How to approach an understanding of the American Indian Spiritual attitudes as part of daily life Realizing the impermanence of life True respect for the earth Man's place among other beings Silence, courtesy, and mindfulness Early preparations for spiritual attainment Use of the pipe in ceremonies "We lived our religion" Tolerance, one God, and "civilization"

slide 9 of 10 "Their (white man’s) Wise Ones said we might have their religion, but when we tried to understand it we found that there were too many kinds of religion among white men for us to understand, and that scarcely any two white men agreed which was the right one to learn. This bothered us a good deal until we saw that the white man did not take his religion any more seriously than he did his laws, and that he kept both of them just behind him, like Helpers, to use when they might do him good in his dealings with strangers. These were not our ways. We kept the laws we made and lived our religion. We have never been able to understand the white man, who fools nobody but himself." Plenty Coups, Absaroke "The Ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors." Plenty Coups