Long before any book was written on this land, the native elders carried the teachings in story, song and ceremony. Chiefs, medicine people and grandmothers passed down creation stories, the history of the people, and the sacred relationship between the people, the land and the Great Spirit.
Many nations, many languages, one great truth: everything is alive, everything is connected, and we are the caretakers of the earth for the generations to come. These are the teachings of my native ancestors.
“Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished.”
Chief Seattle, 1854 (as recorded in 1887)
“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”
Chief Joseph, 1879
“In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty,—the duty of prayer—the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal.”
Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman), The Soul of the Indian, 1911
The elders teach that the Great Spirit is in all things: the stone, the river, the eagle and the child. Prayer is not a once-a-week visit but a daily walk. The earth is our mother, the sky our father, and every creature our relative. We take only what we need and give thanks for all of it.
This page will keep growing with the teachings, creation stories and histories shared by the elders.
Reflect: How can you give thanks to the earth today?
What do you think about this? On January 20, 1996, three young women in Varginha, Brazil, saw a four foot creature with oily skin and red eyes crouched by a wall. The army was in town that morning. A policeman said to have handled it died a month later. Cover story, or Brazil’s Roswell?
What do you think about this? In 1800 settlers at Conneaut, Ohio, opened a four acre burial ground in rows and reported skeletons over seven feet, jaws that fit over a man’s face, double rows of teeth. The graves were plowed under within a generation. Tall tale, or a people buried twice?
What do you think about this? The Iron Pillar of Delhi is six tons of forged iron from around 400 AD. It has stood outside through 1,600 years of monsoons and never rusted, thanks to a protective film from phosphorus rich iron nobody made again. Lucky recipe, or knowledge lost on purpose?
What do you think about this? North Sea trawlers pull up mammoth teeth, flint tools and a carved harpoon from 120 feet deep. Until 8,000 years ago that seabed was Doggerland, a forested land the size of Britain, drowned by rising seas and a tsunami. The lost land of every old story?
What do you think about this? In 1974 a Florida family found a polished 22 pound steel ball in burned brush. It hummed when a guitar played, rolled across rooms on its own and changed direction. Navy X rays showed objects inside, origin unknown. Valve ball, or something that landed?
What do you think about this? The Whaley House in San Diego was built in 1857 where a man was slowly hanged five years earlier. A baby and a daughter later died inside. Visitors report footsteps in empty rooms and a pressure on the throat where the gallows stood. Old house, or long memory?
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