First published at 03:26 UTC on November 24th, 2022.
In what is now a tradition, we present for Thanksgiving the death prayer of Old Lodge Skins, which comes at the close of "Little Big M" by Thomas Berger (who himself died in 2014).
Then he commenced to pray to the Everywhere Spirit in t…
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In what is now a tradition, we present for Thanksgiving the death prayer of Old Lodge Skins, which comes at the close of "Little Big M" by Thomas Berger (who himself died in 2014).
Then he commenced to pray to the Everywhere Spirit in the same stentorian voice, never sniveling but bold and free.
"Thank you for making me a Human Being! Thank you for helping me become a warrior! Thank you for all my victories and for all my defeats. Thank you for my vision, and for the blindness in which I saw further.
"I have killed many men and loved many women and eaten much meat. I have also been hungry, and I thank you for that and for the added sweetness that food has when you receive it after such a time.
"You make all things and direct them in their ways, O Grandfather, and now you have decided that the Human Beings will soon have to walk a new road. Thank you for letting us win once before that happened. Even if my people must eventually pass from the face of the earth, they will live on in whatever men are fierce and strong. So that when women see a man who is proud and brave and vengeful, even if he has a white face, they will cry: 'That is a Human Being!'..."
I stood there in awe and Old Lodge Skins started to sing, and...
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