J.T. Garrett – författare

Few populations around the world have been as deeply affected by outside cultures as Native Americans. The wide variety of people who lived in America prior to Western migration possessed an equally wide variety of faith practices and beliefs. This book is about how those beliefs began, how they changed due to the influence of outside forces, and how Native Americans today are working to preserve their faiths. Tied deeply to the land and to nature, Native American faiths share some common traits. Native American Faith in America explores these basic beliefs, the ""coming of the long knives,"" and the impact of Western expansion, along with the ways that Native Americans and their faiths were deeply changed by this new civilization on their land. As the years have passed, many Native American ways have come into the general culture, influencing everything from fashion and music to medicine and sports. The dominant American culture continues to affect the social lives of Native Americans, both on reservations and elsewhere, while the sacred sites of some tribes have been the source of great controversy. In the political world, Native Americans have been very active, and most of this political work, from the American Indian Movement to today's reservation casinos, is based in faith and belief. Finally, the book focuses on how Native Americans young and old are working to ensure that their faiths and beliefs do not die out as some of their languages and customs have.

Discover the holistic experience of human life from the elder teachers of Cherokee Medicine. With stories of the Four Directions and the Universal Circle, these once-secret teachings offer us wisdom on circle gatherings, natural herbs and healing, and ways to reduce stress in our daily lives.

•A collection of earth-centered meditations to enhance our connection to the natural world. •Reveals the Old Wisdom of the Cherokee elders for living in harmony with all beings. •Written by J. T. Garrett, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, who was taught the ancient ways by his grandfather and other medicine men of his tribe. In a time before ours, humans could talk with animals, hear whisperings from plant life, and understand the origin stories written in the stars. Survival depended on active kinship with family and tribe, with four-leggeds and plant people, with sun and moon and fire. The Cherokee, known widely as the Principal People or the First People, hold a deeply tapestried collection of stories about human interrelatedness with nature. Those stories, passed down through countless generations of Cherokee, are especially significant at this time in human history, when Mother Earth suffers under the weight of unchecked andquot;progress.andquot; As a boy, J. T. Garrett sat beside his grandfather and the other medicine men of his tribe as they chanted and drummed the stories of his ancestry. From those stories of Nu-Dah (the Sun), Grandmother Moon, Spring Rain, and Little Eagle comes this collection of active meditations for reconnecting with the natural intelligence that is our birthright. Recognizing that we are all kin in the Universal Circle of life opens us to communication with all beings, bringing us back to our natural spirit selves. If we listen carefully to the Cherokee stories of the Old Ways we can gain understanding of lost social and spiritual traditions that can help ensure a thriving future."