Native American Mysticism 2

mark out and defer to the primacy of the four directions and the
communal, unifying passing of pipes that send smoke upward,
symbolizing communication and correspondence between the
material and symbolic worlds.
It's well to keep in mind that the Native American cultures have
vastly changed - many have been destroyed altogether - in the last
500 years of European contact, and so it's very difficult to tell what
these ideas and rituals were like before European religious ideas got
incorporated into them. It's difficult or impossible to say to what
extent the aboriginal Americans actually lived the unitive life. It
seems safe to say that now, with most Native American tribes
soaked inextricably in Euro-American ways, despite their
differences, few Indians live the unitive life - even though we would
romantically like to think so. But the expression of that sensibility
and possibility is still alive in their disposition toward reality, and
we can hear it in the literature.

© Dana Wilde 2007. This paper was originally
part of materials for courses in contemplative
literature and Native American literature taught at
the University of Maine and the American
University in Bulgaria.