The spirit of a Native American is a simple lifestyle with a committed relationship to all things living withinthe aspects of our planet earth. A commitment to our sole oneness with our Great Creator above. A commitment in the terms of a whole connection to our being, to our Families, our Clans, our Elders, our Council, our Culture and our Heritage. A simple conversation of our Honor, our Love and our Respect.

We have in one country, a unity of wholeness, a bonding brotherhood and sisterhood amongst our people, one that supercedes the debates of how we came to being. This unity, is a clear understanding in our eyes, one that shows the importance of keeping our Tradition and Heritage passed from one generation to the next with teachings of values, respect, love, honor, the Mother Earth, our Elders, our Council and all things relative in nature. In all, educating all people the necessity of the culture and of our native land.

Our spirituality, our religion to most, is one with the highest respect and reciprocal actions towards all who live within this planet we call our Mother Earth. She is our life giver of all and is due our honor and respect as we have become the caretakers who have been passed down the knowledge of preservation and care of our native lands. To take what is only needed and no more, is a simple and effective basic rule that respects and values all living things that are placed on this planet for our use.

We know of one supreme being, one that we know little of or know the exact name for. We have come to call this being as our Great Creator, our Great Spirit, our Great Mystery. He can bring on the good or the bad, the success or the failure. Nothing is undertaken without a prayer to our Great Creator for assistance. We light our sacred pipe and the first whiffs of smoke are blown directly to him. When food is eaten, a small portion is thrown into our fires or placed on the ground as our respect and honor to him. This is a belief towards what is the right path in the following of our hearts and the good in all. The simplicity to honor our Great Creator is as easy as opening the back door, offering our smoke, our prayers , and listening to the response.

Our love for our land is that of a respected love, one that generates a deep rooted calling to care, plant and nurture the existence of this earth and of the people. These are the protocols of the dedications in the fight of survival. It’s in fact an instinct that we connect ourselves to this very meaning which brings forth the life that is expected of us to continue to live.

Native American is native to our own country, to our own laws, our own clans, our own customs, our own beliefs and of our own languages. Our freedom is to walk on this earth bounty, barefooted and run atop a hillside honoring our Grandfather sun who lights the pathways of our travels and who brings forth another new day. Our talks is our pride in the teachings of our wise elders, the stories of our ancient ancestors who stood on our land and defended her with honor.

Our prayers are of our hearts that are heard by the Great Creator who returns good gifts and sends messages so we may live together in peace. Our ancient ceremonies are of togetherness, our bonding of bloodlines of all clans, and of our dances who have many spirits that join together in the greatest connection.

It is of our medicine for which we hold close as our spiritual beings, for they produce valuable healing in the forms of barks, roots and leaves. Our medicine men and women healers, who are also wise ones receive no payment for their services when they are called upon to heal our sick or give us wise teachings. It is of relationship and spiritual connection with the animal creation who in turn gives us their flesh and bodies for our food and clothing and who swiftly aid in the carrying of our messages to our Great Creator. It’s of the symbolic attributes of these relations that we have a spiritual connection with.

Our faith in the Great Creator has allowed us to openly express in silence our oneness in purity, in honesty, and in peace for every new day. For we have no priests, no temples, no churches, no idols, no sacrifices that have us come together with our Great Creator. We have no specific day of the week to take part in our togetherness with the Great Creator, for everyday in a person’s life is thanked. The creatures, the four-legged, the winged, the mineral, the plants are all thanked in a way in everyday that exists for us, for they too belong to the Great Creator, bringing us teachings and messages and deserve our respect.

Native American is the humbling of oneself to clearly see and believe the common string that runs through us all, to listen and follow the guidance and messages of our Great Creator, our Mother Earth and our wise Elders, for they have come to us in many forms.