Before the arrival of Columbus to the New World in 1492. It is estimated that up to fifteen million indigenous people occupied the lands of North America and Canada. A vast land of abundance, in resources, wildlife and communities of Native families. Oral stories of the natives goes back thousands of years, accurately, describing events, such as, the Cascadia earthquake of 1700. Thousands of years of communities living in harmony with the land. Thousands of years of families passing down their oral stories, their knowledge, wisdom, spirituality as well as their love to their children and future.
By the end of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, approximately 238,000 indigenous people remained. A devastating decline, from the millions that called this land home. In less than five hundred years an entire civilization, decimated; Massacred by european settlers, hungry for Indian land. The reasoning for these massacres is multi-layered. The land’s vast resources being an obvious motivator, many of these settlers were also barred from obtaining land in Europe. Even more so, the Indigenous peoples were just too different from white man’s ways. Their world views and spiritual beliefs were beyond most white mens comprehension; On top of their dark skin.
Along with the massacre of their people. Native American spirituality, tradition and oral legend has been threatened. Upon the seizure of their lands and prosecution of their un-christian ways; Natives were, ultimately, forced to convert to christianity. Of course this did not happen overnight. Being forced into reservations, they were surrounded by settlers and white man’s ways.
There are many fronts on Native’s conversion to christianity. One that stands out was the conversion of Chief Mononcue of the Ohio, Wendat Nation. Chief Wendatt was not easily converted; Over time, much like the Indian way, Chief Mononcue found the middle way. He addressed a group of white Methodists in the 1820’s, pointing out that the Great Spirit teaches both, the Natives and the white man the same thing. Both taught to do good; Natives through his spirit and white men through the “Bible”. Mononcue tells the people that white man says he loves the tribes but he gives them whiskey. This causes evil, he says, that white man cheats the Indians and treats them as if they are less than white man. He said to the gathered crowd "Now, your Good Book forbids all this. Why not then, do what it tells you? Then Indians would do right too….Now, brothers, let us all do right; Then our Great Father will be pleased and make us happy in this world, and after death we shall all live together in his house above and always be happy”.(“Star Songs and Water Spirits”.) Chief Mononcue exploited the similarities of the two beliefs. He became a licensed Methodist missionary and as many missionaries after him, he used these similarities to convert Natives to christianity.
Due to such loss and decimation of the culture, as well as their conversion to Christianity; It is difficult to grasp the exact, spiritual, perceptions the Natives possessed. But through surviving, oral legends we find that their spiritual principles fundamentally expressed a “Great Spirit”. Each, believing in a spiritual force that flows through everything. The Sioux refers to this being as Wakan Tanka; This can mean the Creator or Great Mystery. This term does not, always, refer to one entity, it can also mean many spiritual beings collectively. Algonquian tribes call the Great Spirit “Gitchi Manitou”. Gitchi Manitou can mean “Creator of all things” or “Giver of Life”. Similar to Taoist concept of qi (Chi); As a mystical term, Manitou can mean an aspect of the balance of nature. The Cherokee named this entity “Ouga”, which literally means creator, whereas, the First Nation Tribes simply called it “the Creator”.
As I stated above, each of these tribes believed that the Great Spirit represented itself as many spiritual deities. An example of some of these names are “Above Old Man”, “Spider of Heaven”, “Sky Chief”. Being represented as masculine and feminine. Each tribe having their own legends of interaction with the Great Spirit. I believe that the Great Spirit is all of these deities and they are the Great Spirit. I believe that these Native’s had a very natural, spiritual relationship with the Universal Consciousness; And the Universal Consciousness or “Great Spirit” can represent itself in any manner necessary for it’s intentions.
The Natives used stories and oral legends to educate their children of the Great Spirit’s nature. An example of this would be the story of “The Strawberry and Blackberry”. The story goes something like this; The Great Spirit created man and women and they lived in happiness for a time. But as husbands and wives have done ever since, they soon began to quarrel. The wife leaves the husband and sets off walking toward "the setting sun". The Great Spirit sees that the man is unhappy and creates berries along her path; she ignores the huckleberries, cherries and blackberries along the way. Then The Great Spirit creates strawberries and the woman stops to gather some and the man is able to catch up to her, they share the strawberries and they return home together. In these legends, you will find, these stories express the nature of the Great Spirit. Every story teaches a prophetic message of their own. Stories of morality and emotion. Stories that resonate with the concepts of Karma and Qi (Chi).
It saddens me to know that the Native American peoples’ were deprived of so much. Can you imagine if they were left alone and given an opportunity to grow. What would a community with such strong moral values and wisdom of common ground become if given a chance to prosper. As I will explore, many Indigenous civilizations had similar encounters with European, spanish and even Roman invaders. These communities shared many fundamental, spiritual, principles with Native Americans. I ask that you take a moment to reflect on these people’s lives and be conscious of the loss to our world.
http://www.ladyslipperpress.org/star-songs-and-water-spirits-a-great-lakes-native-reader/ - Chief Mononcue quotes.
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