Real Spirit of our American Past

OUR INDIAN FOREFATHERS

He was the son of the sky, the brother of the eagle, the cousin of the puma, the father of wildlife. She was the daughter of nature, the sister of the moon, the mother of the future. They were Indians, the parents of the American land we love. The came 1,000 or 2,000 years before the white man, and they lived a hard life on the land. It was a pure life, very simple as we look back. They had few concerns, food and lodging, and from many foods, came their clothing too, and from their children, came the future for their survival. They lived on dusty plains, in deep woods, and in pueblos. When they moved, they took their teepee with them they walked or rode horses. They ate and wore what they killed. They only took what was needed. The Indians were conservationists and honored mother earth.

They were a pure people, with beliefs. God was everywhere to them, with no fear of seeing Him in nature, nor fear of honoring and appeasing Him. The wind carried away their dead from the funeral pyres. The hawk brought their young to the squaw. Life was good. They had in place the golden rule, and they honored their parents. They shared what they worked for, so there was no need to steal. They tithed and supported their medicine man, the one who treated their ills and talked to the gods in their behalf. Their stress might have been heat or cold, old age, or injury. Their life was hard, it was short, but they were alive. Every moment, every sense, it was alive. They relied on ability for survival, and the needy were just that, and cared about.

Every breath was clean air, they didn't have to squint through haze. They saw the work of the finger of God, as He painted the green forests, dug the rivers through the land, pushed the buffalo herds towards them. He pointed the way to fields to grow their maize, and where the fish would be abundant. He gave them fire, and how to harness it for life.

It sounds like a grand life, however, we today would suffer, if we tried to live it. We saw and dreamed of being a Jeremiah Johnson as we viewed the movie, but in reality, our life could not handle the life of our brothers from the days of our ancestors who hunted and gathered.

For hundreds of years, life was good, and life was simple. There was no race between tribes to be better than each other, not as we know it. As I stood next to the Cross Mound in Tarlton, Ohio I was in awe of the past, but I'm wondering if they knew then, what they know now, if we'd have a Columbus Day.




Jim - Written on September 22nd, 2003