Lesson 2: The Spirit Animals
Nature is sacred to Native American tribes in many ways. Not only does Mother Earth provide a home and food to the people, but many tribes see the animals as their brothers. In the beginning animals and people were very similar. Animals had the ability to speak to humans and even take their forms. It is said that they lived in harmony until animals saw that the people no longer respected them and they all left to go to the spirit realm and all that is left is their shadows, animals that have been stripped of speech and the ability to shift into human forms. It is said that some tribes actually use to be animals that decided to take human form permanently. For example, the Quileute tribe made famous by the Twilight series is said to be descended from wolves (though not to fight vampires mind you). There are even tribes that have stories about their people turning into animals. Interestingly enough, not all people are descended from animals that became human some people are the offspring of an Animal and a human marrying. Like in the story of “The Owl Husband.”
https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=133x8h_OtMUpI4uUOA8oULL-5AEuy_1pKdTEaHQBbWVo&hl=en#
Some brides are reluctant at first, finding out their suitor is an Animal, but since most have human forms it generally works out in the end and they have several offspring.
The spirit of animals still live on within us, and many tribes believe that everyone has a spirit animal that we must honor and in return we gain strength from them. Each spirit animal (or even insect) has its own set of strengths and traits that are special to it. There are many rituals that different tribes have to contact one’s spirit animal. The main thing is to keep in mind, is to mediate on your link to the earth and creatures around you, and welcome your spirit animal when it appears. Spirit animals are often referred to as totem animals in literature and on the internet. Totems are used for many things and one of them is genealogy. So if you come from a line people descended from bears the bear will be on your totem but as people marry other tribes it’s a way to keep track of the different animals your ancestors have come from.
I love the stories of the first Animals you’ll notice in tales a lot of them are capitalized to differentiate form the tricky Coyote that helped create the earth in some stories, and an average coyote. The Animals are so interesting it makes me sad that they ever left.
Here’s an interesting story from the Muskogee tribe called “How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun”
https://docs0.google.com/document/edit?id=1-pAbJHsSm7s8qkdE6sY1ObPm-n88MGqYUPtj-dNGBqU&hl=en
Why buzzard is Bald
It’s fun to note how they explain how the buzzard now has a bald head. Many of these Early myths focus on why an animal looks the way it does. There are many different reasons to why Crow turned black but here is one from the Sioux tribe. In the long, long ago Crows were white and good friends with the Buffalo. They would fly overhead and warn the Buffalo to run if a hunter was coming. Well the people soon got sick of this because they couldn’t hunt any Buffalo for food. So the humans came up with a plan, what if they dressed one of their warriors as a Buffalo to catch the Crows leader? So they sent a young brave out and when the Crows came to warn the buffalo he did not move. Finally, Crow landed and asked why he did not run and the brave grabbed Crow and stuffed him in a sack. Since the humans were quite mad at Crow they decided to throw him in the fire. Luckily the bag burned quick and Crow flew out, but he was badly singed and is black to this day. Crow swore then to never warn the Buffalo ever again.