The Seven Teachings

LOVE ~ EAGLE
Whenever you see the Eagle, you can always call upon the eagle for more love in your life or you can ask for more ways you can give love to life.
RESPECT ~ BUFFALO
Respect means having the ability to give. To show respect to life, you give of yourself. You can serve your fellow man by giving of yourself for the betterment of humanity, for the betterment of the world.


COURAGE ~ BEAR
It takes a lot of courage to listen to your heart and to your spirit as it’s telling you what to do even when your mind tells you something else... it takes a lot of courage and that’s why the Bear is there.

The Bear, they say, goes out and hibernates in the winter--- but our people don’t understand it that way. The Bear goes to fast. It’s fasting all winter and this is important for us as a people... the Bear taught us how to fast... how to go on a Vision Quest.. that’s where we got the Vision Quest from.

The Bear fasts for Mother Earth and he fasts all winter because he’s fasting for the Earth. He represents the love and the courage that is needed to show that love of the land and of life.


HONESTY ~ SA-BE (BIGFOOT)
Our great Creator chose the Sa-be (Bigfoot) to represent the spirit of honesty... it is a very hard thing to do to, be honest, so maybe that is why the spirit of Sa-be (Bigfoot) is so elusive. We see it and it’s gone because we have a hard time being honest.

The elders say the best way you could show honesty or honor the spirit of the Sa-be (Bigfoot), is to speak from your heart and listen to your spirit that has given you the inspiration of the words you are to speak. When you are honest with yourself, you are true to the words that you speak.


WISDOM ~ BEAVER
Wisdom is to know that each of us has a gift, a special gift, a unique gift. That gift is to be used to serve life, to serve humanity.

One of the gifts the Beaver has is 2 sharp teeth that he uses to create and build the dams and change the landscape. If that Beaver chose not to use his gift and to lay on the shore while the other beavers were working, his teeth would grow so long that he would not be able to use them and he would die, physically die. If we do not use our gift we will also die or we will become sick, mentally, emotionally or physically.


HUMILITY ~ WOLF
It is the wolf that brings the teachings of humbleness. The first thing that the young child sees as he meets the Wolf is that the Wolf will stop and bow its head, which is a reflection of the Wolf showing its humbleness to the presence of the human being.

The teaching of humility is very important in our life. Much of the division we see in today’s world is because people have not understood the spirit of humility: to understand the spirit of humility is to understand that no one is above another human being. No one is greater than another human being in this life; no one is lesser than another human being.

To be humble is to see us equally in the eyes of the Great Spirit through the unconditional love of the Great Spirit. His love is expressed to all of us in the same way that the sun will shine on us. The sun does not choose to shine on any one person alone or any one race of people, it shines on all.
TRUTH ~ TURTLE
The 7th and final teaching that we were given is represented by the Turtle. The law and the teaching that the Grandmother Turtle carries is the teaching of truth. According to our understanding, the meaning and the essence of truth are all these laws that I just talked about: truth is love, truth is respect, truth is courage, truth is wisdom, truth is humility and truth is honesty--- the essence of truth is found in all these teachings.

These 7 laws were symbolized and represented by animals, which reflected our connection to nature and our connection to the land. The spirituality of our people is deeply rooted and connected to the land. You cannot live on this land honoring all that there is on the land unless you understand these 7 laws. If we do not understand these 7 laws that we are inspired to live by, then there is a good chance that we will not respect the land and that we will disconnect ourselves from what comes from the land. But if we live by these 7 laws, that is when we will have a truly happy and peaceful life, in harmony with all of nature and each other as the human family.

BY-Anishnabe Elder Dave Courchene

Arrow Boy Recovers His Wife - A Cochiti Legend

Arrow Boy lived in Potsherd Place (east of Cochiti). His wife was Yellow Woman. They had an Eagle, and Arrow Boy hunted to provide it with food
and his wife stayed home to feed the Eagle. When he came back with deer, he always saved the back strip of the deer (the best part of the animal) for
his Eagle. His wife got tired of always feeding the Eagle, and one day she did not feed it anymore. She scolded it.

The Eagle said, "My mother is tired of feeding me; when my father is away my mother will not give me food any more." He tried to escape. He got
loose and went off, and the wife ran after him. She took a white manta to catch him, but whenever she got close to him, He flew away. When Eagle
got to Whirlpool Place, he lit on the top of the rocks, and she climbed after him. Eagle said, "You are having a hard time. Fold the white manta and
put it on my shoulders. Sit down on it and shut your eyes tight. Are you ready?" "Yes." "Keep your eyes shut." He flew up high until he came to the
sky. He went through and came to the next world. When they got up they came to the great rock where all Eagles alight in the sky. He left his mother
there. "Now open your eyes," he said. She opened them, and found herself in the other world. "Now go where you please," he told her. "You were
unkind to me then, and now I shall act in the same way toward you. There is a road; take it and you will come to a village."

Eagle came back to this world. He found Arrow Boy at Potsherd Place. He asked, "Where is my wife?" Day after day he kept looking for her tracks,
but he could only trace them as far as Whirlpool Place. He mourned all the time. One day while he was looking he heard some one calling him,
"Grandson, what are you doing down here? This is not the place to find her. She is up in the next world. It was your child Eagle who carried her up
there. If you wait, I will take you after her to the same place." It was Spider Grandmother. Arrow Boy asked, "How can you take me?" "I can take
you." "All right; I am lonesome for my wife. What shall I do?" "Get on my back." Spider Grandmother stretched her back and he got on. "Don't open
your eyes," she told him. When they were way up he opened them and exclaimed, "O grandmother, what a red light I see!" "Grandson, you are
opening your eyes!" She came down to Earth again. "We will try again," she said, and she put Arrow Boy on her back and went straight up till she
came through the sky and arrived at the great rock. When they were on the rock she said, "Open your eyes." Two great snakes were beside him and
two hawks were flying above. Spider Grandmother said, "Take this middle road and you will get to a village. You will come to the house where my
sister lives. She knows that you are coming and she will meet you." He went on, and Spider's sister met him. She said to him, "Are you coming?"
"Yes; your sister brought me up." "Your wife passed by on this road." "Yes; that is the one I am looking for." "Come with me and I will tell you where
your wife is." They went along and she said to him, "In that village your wife is staying. Go up one ladder and you will come to the upper house where
she is. Don't worry too much about your wife; she is living here."

He went on to the village and went up into a house. He stayed there. The next day he went hunting and killed three turkeys and brought them in. The
mother who lived in that house said, "Thank you, we shall need turkeys in the morning for our feast. We shall get your wife so that she may the feast
with us. She lives next door." She went for his wife. She did not know that her husband was there. They hid him under a sheepskin. When she came
in they brought out flat breads, and paper bread with pepper relish, and a bowl of turkey soup, and set them before her. While she was eating, she
remembered all about her life with Arrow Boy in the other world. She said, "Oh how often I used to eat turkey soup when I lived in the other world
with Arrow Boy." Arrow Boy was listening under the sheepskin. He said, "Would you like to have that life over again now?" She looked in every
direction. There was nobody in the room. She got up and looked, then she said, "I wonder who was speaking." She went to the pile of sheepskin.
There she found Arrow Boy. She pulled him out and hugged him and cried for joy. So they met again. Arrow Boy found his wife, and she her
husband.

They went out and in the middle of the plaza was Gawi'ma who began to dance and sing:

Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma,
Arrow Boy has met his wife again,
Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma. Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma,

The people who lived in that village said, "What is he singing about? Who has gotten his wife back?" But he kept on singing--

Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma. Gawi'ma,
Arrow Boy has met his wife again,
Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma, Gawi'ma.

The mother of that house said to Arrow Boy, "Take these two turkeys that we saved from those you brought to us, and go to Gawi'ma and pay him for
finding your wife." So he took the turkeys and paid them to Gawi'ma for finding his wife, and he went off carrying the two turkeys on his back and
jumping and singing the same song.

Fish-Hawk and his Daughter - An Achomawi Legend

Fish-Hawk lived down at Pit River. When Sun traveled in winter, he left his daughter at home, but he carried her about with him in summer. Sun
did not want his daughter to marry any poor person, but a great man, like Pine-Marten, Wolf, or Coyote. Fish-Hawk got angry at Sun because he
talked in this way of poor people, so he started and went down to the ocean, to Sun's place, and slipped into the sweat-house. It was winter now,
and Sun's daughter was put away inside the house in a basket. Fish-Hawk stole her, carried her on his back to Coyote's house, and hid her away.
He made the journey in one night.

Next morning Sun could not find his daughter, and did not know where she had gone. That morning Fish-Hawk took the basket with the woman in
it, and put it away under the rocks in muddy water, to hide it so that Sun could not see and could not find his daughter.

Sun searched everywhere in the air and on the ground, but could not find her. Then he hired all men who were good divers or swimmers to hunt in
the water, for he thought she was hidden in the water. All searched until they came to Pit River. One would search part of the way, then another.
Kingfisher was the last man to go in search of her. He went along slowly to look where the water was muddy. At last he thought he saw just a bit of
something under the water. Then he went over the place carefully again and again.

Many people were going along the river, watching these men looking for Sun's daughter. Kingfisher filled his pipe, smoked, and blew on the water
to make it clear, for he was a great shaman. Then he went up in the air and came down over the place. The people were all excited, and thought
surely he would find something. He came along slowly, and sat and smoked again, and blew the smoke over the water. Then he rose, rolled up his
pipe and tobacco, and put them away. Then he took a long pole, stood over the water, pushed his pole down deep, and speared with it until he got
hold of the basket and pulled it out. Old Sun came, untied the basket, took his daughter out, washed her, then put her back. He paid each of the men
he had hired. Part of their pay was in shells.

Kingfisher said that it was Fish-Hawk who had hidden the basket. Sun put the basket on his back and started home. He was so happy to get his
daughter back that he did no harm to Fish-Hawk for stealing her.