It is said that a long time ago, the red nations emerged from a lower world along with other living beings into our present world. It was an Indigenous genesis; an emergence not only of the body, but of the mind and spirit. It is here in the land of mystery, now known as San Luis Valley, that indigenous history began with a primordial birth. The Athabaskan speaking tribes identify the place as in a mystical lake located in the San Juan Mountains and call it Haghiinai. The Pueblo people call it Sipapu and it is somewhere in the valley basin. It is symbolically the womb of Mother Earth. From this place, all life would scatter with the winds in all directions.The subsequent primeval history was kept alive through oral traditions. Imagine stories of “when the mountains smoked” or “when the giant reptiles roam the earth”...and so it happened that time passed and all life scattered with the winds.

For Indigenous nations, evolution was with awareness of the natural order that became the sacred laws for all creation. In time, human beings became initiates in the great ceremonies of life renewals. They were established as a reminder that the Great Spirit’s law pre-dates all things created by man. Once established, it took the powers of the Ancient Ones to awaken consciousness of all living beings to these laws. Certain boundaries were created. Thus, when the world was young, there was harmony and balance. However, because of a need, all life would experience a purification and renewal four times. Now, we are moving into the fifth age, it is said.

Seven generations ago, there began a mass migration of all life toward the place of emergence. Here, within the circle of mountains enfolding the beautiful valley, all life merged and reunited. Some, like the buffalo nation, migrated back from the north leading som eof the human beings. Still others would also return, to take their place in the circle and web of life. But once again, they would be dispossessed. Inevitably, they would return to redeem and insure harmony and balance. One wonders if that is possible now, with all the demands placed on our environment and our destructive behavior towards each other.

It is still a beautiful world. Being amidst the natural world with all surviving wildlife (including nearby alligators), gives us hope even though other life is wary of us, and rightly so. Our past policy of respect and reverence for all life has been less than admirable. We have created a place uninhabitable for them. There is still time to have a personal relationship with all creation.

That may be our saving grace and the key to our survival. For Native Americans, there never was an option. Earth is our mother, sky our father, Sun is grandfather, Moon our grandmother, and all living entities are our relatives.