Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World
By Ed McGaa, Eagle Man
Summary
This book provides a detailed account of the history and performance of various Lakota religious ceremonies and beliefs. Written by an Oglala Sioux named Eagle Man, it is part history and philosophy with a narrative of personal experience mixed in.
Review
People come to the Native Americans for their natural wisdom about their connectedness of all things, mother earth, etc. This book explains how their rituals and beliefs celebrate this core philosophy for a person who never would have encountered them. At 210 pages, and broken into many small chapters about different topics with some personal stories thrown in, the book a fairly easy read.
Reflection
The bulk of the book is a discussion of the different Indian ceremonies and their history (including their suppression at the hands of Christian missionaries) with very literal descriptions of how they are performed. I’d love to make a peace pipe (tobacco only!) and a sweat lodge ceremony is definitely on my radar. I don’t think I have the fortitude to participate in a Sundance, particularly because of the piercing aspect of the ritual that would no doubt cause someone like me who passes out merely getting a shot some trouble – perhaps I would find some spiritual strength in the moment though?
The author explains his firsthand experiences with these different rituals, and inserts a small amount of personal belief into who should practice them and how they should be practiced. The example I was most impressed by was a spirit calling Yuwipip ceremony that ultimately yielded 7 true predictions and the location of a downed airplane that nobody had been able to locate for weeks.
There is also discussion of several different animals and what they represent, which surprisingly shed some light on an interesting experience my friend and I had with an owl in the middle of night in the Utah desert. There is also discussion of the importance of the number four and spiritual nature of the four directions that are recognized throughout the Lakota belief system and ceremonies.
Native Americans believe in a creator God – called Wakan Tanka. This is often translated to Great Medicine or Great Mystery to point at its power and inability to be conceptualized by the human mind. They believe all things are inhabited by spirits placed there by Wakan Tanka – the “2-leggeds” like us included. They believe in an afterlife, where your ancestors go to watch over you, and what you do in this life carries over into the next life. These are all ideas familiar to anyone with a Christian upbringing like myself.
But it is how their spirituality connects them to the earth, animals, and all living beings that I think causes people to more seriously investigate their religious beliefs and practices. The naming of things is important, and one of the recurring themes of the book is that all beings, particularly animals, are our “brothers and sisters.” This creates a profound feeling of connectedness that people who understand the animal kingdom in a colder, more scientific sense may miss out on. The concept of family also brings up the ideas of similar origin and mutual interdependence. These relations are not suggested lightly and ignored; they are truly felt. I think it is best exemplified in a story about a buffalo hunter, who upon pulling back his bowstring for the kill shot felt the need to say, “forgive me, brother, but my people must live.”
The Lakota were in touch with the fact that we rely on the earth, a living thing itself – our “mother” – for our creation and continued existence. This dependence seems obvious when you state it, but it is never in the front of our minds. Perhaps if we were more in touch with this fact, we would all treat our planet and its non-human inhabitants with more respect. If the ember of Native American religion survived decades of oppression to be reignited into a burning flame, I have little doubt it was to remind us of the error of our ways regarding our abuse of the earth, and perhaps even provide a new path forward.
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