excerpt
Four times the pipe passed around the lodge. The first time honoured the female
part of life: birth and nourishment. The second time honoured the male aspect, the
hunt and the spiritual journey. The third time honoured healing and forgiveness
among brothers and sisters. And the fourth was for each person’s special needs,
especially for the healing sought by Brown Bear, Running Deer, and Corn Mother,
for the loss of their daughter.
At the end, the shaman gave his blessing: “When drums carry our prayers and the
prayers of all the people to the Great Manitou, and when Owl calls to the creatures
of the night, may the Spirit that watches over all bring you peace.”
To the steady rhythm of soft drums, and in the order in which they had entered,
each person crawled from the womb of the sweat lodge into the light of a brilliant
moon and into the cooling water of the stream pond. Then, wrapped in warm robes
of beaver pelt, they followed the drums to the longhouse, where a warm fire blazed
in the central hearth. Those whose turn it was to serve and care for babies and toddlers,
set out a feast of venison, fish, wild turkey, and corn, on reed mats. Each clan
member, in turn, came to Brown Bear, Running Deer and Corn Mother to express
their love in a silent embrace.
As White Bear held his Native brother in a joyful hug, Brown Bear knew at last,
the anger was gone from his heart. Tomorrow, he and Running Deer would return to
the island of the dead and carry Namid Star Dancer’s remains to lie with the bones
of the ancestors until the end of time. Her spirit would dance forever among the stars
and fly at the end of each harvest cycle with her totem to the land of Winter Sun.
Running Deer taught Mountain Thrush a new song.
My sister Namid danced in fields of flowers and berries.
Now she spreads her snowy wings
to follow brother sun and sister moon
home to the land of warm breezes,
where gentle waters flow.
There, she will float among the stars
in sparkling moccasins and silver robe
until I dance with her once more
in that place where summer never ends
and those we love need never leave again.
Rordan and Ula treasured the new song and taught it to the children and they all
sang Namid to the land of warm breezes where summer never ends and those we
love need never leave again.
Libros Libertad 