Prairie Smoke, a Collection of Lore of the Prairies. Gilmore Melvin Randolph

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СКАЧАТЬ disk hanging in the sky, while the air was redolent with an indescribable tang. Again, it brings to mind the wisps of smoke which once curled upward in the quiet summer air from stovepipes projecting from the roofs of prairie sodhouses, or which on snowy winter mornings hung above them like thin white scarfs against a vast background of blue overhanging a white world.

      It will bring to mind also other days and other scenes of this same prairie country, when there might be seen wreaths of smoke issuing from the domes of the hemispherical-shaped houses of villages of Mandans, Pawnees, or Omahas, upon the hills and river terraces, their laboriously tilled cornfields and gardens in the fertile alluvial valleys near by. Or, again, it will recall the scene of an encampment of some of these people out upon the prairie on a buffalo hunt in quest of their meat supply. The encampment is a circle of conical tents, a circle of perhaps a half mile in diameter. Before each tent the evening fire is twinkling in the dusk upon the green of the prairie, a circle of friendly lights, each the centre of a family group, while a few stars begin to twinkle in the blue of the sky above, and the sunset colours glow in the horizon.

      Some or all of these sights and scents, and others also, will present themselves according to the experience of the one who comprehends the title “Prairie Smoke.”

      So it is hoped that to each one who reads this little volume it may indeed be as a “wisp of prairie smoke,” and shall bring a real savour of the prairie and at least a slight realisation of what the Prairie was before it was swept by the destructive Fires of Change.

      Land and People

      NATURE AND HEALTH

      The philosophy of health and wholesomeness of the native Americans, the Indians, was to live in accordance with nature and by coming as much as possible into direct physical contact with the elements in nature, such as the sunshine, the rain and snow, the air and earth. They felt the need and desire to be in frequent and immediate contact with “Mother Earth,” to receive upon their persons the strong rays of the sun, the restorative efficacy of the winds from the clean sky, and to bathe daily in living streams.

      The priest of a certain ritual of the Pawnee nation visited Washington. He admired the Washington monument as he viewed it from the capitol. When he went over to visit the monument he measured the dimensions of its base by pacing; then he stood up and gazed toward its summit, noting its height. Then he went inside; but when he was asked whether he would walk up the stairway or go on the lift, he said: “I will not go up. White men like to pile up stones, and they may go to the top of them; I will not. I have ascended the mountains made by Tirawa.” (Tirawa is the Pawnee name of God.)

      Some years ago Mr. Louis J. Hill took a party of people of the Blackfoot tribe to New York City as his guests. They were interested in the sight of the great engineering feats as manifested in the great structures of the city. But they were unwilling to be cooped up in the rooms of the hotel, so they made arrangements to be allowed to set up their tents upon the hotel roof so that they might at least have the natural sunlight and the outdoor air.

      In an ancient Pawnee ritual there is a hymn which begins with the words, “Now behold; hither comes the ray of our father Sun; it cometh over all the land, passeth in the lodge, us to touch and give us strength.” And in another stanza of this hymn, referring to the passing of the sun, it continues, “Now behold where has passed the ray of our father Sun; around the lodge the ray has passed and left its blessing there, touching us, each one of us.”

      So it was ever the aim to live in accord with nature, to commune often with nature. A word of admonition from the wisdom lore of the Menomini tribe says, “Look often at the moon and the stars.” And the Winnebagoes have a wise saying: “Holy Mother Earth, the trees and all nature, are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds.” Another admonition of Winnebago wisdom is: “Reverence the Unseen Forces that are always near you and are always trying to lead you right.”

      SPIRIT OF LIFE

      In the following verses Dr. A. McG. Beede of Fort Yates, North Dakota, has translated a prayer he once heard uttered by an old man of the Dakota nation who had just come from bathing in the river and was standing upon a hill giving expression to his feeling of adoration:

      Spirit of Life in things above

      And lovelier in things below,

      We pray to Thee, All-being-love,

      Spontaneous in our hearts to grow.

      Our Father Life, we live in Thee

      And pray for glory which is Thine,

      And by our living may we be

      As Thou art in the Life divine.

      The trees and flowers and watersprings

      Are singing good old songs of mirth,

      So may we sing while music brings

      The good old joy o’er all the earth.

      Spirit of Life, sing on, sing on;

      Sing till our aching hearts find rest

      And anxious fear is past and gone,

      And like the rivers we are blest.

      The earth is singing, hark the song;

      The whispering breezes floating by,

      The waterstreams gliding along,

      Reflecting faces in the sky.

      Spirit of Life, we worship Thee,

      With waterstreams and trees and flowers;

      So may our new-born spirits be

      As Thou art, and Thy glory ours.

      ATTITUDE TOWARDS NATIVE LIFE

      People of European race resident in America, (Americans we call ourselves) have sentimental regard toward the plants and animals native to Europe, some of which, domesticated by our ancestors, we have brought with us to America. But most of our people have not developed such sentiments toward the plants and animals native to America. Literary allusions, songs and stories refer to trees, flowers, birds and other forms of life pertaining to our old home lands in Europe, but not to those of America. People of our race have been inhabitants of America now for three centuries, and still we have not made ourselves at home here; we have not formed sentimental attachment to the land and to its native forms of life.

      It is a pity for a people not to be so attached to the country in which they live that their sentiments shall be first of all for the forms of life that are native to their own country. Otherwise there is a disharmony which lessens happiness and is harmful in many ways.

      Lacking friendly feeling for the plants and animals native to America there has been a tendency to destroy these things in a ruthless manner; and this can hardly be prevented by law unless we can awaken sentimental feelings for the native forms of life in America such as that which our ancestors had for forms of life native in Europe.

      Indians, the native Americans, have friendly sentiments, and even feelings of reverence for the forms of life native to America.

      I once asked an old Omaha what was the feeling of Indians when they saw the white men wantonly killing buffaloes. As soon as he comprehended my question he dropped his head and was silent for a moment, seeming to be overcome by sadness; and then in a tone as though he were ashamed that such a thing could have been done by human beings, he answered: “It seemed to us a most wicked, awful thing.”

      Most white men can not comprehend the sense of pain experienced by Indians at seeing the native forms of life in America ruthlessly and wantonly destroyed with no compunction on the part of the destroyers. And this destruction of the forms of native American life by white people gave СКАЧАТЬ