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“Native
American healing through Prayer” Taken from Articles written for Wellness Magazine and from
Excerpts of the TIPI
Seminars held at: Mr.
J. Reuben Silverbird, |
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One
of the things I’m asked the most in the question and answer part
of my Seminars is: “How do I pray? It sounds like logical question
to me because people wonder how Indians, who were not supposed to have
a religion, pray. My answer is not by all means short, because prayers
are very important to Indians. If we had followed the rule that the Europeans
brought with them when they landed on our shores, the first thing would
be to build a huge tipi in the middle of our Villages, put a cross at
the top to show everybody that this was the place where we were to come
every Sunday and pray. |
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| We
would go about our daily work: break the ground, plant the seed, go on
the hunt and on Sunday we would listen to the preacher and hear his sermon
that he brought with him in a book called the holy bible. We would sit
and say very little while he spoke to us and at times turn and thank the
Creator for everything, always referring some passage from the holy bible
that was written several thousand years ago. |
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For
a time, Indians in America were very confused about this way of praying.
To begin with, we could not understand how the Spaniards could bring a
cross with someone nailed to it. You have to remember that at that time
Indians were not supposed to be civilized. Yet in our uncivilized manner,
we could not understand why the European kept telling us this was a good
person on the cross. If someone is so good, why carry his image on a cross
to show people that had never experienced such cruelty. Keep in mind that
there were many of the Southwestern Pueblo People that were intelligent
enough to have cities dating back to 100BC, like Acoma and Hotvilla, Hopi
city. And they were settled with their own religious beliefs. Indians
prayed every day. |
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| The
moment they opened their eyes they thanked the Creator for being alive
and for being able to enjoy another beautiful day. Giving thanks to the
Creator was a matter of respect for Mother Earth. The Indian believes
that everything on Mother Earth has life, and when anything is removed
from Mother Earth, something is brought as an offering in its place, always
accompanied by a prayer of thanks. The prayer can vary slightly. Prayer
is never read from a text, for the Creator is our friend, and if, by now,
after praying to Him all of our life, we don’t know Him well enough
to be able to speak honestly and freely, well then, we don’t really
know Him at all. Our prayer is mostly talk between our friend who already
knows what we’re going to say anyway, because, after all, He Created
us and therefore knows everything we say before we say it, so why try
to hide. This brings up a very good point. An Indian, unless the individual
is a Coyote, who is a Trickster, will seldom lie to you unless the individual
has been exposed to the white world enough |
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 Just because you read a book on spiritualism does not make you a spiritual authority, or does it give you the powerful energy that comes with it. Most
spiritual leaders are born, or come from an ancestry of Medicine Men or
Women, It
is not an easy course or path for a young child to take, for it takes
much  |
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