Atira

I am Atira, Sacred Earth Mother of every living creature. My People, the Pawnee, were hunters, and when they were told to abandon hunting and settle down to farming, the elder replied: "You ask me to plow the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die, I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men! But how dare I cut off my mother's hair? It is a bad law and my people cannot obey it." Remember the love and loyalty of my Pawnee next time you see a field of concrete where my sacred lands once stood.

*quote by Wanapum Shaman and Prohet Smohalla, from the Washani Creed

Culture or Country of Origin

Native American

(Pawnee)