Native American Prayers, Poems, and Legends


Book Description

This is a book of spiritual writings from Native Americans. It contains Native American prayers, poems, and tribal legends. I have compiled and edited these selections from a vast collection of American Indian writings. I hope this special edition gives you insights into the spirit and culture of Native America.




American Indian Prayers & Poetry


Book Description

A collection of poetry and prayers reflecting the beliefs of the American Indians which have been handed down for many generations.




Meditations with the Navajo


Book Description

A collection of stories, poems, and meditations that illuminate the spiritual world of the Navajo. • Explores the Navajo's fundamental belief in the importance of harmony and balance in the world. • Shares Navajo healing ways that have been handed down for generations. • Includes meditations following each story or poem. Navajo myths are among the most poetic in the world, full of dazzling word imagery. For the Navajo, who call themselves the Dine (literally, "the People"), the story of emergence--their creation myth--lies at the heart of their beliefs. In it, all the world is created together, both gods and human beings, embodying the idea that change comes from within rather than without. Poet and author Gerald Hausman collects this and other stories with meditations that together capture the essence of the Navajo people's way of life and their understanding of the world. Here are myths of the Holy People, of Changing Woman who teaches the People how to live, and of the trickster Coyote; stories of healings performed by stargazers and hand tremblers; and songs of love, marriage, homecoming, and growing old. These and the meditations that follow each story reveal a world--our world--that thrives only on harmony and balance and shares the Dine belief that the most important point on the circle that has no beginning or end is where we stand at the moment.




Walking With Spirits Native American Myths, Legends, And Folklore


Book Description

Before the time of books, computers, tablets and recording devices, the history of many cultures was passed down, from person to person, by word of mouth. The rich histories of so many people were told in songs, chants, poems and stories. This was the way of Native American tribes. Each in its own way enriching their stories with their own experiences. By reliving these stories and songs, we have the opportunity to bring life back to the ancient spirits that created them. We have a chance to walk with the spirits of the past.  Being there were so many different tribes with countless beliefs and customs, the only way to understand their ways is through understanding their stories. In this book you will understand the Native American people a little better and see where they have come from and what they can offer the world. By exploring these stories offered you will get a glimpse into an often forgotten past. These stories are given to you, to carry forward for younger generations to explore and learn. Included in Volume One are the stories: Origin of the Pleiades, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, Grandmother Spider Steals the Fire, White Bead Woman, The Origin of Corn, The Hunter and Selu, Myth of the White Buffalo Woman, The Origin of Eternal Death, How Coyote Stole Fire, The Lame Warrior, The Story of Hungry Wolf, Origin of the Sweat Lodge, The Legend of the Cherokee Rose, Contents of the Medicine Bag, Raven's Medicine, The First Fire, Origin Of Disease And Medicine, The Daughter Of The Sun, The Journey To The Sunrise, Why The Mole Lives Underground, The Terrapin's Escape From The Wolves, Origin Of The Groundhog Dance, The Haunted Whirlpool, The Man In The Stump, The Mother Bear's Song and many, many more. You are invited to go Walking With Spirits.




Golden UFOs


Book Description

In 1898 Tahirassawichi went to Washington "only to speak about religion" (as he told the American government) only to preserve the prayers. And the Capitol did not impress him." --from "Tahirassawichi in Washington" Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan poet, priest, and revolutionary, foresees a new order for humanity. Here in his Indian poems, Father Cardenal interweaves myth, legend, history, and contemporary reality to speak to many subjects, including the assaults on the Iroquois Nation, the political and cultural life of ancient Mexico, the Ghost Dance movement, the disappearance of the buffalo, U.S. policy during the Vietnam War, and human rights in Central America. Each text is rich with history, poetry, and spiritual insight. This bilingual edition is the only complete collection of Father Cardenal's Indian poems in either Spanish or English. Cardenal has checked and approved the translations and the glossary of cultural and historical referents. "Of epic proportions... The literal translation conveys the epigrammic style and didactic, political message.... Of timely interest." --Library Journal "Priest and Nicaraguan revolutionary as well as poet, Cardenal epitomizes what makes literature live in Central America today. His poems are both sonorous and accessible, political and mystical." --Booklist "... a spectacular work..." --Books of the South West




Yaqui Myths and Legends


Book Description

Sixty-one tales narrated by Yaquis reflect this people's sense of the sacred and material value of their territory.




Mala of the Heart


Book Description

This collection of timeless poetry celebrates the eternal spiritual truth within each heart. Since ancient times, this hidden essence has been symbolized by the number 108. There are 108 earthly desires, 108 human feelings, 108 delusions, 108 beads in the traditional meditation mala, and 108 sacred poems in this anthology. Filled with crystalline wisdom from the great poets, sages, saints, and mystics, this selection of poems is a collective expression of universal heart-filled wisdom. The poems span a wide range of cultures and civilizations — from India to Europe, Japan, and the Middle East — and each one offers a unique perspective about the path to awakening. Some of the poems express belief in a higher being. Some convey instantaneous awakening. Others lead the reader down a disciplined path of contemplation. Ordered according to a broad interpretation of the heart-centered chakra model, these remarkable poems guide the reader toward realization and offer timeless jewels of insight to spark awakening and enrich spiritual practice.




The Cambridge History of Native American Literature


Book Description

Native American literature has always been uniquely embattled. It is marked by divergent opinions about what constitutes authenticity, sovereignty, and even literature. It announces a culture beset by paradox: simultaneously primordial and postmodern; oral and inscribed; outmoded and novel. Its texts are a site of political struggle, shifting to meet external and internal expectations. This Cambridge History endeavors to capture and question the contested character of Indigenous texts and the way they are evaluated. It delineates significant periods of literary and cultural development in four sections: “Traces & Removals” (pre-1870s); “Assimilation and Modernity” (1879-1967); “Native American Renaissance” (post-1960s); and “Visions & Revisions” (21st century). These rubrics highlight how Native literatures have evolved alongside major transitions in federal policy toward the Indian, and via contact with broader cultural phenomena such, as the American Civil Rights movement. There is a balance between a history of canonical authors and traditions, introducing less-studied works and themes, and foregrounding critical discussions, approaches, and controversies.




The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky


Book Description

Introducing a dramatic new chapter to American Indian literary history, this book brings to the public for the first time the complete writings of the first known American Indian literary writer, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (her English name) or Bamewawagezhikaquay (her Ojibwe name), Woman of the Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky (1800-1842). Beginning as early as 1815, Schoolcraft wrote poems and traditional stories while also translating songs and other Ojibwe texts into English. Her stories were published in adapted, unattributed versions by her husband, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, a founding figure in American anthropology and folklore, and they became a key source for Longfellow's sensationally popular The Song of Hiawatha. As this volume shows, what little has been known about Schoolcraft's writing and life only scratches the surface of her legacy. Most of the works have been edited from manuscripts and appear in print here for the first time. The Sound the Stars Make Rushing Through the Sky presents a collection of all Schoolcraft's extant writings along with a cultural and biographical history. Robert Dale Parker's deeply researched account places her writings in relation to American Indian and American literary history and the history of anthropology, offering the story of Schoolcraft, her world, and her fascinating family as reinterpreted through her newly uncovered writing. This book makes available a startling new episode in the history of American culture and literature.




Seven Arrows


Book Description