Circle of Life by Chief White Cloud Talatawi
Man has a poor understanding of life. He mistakes knowledge for wisdom. He tries to unveil the Holy secrets of our Father, the Great Spirit. He attempts to impose his laws and ways on Mother Earth. Even though he, himself, is a part of nature, he chooses to disregard and ignore it for the sake of his own immediate gain.
But the laws of nature are far stronger than those of mankind. Man must awake at last, and learn to understand how little time there remains before he will become the cause of his own downfall. And he has so much to learn. To learn to see with the heart. He must learn to respect Mother Earth – she who has given life to everything; to our brothers and sisters, the animals and plants, to the rivers, the lakes, the oceans and the winds.
He must realise that this planet does not belong to him; but that he has to care for and maintain the delicate balance of nature for the sake of the well-being of our children and of all future generations. It is the duty of man to preserve the Earth and the Creation of the Great Spirit. Mankind being but a grain of sand in the Holy circle which encloses all of life.
Your religious calling was written on plates of stone by the flaming finger of an angry God. Our religion was established by the traditions of our ancestors, the dreams of our elders that are given to us in the silent hours of the night the great spirit, and the premonitions of the learned beings. it is written in the hearts of our people, thus we do not require churches – which would only lead us to argue about god. We do not wish this. earthly things may be argued about with men, but we never argue over God. And the thought that men should rule over nature was never understood by us.
Our belief is that the Great Spirit has created all things, not just mankind, but all animals, all plants, all rocks … all on Earth and amongst the stars, with true soul. For us all life is sacred. But you do not understand our prayers when we address the sun, moon and winds.
You have judged us without understanding, only because our prayers are different. But we are able to live in harmony with all nature. All of nature is within us and we are part of all nature.
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