How feather came to the Sioux... the Eagle
This story was told to Mr. Iron Wing as a child. It tells how the eagle feather came into the path of those who sought to become human beings. He continues to pass it on as that is the way of his people. It has passed on to his people thru generation after generation and he is passing on to you.
Long ago when the people were beginning to gain the consciousness of a human being and knowing by this they were part of the Great Mystery, a Sioux man with the name of a seeker set out on a vision quest so that he may learn of this Mystery that surrounds his people.
He sat for six days. The people in his band had talked many times before and they wondered out loud what is the meaning of life.
Contemplating these things each day he asked over and again about where they sat and what their existence meant. He created ideas and explanations, tested them and remade them many times over looking into this Great Mystery. He looked at himself and he questioned. He saw there within himself was the animal who did not to care at times, never thinking of his children never planning for the future that lay down the road.
He thought of these things and he sought their meaning.
When he awoke on the seventh day he observed an eagle flying high in the sky. He watched that eagle turn circles slowly rising becoming a tiny speck but he could see it straighten it's flight and glide without effort faster than any living thing could for miles and miles through the sky, turn and on easy wing beats rise even higher. Again and again this happened while the seeker watched the bird in it's mastery of the air which lay as as a nourishing soup over the great rolling expanse of Mother Earth.
Then the magnificent bird disappeared into the heights where no man had ever traveled above, land and water. He called out to the eagle,
"Where have you gone, where do you journey? You fly so high that you leave this world behind!"
Then to his amazement the eagle reappeared. It glided in a path directly toward him. Unswerving it only grew bigger and bigger, wings outstretched until it was upon him where he sat. Flying over his head. It dropped a single feather and then disappeared. The feather turned easy circles falling gently to the earth before the man.
When the seeker knelt and picked up the eagle's feather a voice came from within him and said, "Hold this eagle feather to the sky. Sing your heart's thoughts to your relatives who have come before you and the eagle will carry your thoughts to them. All the children that inhabit your world are my children. They will carry your questions to me. By this way you may begin to understand the mystery of life."
The voice strong and sure continued to speak, "But know this, I give to you the eagle, it's feather and the vision to make the connection to me. Teach the people that only on the seventh day is the vision granted for that is the day of creation and purification."
A wind from nowhere blew the seeker's hair across his face while the voice spoke again, "I also give others who inhabit Mother Earth their religious symbols that they may use to communicate with me. Let this be the first journey, let your people seek the vision as you have so that they may learn to communicate with their spirits. By communicating with them they communicate with my children and me."
This was the first religious symbol of the Sioux.
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