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Interview with Frithjof Schuon - on Art
Books on Hinduism
What are the "Foundations of Christian Art?"
Where to look to "see God Everywhere"?
The Sermon of All Creation: Christians on Nature
Spiritual Masters - East & West Series
The Universal Spirit of Islam: Keys for Interfaith Understanding
How can we understand Native American traditions?
The Perennial Philosophy Series
Who was Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa)?
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  Noble Faces, Strong Voices: Exploring "The Spirit of Indian Women" Back to the List of Slideshows
    
Slide 14 of 14




I am an old woman now. The buffaloes and black-tail deer are gone, and our Indian ways are almost gone. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I ever lived them. My little son grew up in the white man’s school. He can read books, and he owns cattle and has a farm. He is a leader among our Hidatsa people, helping teach them to follow the white man’s road. He is kind to me. We no longer live in an earth lodge, but in a house with chimneys, and my son’s wife cooks by a stove. But for me, I cannot forget our old ways.

Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the corn fields, and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young. No one cares for our corn songs now. Sometimes in the evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. The sun sets, and dusk steals over the water.

In the shadows I seem again to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth lodges, and in the river’s roar I hear the yells of the warriors, and the laughter of little children as of old. It is but an old woman’s dream. Then I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river, and tears come into my eyes. Our Indian life, I know, is gone forever."

Waheenee, Hidatsa


Wife of Slow Bull, Oglala Lakota


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