Walking Buffalo
Death may claim our wise brother but the words of Walking Buffalo, Tatanga Mani, live on.
DA NA WAQ (WHITE BEAVER)
AKWESASNE NOTES/ROOSEVELTOWN, NEW YORK
13683
RELATED CONTENT
March 20, 1871 - a great day in Morley, Alberta. It was
on that day that little Tatanga Mani (Walking Buffalo) was,
born. In the years that followed, he was adopted by white
missionary John McDougall, educated in white men's schools,
returned to the reserve at Morley to advise and guide his
people, and finally in his old age, was asked to act as an
emissary of peace on behalf of the Canadian
Government.
Join our Stoney brothers and hear his words.
"Nobody tries to make the coyotes act like beavers, or
the eagles behave like robins. Christians see themselves as
set apart from the rest of the animal and plant world by
superiority, even as a special creation. Perhaps the
principles of brotherhood which the world urgently needs
come more easily to the Indian. "
"Do you know that trees talk? Well, they do. They talk
to each other, and they'll talk to you, if you will listen.
Trouble is, white people don't listen. They never listened
to the Indians, and so I don't suppose they'll listen to
the other voices in nature. But I have learned a lot from
trees, sometimes about the weather, sometimes about
animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit.
"We were lawless people but we were on pretty good
terms with the Great Spirit, creator and ruler of all. You
whites assumed we were savages. You didn't understand our
prayers. You didn't try to understand. When we sang or:
praises to the sun or moon or wind, you said we were
worshipping idols. Without understanding, you condemned us
as lost souls just because our form of worship was
different from yours.
"We saw the Great Spirit's work in almost everything:
sun, moon, trees, wind, and mountains. Sometimes we
approached him through these things. Was that so bad? I
think we have a true belief in the supreme being, a
stronger faith than that of most of the whites who have
called us pagans. The red savages have always lived closer
to nature than have the white savages. Nature is the book
of that great power which one man calls God and which we
call the Great Spirit. But, what difference does a name
make?
"We had none of your denominations to split us, it
introduce hatreds in the name of religion. We had no
man-made guides to 'right living'; nature was our guide.
Nature is still Bible, and I've just retruend after many
days of studying it.
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