From https://tribalcollegejournal.org/four-legged-healers-horse-culture-as-medicine/
What do we think of when we hear the word “therapy”? Living in the modern world that we do, some may think of psychological treatment that they would receive in a clinic or hospital. Others may think of group counseling meetings. We must recognize that these are interventions that are based on the western European paradigm of illness and diagnosis, in which an individual is experiencing “symptoms,” and treatment draws upon scientific knowledge to reduce those symptoms. Now, placing ourselves in history, what did our ancestors do for therapy? Those who still practice traditional Native culture may think of medicine people who use plants, herbs, or other natural remedies. Of course this would not be called therapy, but rather something like medicine or healing. Taking it even further, let’s imagine our ancestral nations when they were flourishing cultures. What might we discover? Images reflecting the “Masters of the Plains” may come to mind; societies in which all goods and practices were tied to nature in every way. I am suggesting that these images do not only reflect visual scenes or cultural practices, but that they also demonstrate a health and wellness paradigm. That is, living well meant there was no separation between nature and the people. We knew our place within nature; we knew that we are nature. As such, we honored and learned from our relatives, such as the horse nation, buffalo nation, and silent nation (plants), about living in balance. The extent to which we currently see ourselves as individual people, separate from nature and each other, is a sign of our adopting a western European paradigm as a result of colonization. However, during this current generation, as prophesized by Black Elk, many Indigenous people are reclaiming their own worldviews and using these for healing. With humility, I genuinely believe this is what Black Elk saw when he spoke of us “Mending the Sacred Hoop.”
A growing movement in Indian Country, horse culture-based wellness and therapy draws on the historic connections between horses and Indigenous peoples.
HORSES AS HEALERS
“Siya’ka said that once, when hard pressed on the warpath, he dismounted, and standing in front of his horse spoke to him, saying:
Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony
In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again
Hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…
Linguistic Note: The word “Hozho” in Dine’ (roughly translated) Concept of Balance and Beauty. Consideration of the nature of the universe, the world, and man, and the nature of time and space, creation, growth, motion, order, control, and the life cycle includes all these other Navajo concepts expressed in terms quite impossible to translate into English. Some Navajos might prefer the term: “Nizhoni” meaning ‘just beauty.”
Written by Robert S. Drake, for Tom Holm, PhD, University of Arizona American Indian Graduate Studies Program, Native American Religions and Spirituality.
Painting from https://fineartamerica.com/featured/spirit-indian-war-horse-marcia-baldwin.html
