Sharing wisdom makes children healthy adults

Page 7

I have Spoken

Living in harmony and respect for our Mother Earth is the key to survival as far as I'm concerned. You will see Native people placing tobacco at the foot of a tree or willow or any other plant before they cut or dig it up. I saw this being done when I was a child. My mother would sometimes take plants for medicine when she needed them. She would always place tobacco where she removed the plant. I am always grateful that I went along with her on these plant gathering trips. I am always very thankful that some of our older people refused to give up our old ways. I know that is has been hard to hang onto our spiritual ways. We were always put down wherever we went. In fact, we had to hide if we were going to have a ceremony. The faith and belief in our Creator allowed our elders to persist and not give up. Now we have powwows, sweat lodges, round dances and other ceremonies all because our elders refused to let go. I do not believe that our way

of life will ever again have to suffer the way we did. We are becoming stronger than ever these days.

We have gained a lot in the past few years. We now have a few places where we can go to be alone with our Creator and do our ceremonies. It has not been easy trying to teach our younger people the way of the people and the respect we have to have for Mother Earth and all things that are in our environment. Native people made sure that the children were well taken care of. The children were taught that they had to learn about respect and living with other forms of life. All living things have a right to live on Mother Earth just as we have. Our children were with grandparents much of the time. They also spent time with their uncles and aunts. These relatives all had different things to teach the children. As a result of this, you would have a well developed personality. The education that the young person got, he would not forget. People think this is right.

Parents and the immediate family all worked together with their children. There was much wisdom in the way they taught their children. They did not have to force the young people to learn. The young people wanted to learn. The teaching was done in

such a way that much of the learning was a pleasure. There was also a lot of love and attention devoted to the young people. They did not need a kind of law to live by. A

well developed young man did not have to get into trouble because he was responsible

and did not need anything. When he needed something, it was no problem getting it.

The immigrants brought their modern technology and so-called progress and now we

are having a difficult time trying to bring back the wisdom we once had. I have spoken.