The Earth Day Ceremony

The Earth Day Ceremony

According to Eagle Man, the Sioux nation take Earth Day very seriously and performs a powerful ceremony in its honor. The ceremony is held outdoors, where the four directions are invoked, as well as the powers of the earth and sky, to let these energies know that the people are giving Mother Earth their full support and respect.

Acknowledging the directions is a common part of Native ceremonies, but here they are connected to environmental talk. Eagle Man explains: "We talk about life giving rains coming out of the west. We talk about clean waters. And we ask, ‘How can we help make the water clean?’ We talk about less wasting of water. Also, we talk about fighting for the non-pollution of water. Then we turned to the north and appreciate cleanliness and purity. We know that we have an uphill battle, as most environmentalists have. But we beseech upon the north power to fortify us and give us great strength to endure in our venture into environmentalism. We beseech the east power and talk about knowledge, about educating children. We see that more today. Kids are less apt to throw trash out of their cars windows. I just had three occupants in my car. One dumped his water out from his paper cut, but he wouldn’t think of throwing that paper cup out there on the grass. Had he thrown out the paper cup, I would have stopped the car, turned around, admonished him, and made him pick up the paper cup. It doesn’t sound like much, but it all adds up. So, we talk about knowledge. We go to the south power, and we beseech for bounty to be taken away from these people that are wasting. All business executives care about is making more and more money. They don’t care about taking their bounty and applying it to Mother Earth’s needs. We beseech for the bounty to be distributed to people who will make use of it for the Earth Mother, and for projects that will generate a myriad of environmental items that can cause less pollution."

Ultimately, addressing the directions leads to communion with the Creator. But Indians do not focus directly on the all-seeing Great Mystery. Rather, they speak to His Creation as manifested in nature, represented by each direction.

from the site: Native American Healing