Articles & Pearls

Articles by MAPS members:

"Cheryl Jean Miller - In Memoriam", by Kevin Haney

"The Neo-Abo's Creed", by Kevin Haney

"A Four-Day Gathering in the Forest", by Lori Edmonds

"A Field Guide to Starting a Primitive Skills Group", by Kevin Haney

"Earth Skills", by Cindy Suter

"Chasing the Ring", by Rob Goebel

"When 'Primitive' is Considered a Compliment", by Kevin Haney

"Acorn and Oak", by Steven "Snowbear" Taylor

"Survival on the Run", by Kevin Haney

"I Become Part Of It", by Kevin Haney

"Medicine Hunt In 1993", by Joe Schilling

Articles about MAPS:

"A Local Life: Cheryl Jean Miller - Md. Woman Found Harmony With Nature and the Spirit", by Joe Holloy

"Primitive skills group teaches the lost arts of survival", by Susan Guynn

"Celestial Wilderness Navigation", by Susan Guynn

"Primitive technology thrives in a modern world", by Susan Guynn

"Urban Coyotes", by Susan Guynn

Pearls of Great Wisdom

A Native American Prayer

"Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds,

and whose breath gives life to all things, hear me.

I come to you as one of your many children.

I am small and weak, I need your strength and your wisdom.

May I walk in beauty. May my eyes ever behold the glorious sunrise,

and may they see as much mystery in your small miracles as in your great ones.

Make my hands respect the things you have created,

and my ears sharp enough to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught your children,

the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Make me strong, not to overcome my brothers,

but to be able to fight my greatest enemy, myself.

Make me ever ready to come to you with pure hands and straight eyes,

so that when my life fades as the fading sunset,

my spirit may come to you and stand before you, without shame."

Author Unknown

An Apache Scout Prayer

"Grandfather of all Scouts...

Teach me to be the eyes of my people.

Teach me to move like the shadow.

Allow me to become the winds, the rocks,

the soils, and the life force in all it's forms.

Allow me to suffer for my people and take away their pain.

Honor me by allowing me to die for my people.

For I love my people beyond myself and I will

sacrifice my all for my people, my earth, and for you.

Test me beyond all hardship and pain.

Create me as you would forge a tool, and

if you find I am worthy, then bless me

as your servant - your Scout."

Shadow Walker

1807, Age 91

Panther Ridge

Black Elk's Great Vision

"Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all,

and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw;

for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit,

and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops

that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight,

and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter

all the children of one mother and one father.

And I saw that it was holy."

Black Elk, 1931

A Great Truth

"The earth does not belong to man, 
man belongs to the Earth.
This we know.

Man did not weave the web of life,
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
he does to himself.

All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth,
befalls the children of the Earth."

Chief Seattle, 1854

Catlin’s Creed

I love a people who have always made me welcome to the best they had.
I love a people who are honest without laws, who have no jails and no poorhouses.
I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read them
or heard them preached from the pulpit.
I love a people who never swear, who never take the name of God in vain.
I love a people who love their neighbors as they love themselves.
I love a people who worship God without a bible, for I believe that God loves them also.
I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.
I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property,
where there was no law to punish for either.
I love a people who have never fought a battle with white men, except on their own ground.
I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for there they are children.
I love a people who live and keep what is their own without locks and keys.
I love all people who do the best they can.
And oh, how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money!

George Catlin (1796-1872)



"Song of the Earth Spirit"

I, I am the spirit within the earth...
The feet of the earth are my feet...
The legs of the earth are my legs...
The bodily strength of the earth is my strength...
The thoughts of the earth are my thoughts...
The voice of the earth is my voice...
The feather of the earth is my feather...
All that belongs to the earth belongs to me...
All that surrounds the earth surrounds me...
I, I am the sacred words of the earth...

Origin Legend of the Navajo






Native American Ten Commandments

The Earth is our Mother, care for her.
Honor all your relations.
Open your heart and soul to the Great Spirit.
All life is sacred; treat all beings with respect.
Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more.
Do what needs to be done for the good of all.
Give constant thanks to the Great Spirit for each new day.
Speak the truth; but only of the good in others.
Follow the rhythms of nature; rise and retire with the sun.
Enjoy life's journey, but leave no tracks.


"Being born as humans to this earth is a very sacred trust.
We have a sacred responsibility because of the special gift we have,
which is beyond the fine gifts of the plant life, the fish, the woodlands,
the birds, and all the other living things on earth.
We are able to take care of them."

Audrey Shenandoah, Onondaga, 1987

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man, 1863-1950

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged....

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937

"If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"

"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."

Tom Brown, Jr., The Tracker

"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything. ... the White people pay no attention. ...How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? ... everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."

Wintu Woman, 19th Century

"Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."

William Commanda, Mamiwinini, Canada, 1991

"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home."

Chief Aupumut, Mohican. 1725

Man (Homo sapiens) has been successful as a species, not because he has mastered modern technologies but because he mastered the primitive skills necessary to compete for daily survival. Each epoch in the history of man has identified at least one major skill in man's ability to change and improve his environment. These skills were basic to those beings who lived thousands and thousands of years ago and are practiced by everyone today with technical refinements and modern adaptation to fulfill our own requirements.

Mac Maness

To read "Grandfather's Wisdom", click here.

If you have an article, story, or pearl of wisdom that you would like to see posted here, send us an e-mail.

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