The Important Role of Stories
"The important role that stories played and continue to play in American Indian communities can be seen by considering the place stories held and still hold in the lives of the Western Apaches. In the old days, stories were just as important as shelter building, hunting, and ceremonies. They taught people about every aspect of the world and also showed the right way to behave. Coyote stories showed children the consequences of wrong actions, while funny stories and stories about otherwise taboo topics provided them with what the anthropologist Morris Opler called a 'cultural safety valve.' "
— Our Stories Remember
Thank the Water
" 'Every morning when I get up to get a drink of water from the sink, I always remember to thank the water.' Those words were spoken to me thirty years ago by Dewasentah, an Onondaga Clan Mother who was always reminding me of the sacred relationship that exists between all things and the responsibility we humans have to acknowledge that relationship."
— Our Stories Remember
The Redistribution of Wealth in Potlach
"The potlatch ceremonies found among many of the Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest have been referred to as "fighting with wealth" by anthropologists who describe potlatch ceremonies in which a prominent figure tries to outdo a rival by either giving away or destroying vast amounts of personal possessions. . . . It could be said that while the accumulation of personal wealth is a desirable social norm in mainstream American culture, just the opposite is true in American Indian cultures. . . . At its best, a potlatch was a way to redistribute material wealth, rather than leaving it in the hands of a few."
— Our Stories Remember
Deception on a Large Scale
"The white man told me
to bow my head and pray.
And while I did this
they took my land away."
— Our Stories Remember
The Strange Dependence on Clocks
"They began to observe how the French used their clocks and saw that the clocks told them when they should sleep and wake up. This was strange, since Abenakis slept when it was dark and woke when the light of the sun returned. Clocks also told the French when they should eat their meals. Equally strange, for the Abenakis ate when they were hungry. Clocks even told the French when they should pray. This was the strangest thing of all, for Abenakis prayed whenever they wished to express their thanks to Ktsi Nwaskw, the Great Mystery, and that was often and at any time of the day."
— At the End of Ridge Road
Through the Eye of the Heart
" 'Through the eye of the heart.' Those are the words in Lakota used to describe a way of seeing that is good and true. . . . The spiritual and symbolic place of the heart is just as central to the many different American Indian cultures as the physical heart is within the body of a human being. When the heart is in the right place, when a person is in true alignment with everything that is touched by the heartbeat, then there is true balance and peace. All things are equal and related to one another. It is a very democratic thing, that vision of the heart. I have heard it said, in fact, that the heart of a good chief beats with the heart of the people. The heart of the chief is in the center of the circle of the nation. So the good chief is like the heart in that he works for everyone, not just for himself."
— Our Stories Remember
A Spiritual Practice with Clocks
"When I walk into the woods here at the end of Ridge Road, I remove my watch. So for a time, the time of this story, I ask you to do the same. Take off your watch. Step back — or forward — into story time. And remember the simple native truth that even though every story has a beginning, it doesn't have to travel in a straight line."
— At the End of Ridge Road
The Sacred Shape of Circles
"The circle is, I've been told by native elders from several continents, one of the oldest and strongest shapes. It is the most sacred shape in creation and is itself a mirror of the natural world. The earth is round, as are the sun and the moon. The progression of all things — the passing of the seasons, or the great cycle of water, moving from earth and rivers, from lakes and oceans, to the seas, then to the skies, then back again as rain — is a circle. When we live our lives in a balanced fashion upon the earth, we too move in a circle. Begin at one point of the circle and continue walking it. Eventually it will bring you around again. It is not a shape that excludes, but one that draws together and connects. After all, when we gather in a circle we can all see each other's faces."
— At the End of Ridge Road
Hurry Sickness
"If your mind is in the wrong place, if you are angry or confused or in a hurry, the medicine plants will hide from you. You cannot hear the medicine voice.
"An Abenaki friend of mine went to get sweetgrass from a spot near the road where her late father had planted it years ago. She was in a hurry to get there and get back. She parked the car, got out, and wandered around for an hour trying to find the sweetgrass. Finally, sadly, she concluded that someone had pulled it all up or it had been killed by the road crews spreading salt. But when she told her mother about it, her mother's response was "Get the car." The two of them went back, and my friend parked right where she had been before. Her mother got out first. "Look here," her mother said. There was the sweetgrass, growing right next to the car."
— Our Stories Remember
