| SRI VIDYA FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL www.srilalitha.org Special Articles |
| Indigenous American Spiritual Origin Patricia Anne Davis, Choctaw-Navajo/Chahta-Dineh |
About the author....from the web site:
www.nativeamericanconcepts.com
My English name is Patricia Anne Davis and my ceremonial name is “one who greets
the enemy with peace” or “peacemaker.” I am a diagnostician and practitioner of the
blessing way of life concepts. I teach Native American specific holistic health and
healing promotion. I am born of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw to the Ta chii’ nii clan
(“Red Running into the Water”). My maternal grandparents are of the Chahta tribe and
my paternal grandparents are of the Ki yaa aanii clan (“Towering House” People) of the
Dineh Nation. I have a BA in Developmental Psychology from the University of Arizona,
and an MA in Whole Systems Design, specializing in peacemaking leadership at the
Center for Creative Change at Antioch University in Seattle, WA. I have traveled to
England, Canada, Mexico, France, Egypt and New Zealand to teach Native American
spirituality concepts. I have over twenty years of experience in facilitating Ceremony
within addiction recovery residential rehabilitation centers, the correctional prison
system and the Native American community.
www.nativeamericanconcepts.com
My English name is Patricia Anne Davis and my ceremonial name is “one who greets
the enemy with peace” or “peacemaker.” I am a diagnostician and practitioner of the
blessing way of life concepts. I teach Native American specific holistic health and
healing promotion. I am born of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw to the Ta chii’ nii clan
(“Red Running into the Water”). My maternal grandparents are of the Chahta tribe and
my paternal grandparents are of the Ki yaa aanii clan (“Towering House” People) of the
Dineh Nation. I have a BA in Developmental Psychology from the University of Arizona,
and an MA in Whole Systems Design, specializing in peacemaking leadership at the
Center for Creative Change at Antioch University in Seattle, WA. I have traveled to
England, Canada, Mexico, France, Egypt and New Zealand to teach Native American
spirituality concepts. I have over twenty years of experience in facilitating Ceremony
within addiction recovery residential rehabilitation centers, the correctional prison
system and the Native American community.
Indigenous American Spiritual Origin
Creation stories and the origin of spiritual self hood in the Dineh Indigenous American tribal language are
inclusive of all people upon the earth. There are two concepts of creation. The first is how everything was “created” with
purpose and the second is how everything was “placed” upon the earth sychronistically with time and cardinal direction
according to natural order. We are not “lost” we have ethical standards to give us direction in life. The life cycles and
seasons are interrelated within the concept of hozho, an all-encompassing concept of holiness and wholeness. There is
no concept of a “fall” or separation from the creator within the natural order. There is remembering original SELF as a
sacred-SELF and awakening to spiritual SELF-identity within the phases of a ceremonial change process. There is
consequence and correction in making mistakes. In naming there is no judgment or condemnation and punishment, only
cleansing, purification and reorientation to holographic-holistic wellbeing within the hozho liberation path of return to
creator for the white, red, yellow and black people, all born spiritually holy within the sacred circle of life in interwoven
movement.
Our oral tradition is our tribal way of preserving creation stories from one generation to the next. Creation stories are the
living memory of our origins as the grandchildren of the holy people who are considered our primordial ancestors. From
our tribal Dineh language world-view we were all created as a precious child of the creator. Dineh means “people.” We
are five-fingered people as humane beings. We are earth-surface people instructed to walk in “beauty”, harmony and
balance between mother earth and father sky. How we arrived on earth and where we came from is described as a
spiritual journey through four underworlds. First there was travel through each of the underworlds and second, there was
emergence upon mother earth.
We do not subscribe to the notion of historical geographical tribal migration in the anthropological view. We say we are
born spiritual holy, made of air-spiritual, fire-mental and temperature, water-emotive and earth-physical. These four
sacred elements are our constitution. We are made of divine creation and therefore we are a precious child of the
creator. We say we emerged from the underworlds and we are born of our mother earth. The journey through the four
underworlds was for correcting mistakes between-the-worlds. This journey is about liberation and describes why we do
not trap the mind with “either” “or” double-bind language. There is always a way when living the creator’s way in the
natural order of the universe. The purpose of our spiritual life journey is to follow the four corn-pollen footsteps of the holy
people from child, youth and parent to grandparent. We do not evolve from a lesser state of being to a higher state of
being in a linear sequential progression toward some end state of enlightenment. We are traveling together to affirm our
oneness with creator.
Indigenous people share a spiritually inclusive world-view of communal governing interrelationship and bonding, with tribal
ceremonies to ensure collective survival. We were given our birthing place of emergence for reverent communication and
sacred relationships within the natural order. This collective social cohesiveness remains resilient among Indigenous
American tribes in contemporary America. We share a communion-continuum with ancestral wisdom through language,
ceremony, songs and inter-generational clan family relationships. Our relationships within divine creation are designed for
living the loving way by healthy helping. We say that white people were placed in the east, red people in the south, yellow
people in the west and black people in the north corresponding to the colors in nature: sunrise-white; daylight-turquoise;
sunset-yellow and midnight-black. We are all born within the sacred circle of life, hozho. We are made of jewels: east-
white shell; south-turquoise; west-abalone shell and north-jet or obsidian. We view migration theory as exclusive and
interrelatedness within the natural order as inclusive and equal.
Oral tradition is our way of knowing who we are, where we come from, where we are going and how to get “there” on
the liberation-path-of-return-to-creator. Our creation stories that tell us who we are, why we are here and how to awaken
to becoming holy people by living the loving way. There is a geographical place of emergence from the third to the fourth
world called hajiinai where the people emerged through a giant hollow reed. It was between-the- worlds that lessons from
mistakes made, were learned from the experiences in each of the worlds. The first world was black, the second blue, the
third yellow and the fourth white. When we emerged from the four underworlds onto this world to become earth-surface
people and five-fingers people – humane beings living between mother earth and father sky, it was a woman who created
the first four clans and placed each clan in each of the four cardinal directions.
The creator’s holy breath gave life to the first people who were created of a love-essence. They were dressed in the
holy elements: air-spiritual, fire-mental, water-emotive, earth-physical and corn, symbol of socio-economic wellbeing. The
co-creator’s purpose and how things were placed in the four cardinal directions with love-principles placed in each
direction was to give guidance in traveling upon our spiritual life journey within the natural order. The hozho love-life-
essence from which we came; how to live with spiritual ethics; and why we remember our true SELF-identity in our
awakening, is to reclaim this all-encompassing concept of holiness, wholeness and reverence. We acknowledge and
appreciate our creator as a precious child because we are made of the four sacred elements and jewels. The holy people
gave us an awakening process for healing out-of-balance conditions in curing ceremonies. They gave us teachings for
living according to spiritual ethics to walk in beauty. We have gratitude for the “holy people” who gave us the knowledge of
hozho. Our sacred SELF-identity is our true origin within the oneness of the creator’s cosmos.
In Dineh cosmology when we say we emerged from the underworlds at a geographical place-of-emergence this is not
the same as saying that we evolved from the animal kingdom from an early type of ape. Rather, we are saying that we are
born spiritually holy from changing woman who created the first four clans in our lineage; and, from the holy people who
were the first earth-surface- people born of first woman, first man, first girl and first boy. In the natural order the creator
gives the holy-breath-of-life to the child that a female gives birth to in the procreation process. Each one of the first four
clans that were placed in each of the four cardinal directions also represents the four races of people; white, red, yellow
and black people, all born spiritually holy within the sacred circle of life, hozho, where there is no concept of power over.
At sunrise in the early morning dawn of new beginnings, the blessed mother-of-us-all is called white shell woman and at
sunset she retires to the west as changing woman. She is not a “deity” and is not “worshiped” as such. She symbolizes
the life cycles and cycles of seasons that gives birth to people within the natural order – birth, life, death and journey to
the spirit world. She represents the female menstrual cycle for the gestation of a child, corresponding with the between-
the-worlds experience from first, second, third into the fourth world, called the “glittering white world” referring to an
illusionary world of perception. The holy people gave us sacred-knowledge to guide us in finding our way through this
illusionary world of perception. Thus, our creation stories are not myths or legends and our oral tradition is not
superstition, religion, theory, philosophy or new age. It is not “alternative medicine”, “preventive medicine” or “integrative
medicine. ”Our healing ceremonies are for facilitating a spiritual awakening process to reclaim original identity of holiness
in wholeness.
A basic understanding of the origins of Indigenous Americans through oral tradition and creation stories from the Dineh
language world-view is a cosmic key for understanding our collective liberation into an awakening process that can
potentially lead to the original instructions for living the loving way in order to be the way-showers to peace within our
minds, hearts, lives and world. A simplified outline here describes the inter-connectedness and interrelatedness of our
origins as five-fingers people currently traveling together as earth-surface- people upon the four corn-pollen-footsteps
from child, youth, parent and grandparent within hozho. There is one mother-of-all and it is the holy-creators-breath that
breathes life into us through the in-breath and out-breath within hozho:
EAST Doorway
1st Clan: bitter-water Guide/Protector: Bullsnake
Holy-thinking: Plant - Corn pollen path-portal-door to holiness, wholeness and life-abundance.
Seed of the whole journey through affirmation: totality of elements - totality of bodies for balance and harmony: doorway
for hard-goods and soft-goods from creator.
*Principles of Pure democracy to eliminate power over and the urge for the will-to-power using information and external
brute-force, without the live-life principle.
Oneness with creator: unity in relationship with cosmos, universe and all kingdoms to guide life-affirming choices.
Indigenous American principles of pure democracy applied within hozho-natural order for an ethical governing context to
initiate teaching-learning-healing processes by using curing principles within a cooperative clan social organization.
NE: Plant – mountain herb for correcting the misuse of the intellect and re-orientating the mind in a thought-reversal
process from dualistic thinking to holographic holistic thinking.
SOUTH: Experience through life travel for awakening to sacred-SELF
2nd Clan: near-the-water Guide/Protector: Mountain lion
Strong-planning: learning the knowledge and skills to earn a living to travel in life.
* Referendum: group-consensus by the people to change an existing non-productive law; the right to use innate gifts to
agree on common goals for the commonwealth and common good.
Teaching-learning-healing by constructive life-affirming choices: finding operational ways of sharing information to work
with from the will-to-love and goodwill.
SE: Plant – white cornmeal for male protector-provider gender life-task and yellow cornmeal for female nurturer gender life-
task.
WEST: Peacemaking with creator, with spiritual sacred-SELF and others: powerwithin to have powerwith in co-creative
decision-making.
3rd Clan: towering-house-people Guide/Protector: Big Wolf
Co-creative decision-making: social competence, cohesiveness in social relationships for ceremonial healing.
* Initiative: group-consensus by the people to create a new law determined by the people in a win-win decision-making
process.
Social wellbeing networking: world connections
SW: Plant – beans for physical health so the people may live.
NORTH: Hope-reverence for unity in living the loving way
Clan: “Big Water” Guide/Protector: Porcupine
Hope-reverence: restoring resources for future generations.
*Recall. Changing leadership and direction from destructive/death-producing to constructive/life-affirming choices for
psychosocial-economic wellbeing.
NW: Plant – squash for singing people to spiritual wellbeing.
CENTER: Fire place, symbol of spiritual awakening to love-life essence for harvesting the abundant sweetness in life.
Blessing way of life as way of living: Hearth, home, clan-family and relatives-
Planetary activation and world axis alignment synchronistic with eternal-temporal time and clockwise cardinal directions
with affirmation of inherent goodness and divinity-Life application of walking in beauty on spiritual life journey.
May spiritual truth, love, peace, harmony and JOY eternally echo throughout the
universe,
Patricia Anne Davis
www.nativeamericanconcepts.com
© Patricia Anne Davis 2006.
e.mail: patricia_anne9@hotmail.com
Please send your comments and opinions to the author directly and make a cc to:
info@spiritualmindpower.com
 |  |  |  |  |