Voices of Our Ancestors

From Honoring Earth and Spirit
Special to SeeingBlack.com

How do you keep the connection to your ancestors? Talk about spirituality here.

With many of us hearing the voices of our ancestors urging us back to the old ways, comes the question of how to do this. For many of us it has been four or five generations since we knew our creation stories and our clan affiliation. How can we get back that which is lost?

Believe it or not, there are ways to bring it back. Our people know that the ancestors are not relegated to some far-off place, waiting helplessly for us to come to them. They come to us often when needed and carry with them vital information, warnings and encouragement.
What we need to do is learn how to listen for them and hear what they have to say.

I am going to give you a list of things to do that will help you on your journey back. This list is not all there is, but you can add more to it and pass it along.

1. Study the language of your people. Teach it to your children, speak it at home as much as possible.

2. Set aside one night a week for story telling, learn the creation stories of your ancestors.

3. On weekends, take a nature walk. Learn how to study plants. Learn to identify one plant and study how your people used it for medicine or food, and how they prepared it.

4. Study your ancestor’s crafts and learn to make some of them. It's a great way to form a connection between past and present.

5. Take every opportunity to spend time with your people. If you belong to a Band or a Tribe, be active in it.

6. Learn your own history, do not be fooled by the White man's version of events. Your ancestors were here for thousands of years before the White man came, and they enjoyed a much higher evolved society than exists today. Learn it. Respect it. Live it. No one can stop you from being who you are.

7. Remember the seventh generation in all you do. The decisions you make and the actions you take today will still be felt seven generations from now. Walk gently on Earth for she is our mother.

8. And while you may not know who your seventh great-grandfather was, he sure knows who you are. Live your life in such a way as to make him proud.

— November 10, 2004

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