COURSE 23
NATIVE AMERICAN TEACHINGS AND SPIRITUALITY

Notice to all students attending the 2009 Native American Week
David Little Elk will not be joining us on this course, but watch this space for new speaker.

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of the forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers; he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.....

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round....The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.....

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

Black Elk (Oglala) 1863 - 1950

Native American Teachings and Spirituality week is about touching the traditions, and values of our ancient and modern native peoples. We take a small step back in time to try to re-capture the deep spirituality, respect and honour that native people gave the Earth, Animals, and all of nature as part of their every day existence.

Among all tribes there is a strong sense that behind all individual spirits and personifications of the divine, there is a single creative life-force, sometime called "the great mystery", which expresses itself throughout the universe, in every human, animal, tree and grain of sand. Every story, too, is a working out of this life-force.