Seeking American Indian Spirituality

“American Indian spirituality is not evangelistic. It is private and entirely cultural. You cannot convert to 'Native American' any more than you can convert to being black. The only way to 'join' a Native American spiritual tradition is to become a member of the cultural group, and it's impossible to do that over the Internet. No one who truly believed in American Indian spirituality would ever offer to tutor total strangers in religious matters online, much less charge anyone money for such a thing. So, by definition, the people who make these offers are those who either don't really believe in Native American spirituality, or 

don't know very much about it. Is that really who you want to be listening to?

Many followers of Native American spirituality do not regard their spiritual beliefs and practices as a "religion" in the way in which many Christians do. Their beliefs and practices form an integral and seamless part of their very being.” 

                 --From the homepage of Orrin Lewis (Osiyo), a member of the Cherokee people

Quotes from Chief Seattle (1786-1866)

1.  Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to our selves, all things are bound together. All things connect.

2. Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.

3. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds.

4. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things are the same breath - the animals, the trees, the man.

5. Tribe follows tribe, nations follow nations like the tides of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.

6. The whites, too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you might suffocate in your own waste.

7. Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts.

8. We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.