Black Hills Sun Rise © Pinterest
The Indian viewed the sun
as the greatest symbol of the Spirit he worshiped and always placed
the opening of his tepee toward the east,
where it first appeared in the morning. He did not worship the sun or set aside
certain days specifically for devotion. His belief was integrated into his
daily life, which it had to be, with his god always presente and manifest in
all things.
Gifted as the White man is with imagination and perception, and
sometimes with compassion, he has never been able to understand why the Indians
fought so fiercely to retain the Black
Hills that rose in rugged outline above the grassy plains in the Dakota
Territory. The Sioux believed that the
Great Spirit had his abode in these hills even as the gods of ancient
Greece lived on Mount Olympus. This belief had been etched in their
consciousness throught centuries. From where they lived in the land of the tal grass,
they could see the Thunder Bird hovering above the high peaks, conjuring rain
and snow storms. They knew that spirits lived in the caves, and roamed among
the forests of this Paradise where they worshiped.
(…)
Pictures painted on the walls of the caves up there were
interpreted by the holy men as a guide on how to live. They were looked upon as
the mystic language of the Great Spirit.
The springs that gushed from the cliffs and formed into pools were
put there for man’s use. They were the tears of the Great Spirit, and
the healing waters were magic to the sick, the injured and crippled who went
there for help; and where they often recovered miraculously. They filled their
buffalo horns and rawhide bags with the healing water, and carried it back to
their homes for the sick and those who were too old to journey to the waters.
Other tribes went to the wilderness health resort, and the Sioux
did not molest them when they pitched their tepees, for they knew that no one
would dare remain as permanent guests. The
Great Spirit would punish them, or
the Thunder Bird would wash them away in a flood. They hunted the deer and the
elk and the bear which had been placed there in abundance by the Creator to provide meat and fur for
his children.
The chiefs of the Sioux and other tribes held councils in the caves,
and the medicine men went there often to commune, and refresh and replenish their
belief and reverence.
[FOX, 1971: 10-12]
Thunder Bird © South Dakota Ancient Art
To presente this god as Nature is like trying to imobilize a wave
by driving a nail into it. The Indian was aware of the statutes written in the
Book of Nature, meaning that gave him reverence and serenity; but the Great Spirit was something he could
not see. It existed only in symbology and in the invisible outposts of his
consciousness. His concept of divinity was inconceivable to the strict
religionists who came to his landed Paradise in 1492.
There were many peaks in the Black Hills never climbed by the old time Indians because there was a strong belief that it was visited by the Thunder Bird.
Legend further adds that whenever the Thunder Bird stopped it caused much lightning and thunder in the Black Hills.
My mother tells this story about my grandfather as he had told it to her when she was a child.
Many years ago many Sioux Indians went into the Black Hills to gather lodge poles for their tepees and wild fruits.
They camped at foot of a Hill. While the others Indians were sleeping he walked away and climbed to the top of the hill.
He raised his hands to the heavens above and prayed to the Mighty Spirit to watch over his children and their children to give them power, strenght and good health to guide in peace or war.
[FOX, 1971: 194-195]
REFERÊNCIA
BIBLIOGRÁFICA
FOX, Chief Red. The
Memoirs of Chief Red Fox. USA: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 3ª ed., 1971,
pp. 210.
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