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American Indian belief in Reincarnation

Thanks for all the great information. I had said I was Penobscott, but now realize I was wrong, at least as far as my families heritage goes. I was told my paternal great grandparents were definitely Iroquois, although being in southwestern Ohio, it would make more sense if they were Miami. While there could also be a past life connection, I haven't had any inkling of that.

Among of my life long interests has been the west and Native Americans, along with the American Civil War and both Victorian England and Britain. Each of the other focuses has lead to PL connections, so I wouldn't be surprised to uncover something there. I don't discover much really, since it's not that important to me. Although I always welcome any PL memories I receive, it's not a driving passion of mine.


John
 
.....Deborah and a couple others who were talking about reincarnation among native Americans and why there isn't a lot of talk about it.
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Good point about ancestral worship and the Western point of view. The other issue is - no written records to refer too. The Egyptians, Chinese, Tibetans, etc.... all wrote down their belief's. At least some of them. The Indians belief's were shared by story telling, word of mouth, and ceremony.

Interesting. :) Thanks for sharing Wulfie.
 
Deborah,
Several tribes have records written in pictographs. Hopi and Dine (Navajo), for instance. I think the Shoshone might have too. I'm sure there are others.

So another way to research would be to check out archeological and anthropological findings on cave, rock, and sand art, basketry, etc.. That might be helpful. A really good source of information and inspiration can be found in the arts and crafts, as well as the clothing and personal decoration of the various nations as those are 'records' since they tell stories about what was going on. But you probably already know that one. :)

And of course there are collections of oral histories available nowadays and used in Native American Studies.

Just a thought.

Wulfie
 
HI Wulfie,

I studied North American Indian art in college. A fascinating subject. I have always been intrigued with symbols and images and how they are used to imply deeper meaning in life.

But there is nothing quite like listening to the ancient wisdom from an elder, who speaks the words, almost poetically. Some of the quotes I provided in this thread lend to that feeling. I am grateful someone took the time - to write it down. :)
 
I'm reading a wonderful book about the remembrances of a boy who grew up with Cherokee grandparents in the 1930's called The Education of Little Tree. Here's what his Granma has to say about reincarnation:

Granma said everybody has two minds. One of the minds has to do with the necessaries for body living. You had to use it to figure how to get shelter and eating and such like for the body. She said you had to use it to mate and have young'uns and such. She said we had to have that mind so as we could carry on. But she said we had another mind that had nothing atall to do with such. She said it was the spirit mind.


Granma said if you used the body-living mind to think greedy or mean; if you was always cuttin' at folks with it and figuring how to material profit off'n them ... then you would shrink up your spirit mind to a size no bigger'n a hickor'nut.


Grandma said that when your body died, the body-living mind died with it, and if that's the way you had thought all your life there you was, stuck with a hickor'nut spirit, as the spirit mind was all that lived when everything else died. Then, Granma said, when you was born back -- as you were bound to be -- then, there you was, born with a hickor'nut spirit mind that had practical no understanding of anything.


[...]


Granma said your spirit mind could get so big and powerful that you would eventually know all about your past body lives and would get to where you could come out with no body death atall.
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There's a lot I'm leaving out here because I have to type it from the book. The chapter is: "The Secret Place," and I highly recommend it! :thumbsup:
 
Jody said:
I'm reading a wonderful book about the remembrances of a boy who grew up with Cherokee grandparents in the 1930's called The Education of Little Tree.
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I love the home-spun use of the colloquial language, and the wisdom shines through like a beacon. Thanks for the recommendation Jody.
 
Since I'm not selling anything for myself, but only recommending it to others, I've been authorized to post this information in the Forum.


I haven't read the book "Education of Little Tree" yet, but it is also out on DVD (I think it's the same story); because I have the DVD, but haven't watched it yet.


The movie is never as detailed as the book, but for those trying to catch the gist of the book, I might mention this information.


For those trying to save money (and who isn't) might want to consider buying Used DVD's, because there's little (if any) wear and tear unlike the older VHS tapes.


However after further research, I find that the DVD of "Education of Little Tree" is VERY expensive (at least for me it is, at roughly $ 25.00) but your tastes might vary on costs.


Sometimes the S & H (usually $ 2.98) costs more than the DVD itself!


I buy mine from dealers & vendors through places like Amazon online book stores and have never received a bad one yet.


Thought you might like to know.
 
Recently have been reading various books on the Shuar Indians which live in the Amazonian Jungles in South America particularly now in Equador. One of the book titles that have been reading lately is "Spirit of the Shuar'. It has been interesting.


This tribe has a very deep belef in what we call Reincarnation. But in their tribe, they call it 'Shapeshifting'.
 
I only found out a few years ago that my dad, who passed over before I was born, was Native American - possibly Navajo. I was brought up by my Egyptian mum and had always assumed dad was also Egyptian. I don't know why dad's origins were never discussed but I think it's to do with my brother - a rather disturbed individual who suffered from reverse racism, ie he turned against his own people. Interestingly enough though, he never turned against Native Americans, and I was brought up with both Egyptian and Native American culture, but I'm sure my brother didn't allow mum to tell me our true origins.


I don't remember a past life as a Native American but I could well have been Native American in a past life because I seem to understand a lot of the old ways that are now sadly mostly forgotten.


I also had a strange feeling the first time I put on Native American dress - it felt like I was remembering doing that before, I instinctively knew how to wear it correctly.
 
For new members - How have your beliefs in prior lives, specifically Native American influenced your beliefs now?
 
Hi Deborah,


I don't 'properly' remember having had a past life as a native American, but when I think back, it was actually a native name that ended up sending me down the PL route! I think since I was about 9 or 10, I had this name in my head that I never could quite work out, and often wondered even then where it came from (BTW, I was interested in amerindian life even before then). So, I thought perhaps it was a word I had picked up in my reading. I saw coincidence everywhere. Particular birds were associated with friends or places. If I saw a wagtail, I knew I would soon hear from someone from my home town. If I saw a collared dove, I knew I would hear from a friend, and I saw meanings in the flowers and trees. Things a religious town girl shouldn't really have thought about.


Then, in my teens, somehow or another, I ended up studying one of the native languages, and reading this, it suddenly struck me that the word I had been turning over in my mind for all these years might actually mean something and not be a made up word after all. I don't know why, but I had associated the word with wind and fast running water, and looking through my native dictionaries and tweaking the word bit by bit as I began to learn the language, I finally found it. The word meant running wind!


Just before this revelation, however, we had moved to a different town surrounded by red sandstone cliffs, and taking a job in the neighbouring town, i had the great (mis)fortune of passing through a cutting in them. For some reason, every time I went through, fear and panic would flood over me, and I would start to pray as I hurried through. And names, and words and thoughts would wash over me. The name in my head would come, louder and more incessantly, hammering itself on my consciousness, and other names too. It was only after I discovered the meaning of my name that the fear eased, and the names and words came to me in a more friendly, less agressive sort of way. Almost as if to say, look, listen to us, remember.


After finding running wind, I paid more attention to what they said, and began looking them up, suprised to start finding that some of the names were actually real people, though I still hadn't heard of PL concepts. It was just more of a curiosity, and wasn't till several years later when I heard a debate about PL on the TV that I suddenly though, oh! Then shortly after that, I accidently discovered this site!


I suppose I ought to add that several years after this event, in the process of following up some other names that came to me passing through that sandstone, I did actually find Running Wind on an Indian census. I know there are several people by that name, but this lady's Indian name was the one I had been near turning over, plus, she was living with a grandaughter whose name and meaning had also previously come to me in similar manner. (I can't remember how on earth I ended up on that particular census, I was actually following a Scottish connection!) Anyways, Running Wind turned out to be Assiniboine living in the Fort Peck reservation in 1886. She was 80 years old. This was also the year my Scottish connection emigrated to the USA....
 
Just thinking on the above, does anyone know how easy it would be to trace anyone living back then? I know it was fairly turbulent, but would deaths have been registered, for example? And what happened to the children if their parents died - were they sent to schools, or taken in by others? And would an 80 year old have been living alone with her 8 year old granddaughter, or would they have lived in multi-family lodgings? Also, I suppose, would they have been living in purposely built 'housing', or within their traditional accomodation?
 
The internet is the best place to search. I think you already knew that. Start by googling different key words and even look for Native American information. Genealogy websites, etc. Newspaperarchives.com. If you google "American Indian Wars" you will get a Wikipedia article that lists all know Native American battles and massacres.
 
Lynnette, over at Ancestry which I think is .... www.ancestry.com, they have a database there entitled, U.S., Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940. I have had a number of Past Lifes with a number of Indian Tribes. The last life was as a young Northern Cheyenne girl up in Montana. These census rolls here will vary from one tribe to the other. I have personally extensively viewed the census rolls for the Northern Cheyenne. If you cannot get on Ancestry by your own personal PC, then you might be able to hook up to it at your local library (library addition) or a local genealogical library.


Now in the Northern Cheyenne rolls, they go from year to year with also listing the births and deaths that happened each year. Now in the late 1800's and for a good period in the 1900's, many of the children were sent to boarding schools. This was a really ugly and sad time for a lot of these children and what they experienced. Now how they lived varied from reservation to reservation. Also among various tribes, instead of the traditional family as we think, they had extended families which went to all relatives and they helped all the family members. And even today one will see the whole family from kids to grandparents all living in one small house.


Hope this helps and Wishing You the Best!
 
Thank you both!


I think perhaps the Fort Peck agency did not register the birth/death lists at the time I am looking out, or else it is just not available on ancestry.com


I did eventually find the granddaughter on the following year living with her aunt and uncle, but then the whole family seem to have disappeared. Given the turbulance, harsh winter and starvation rampant at the time, I am thinking perhaps I am not likely to find them again...


It is thought provoking though, looking at the timeline of what happened during the course of Running Wind's 80 years, from roaming the plains to treatys and deliberate smallpox epidemics, fights and battles, and being banged up on reservations with boundary changes, extermination of their buffalo, and starvation with all resources halved and cut off... they must have had remarkable strength and fortitude to have endured it and survived for so long.
 
This thread is over 10 years old, but I have been watching the Native American history series on TV. Came across this thread from years ago. Perhaps others want to chime in or have something to add? They talked about the Choctaw mounds, but their dress today and 100 years ago is not what I remembered in a past life. So I'm on the hunt for paintings or images of Choctaw men and women in the early 1800's.
 
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