In the Beginning, we were full of this shinning power, strong because we were pure.  We moved silently through the words. With a silent arrow we killed the animals and ate pure meat.  In silence the fish swam in pure rivers, and we caught them in silence and ate them. In silence our corn and beans and squashes grew from the earth, and those we ate. We drank only clear water, after the milk of our mother’s breast.

I have heard that lost silence. You have not heard it because you have not been dead. Up under the roof of the sky, there is that pure silence.

In the beginning, our people broke that beautiful silence only to pray to the Great Good Spirit, or to speak wisely to council, or to say kind words to our children and our elders, or to give the war cry when we avenged wrong.

Our Creator put us on this wide, rich land and told us we were free to go where the game was, where the soil was good for planting.  That was our state of true happiness. We did not have to beg for anything. Our Creator had taught us how to find and make everything we needed, from trees and plants and animals and stone. We lived in bark, and we wore only the skins of animals. Our Creator taught us how to use fire, in living, and in sacred ceremonies. She taught us how to heal with bark and roots, and how to make sweet foods with berries and fruits, with papaws and the water of the maple tree.  Our Creator gave us tobacco and said, “Send your prayers up to me on this fragrant smoke”. Our Creator taught us how to enjoy loving our mates, and gave us laws to live by, so that we would not bother each other, but help each other.  Our Creator sang to us in the wind and the running water, in the bird songs, in the children’s laughter, and taught us music. And we listened, and our stomachs were never dirty and never troubled us.

Thus were we created. Thus we lived a long time, proud and happy. We had never eaten pig meat, nor tasted the poison of whiskey, nor worn wool from sheep, nor struck fire or dug earth with steel, nor cooked in iron, nor hunted and fought with loud guns, nor ever had diseases which soured our blood or rotted our organs. We were pure, so we were strong and happy.