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Trackers in Snow Buy From Art.com

The cold of December is a time for storytelling and teaching. A time to learn about Indian thoughts that perhaps you never knew before. With his lifestyle being so close to nature, the Indian's keen imagination supplied him with exciting supernatural beliefs. Today, such things are blandly overlooked in our computerized society.

When the world turns white, let the beauty of the snowflakes remind you that in the Indians' world, snow was the magical creation of 'The Cold Maker' who would come upon them riding a white horse in the midst of the snowstorm. This isn't hard to imagine if you have ever been in the middle of a real blizzard.

The wind was thought of by many to be the breath of their ancestors bringing messages of remembrance, or possibly as a warning of impending danger. There were others who looked upon the wind as the way messages were sent by the Great Spirit.

The Blackfeet had an entirely different version of the wind. They believed that the wind was caused by a giant animal that lived deep in the mountains. When the creature wiggled his ears, the wind would blow.

Treasure hunters still look into springs in the hope of finding Indian artefacts because many tribes believed that bad spirits lived beneath the earth's waters. Believers would throw gifts into the water to appease them.

We all have seen the Thunderbird design, but are you aware of its origin? The name speaks for itself. Of all the phenomenon of nature, thunder was of most frightening to the Indians. They imagined it to be a great bird whose eyes flashed the lightening, the rumbling caused by its great, flapping wings.

The sun was thought to be a man. His daily crossing gave light and warmth to Mother Earth so the food she gave them would grow and be plentiful. The moon was looked upon as an old woman, yet she was the wife of the sun. The morning star was their son.

Animals also had their spiritual meanings to the Indians. The most revered to the Plains People was the buffalo. Its usefulness to the Indian was plainly shown in the name given to it by the Blackfeet. They called it Ni-ai, meaning "My shelter and my protection." Nothing can be closer than that.

Scientists avow that we are far more learned today, but as our lives daily become more and more factual, are we truly that much better off? Sadly, a beautiful part of our life is rapidly disappearing that may never be regained. Grandmother Two Bears

Prayer to the Spirit of a Buffalo Joseph Sharp Buy From Art.com

This story and many mores stories are now available in the new book The Story Teller by Grandmother Two Bears. To order the Grandmother Two Bears book, use the following button.

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