rights reserved.

Martin Louie/Snpakchiin (Kettle Falls Okanagon/Salish elder). Quoted in John Grim, “Cosmogony and the Winter Dance,” Journal of Religious Ethics 20 (Fall 1992). Martin Louie’s quotation, printed in Grim’s article “Cosmogony and the Winter Dance” published in the Journal of Religious Ethics Copyright © 1992 by Religious Ethics, Inc. is reprinted with the written permission of Blackwell Publishers and with the oral permission of Martin Louie. All rights reserved.

Wub-e-ke-niew. We Have The Right To Exist: A Translation of Aboriginal Indigenous Thought (New York: Black Thistle Press, 1995). Excerpt from Wub-e-ke-niew Copyright © 1995 by Wub-e-ke-niew is reprinted with the permission of Black Thistle Press. All rights reserved.

Douglas Cardinal quoted in Dennis H. McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb. Indian From the Inside: A Study in Ethno-Metaphysics. Occasional Paper No. 14 (Thunder Bay, Ontario: Centre for Northern Studies, Lakehead University, 1993). Exerpt from Indian From the Inside Copyright © 1993 by Centre for Northern Studies at Lakehead University is reprinted with the permission of the Centre for Northern Studies, Lakehead University. All rights reserved.

 

Copyright © 2001 Forum on Religion and Ecology.


Header photo credit: ©Christopher McCloud; Caleen Sisk leads Winnemem Wintu in prayer at Mt. Shasta, California