[MD] Teachings of the American Earth (Part III)

[Arlo Bensinger]

This is Part III of the Introduction to "Teachings of the American 
Earth, Indian Religion and Philosophy" by Dennis and Barbara Tedlock.

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The vision itself may provide the seeker with the voice of its own 
expression, but this will be in chant or song rather than in the 
plainspoken word. The songs are not merely ordinary description set 
to music; instead, the words may give brief, enigmatic sketches which 
evoke a whole vision. Here is the song of a returned Papago salt pilgrim:

The ocean water hurts my heart.
Beautiful clouds bring rain upon our fields.

Some of the words may be archaic, or the whole song may seem to be in 
another language. The syllables of the words may be embedded in other 
syllables which are meaningless, or the entire son may be in nonsense 
syllables. Archaic language, foreign language and these meaningless 
syllables--or better, abstract syllables-al share an otherness. The 
singer knows what is meant; may even, in the case of Isaac Tens, keep 
the meaning in his mind while singing aloud the "nonsense." This is a 
noncalculative use of language, a way of communicating directly the 
joy and strangeness of the other world without explaining it away in 
ordinary language [in other words, metaphor. -Arlo]. As the Kashia 
Pomo healer Essie Parish puts it, "I speak another language so that 
the people will understand."

Some visionaries, instead of expressing the enigmatic quality of the 
other world by using strange language or nonlanguage, take ordinary 
language and break it in half, separating the words from their 
meanings and putting them back together again the wrong way around 
[Zen koans? -Arlo]. Then, whatever they may seem to be saying, they 
mean just the opposite. If they say "Turn to the left," they mean, 
"Turn to the right. " This is the way of the sacred clown of the 
Plains and Southwestern tribes.

Another way of talking about the experience of the other world is to 
give names to its enigmatic qualities, names which will evoke these 
qualities when the experience speaks them. If a name of this kind is 
further understood to be that of a person, a blood relative of the 
other world, then it simultaneously expresses the strangeness of that 
world and the seeker's own nearness to all things when he is in that 
world. These are the names of God.

There is Tirawa of the Pawnee, who is a mighty power in human form, 
yet cannot be seen or heard or felt except through sixteen lesser 
powers, especially Wind, Cloud, Lightning, and Thunder. There is 
Wakan Tanka of the Sioux, who "is like sixteen different persons; but 
... they are all only the same as one." This same Wakan Tanka, in his 
person as Wakinyan Tanka, the Thunder Being and the giver of 
revelation, is shapeless but winged, headless but beaked; all of his 
young come from a single egg, and when he devours them they become 
his many selves. Then there is Takanakapsaluk of the Eskimo, who 
sends all the worst misfortunes to mankind but also sends all the 
good things of the sea, the many animals which are her fingers. There 
is Yagesafi of the Beaver, who is both male and ,female, motionless 
but the creator of all motion. Poshayaank'i of the Zuni, who lives in 
a place of mists, is "almost like a human, but he looks like fire." 
Ma'ura. the "Earth-maker" of the Winnebago, made man in his own image 
but appears only as a voice and a ray of light.

In the other world, everything is numinous, suffused with sacredness, 
holiness, light in proportion to the seeker's nearness to the 
ultimate being [The Sun of Quality? -Arlo]. The Sioux call this 
holiness wakan, the Ojibwa and other Algonkian peoples call it 
manitu, and the Iroquois call it orenda. Among the Zuni it is 
expressed not by a word but by an affix, te, which may be attached to 
the words for ordinary actions, qualities, or objects in order to 
give them a cosmic dimension.

The vision of this holiness, once ended, is of no value unless 
something of it can be brought back into the ordinary world and kept 
alive there [SQ/DQ -Arlo]. For the Papago pilgrim, it was possible to 
bring , back a token, a strand of seaweed, a shell, or a pebble that 
he noticed while he was at the edge of the world. The Plains seeker 
who I saw an eagle in his vision might later put an eagle's head in 
his personal medicine bundle, 'Or paint an eagle on his shield, or 
his vision might even show him directly the actual design he should 
paint on 1 his shield or his drum or, in the case of the Ghost Dance, 
his shirt. If the use of a particular plant was suggested to him in 
his vision, he might later include this plant in his medicine bundle. 
The Gitksan shaman Isaac Tens, instead of keeping objects or making 
paintings, held visual images of Mink, Otter, and Canoe in his mind. 
Over half the continent and especially in the Columbia Plateau, the 
seeker hopes to encounter a being of the other world who will become 
his lifelong guardian. Everywhere the visionary hopes that songs will 
be sung through him, songs that he will keep with him, repeating them 
to himself as he lives.

A person who has these gifts from the other world can use them to 
help him see as he did there. to recognize manifestations of that 
world in this one. This ability to see what is going on in the world 
is the source of good fortune, of sudden strength in times of danger 
or uncertainty, as when a man hunts or goes to war. A person who has 
had an especially potent vision may be able to make himself a 
manifestation of the holiness of the other world, giving him the 
ability not only to see but to work a change. This is the shaman, the 
holy man, who uses this power to cure the sick and may even translate 
his visions into ceremonies that give a whole group of people some 
access to the cosmos, some understanding, as when Black Elk 
dramatized his great vision in the Horse Dance. Among the Navajo, it 
was similarly powerful visions that gave rise the present-day 
ceremonies called "sings," with their long ants and elaborate sand 
paintings. Throughout North America, ere are secret societies in 
which holy men share the power of their visions with a group of 
initiates, sometimes their former patients: the Iroquois Society of 
the Mystic Animals, the Midewiwin of the Ojibwa, the numerous 
medicine societies of the Pueblos, and many others.