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Albert Lightning
was a revered old Cree ceremonialist and medicine person from
the Ermineskin band in Hobbema. He was a favourite guest at
spiritual and official gatherings. Meli followed his career and
reports the following:
He spoke of
natural law and how the truth will never lead anyone astray, but
individuals must be strong enough to hold on to their good
decisions. People must not look for physical or material results
from everything they do. Instead, they should pay attention to
their dreams and develop their spirits, feeling good about
helping others and putting themselves last. They must see what
is real in life, not the unreal. I remember Albert nodding in
agreement with Chief John Snow’s words to the crowd: "Although
people think the grandfathers have abandoned us, what with all
the bad things that have been going on in the Indian world,
these spirits have always been with us. It is we who have
forgotten about them." Albert made it clear he wanted to share
his knowledge of the spiritual undercurrents in everyday life
with conference delegates and invited them into his
magnificently painted tipi to see black-and-white, poster-sized
photographs of spiritual images he had collected. One, taken at
the top of a mountain in the Kootenay Plains area of the western
Rockies, showed the distinct form of what looked like a veiled
figure standing out in white against a gray, cloudy sky.
"I show these pictures because so many
people need to see proof before they will believe. I show them so
people might come closer to believing the spirit world and that
the Creator looks out for us," he told the group.
Albert talked
a lot about natural law. He said that humans’ inner natures are
an exact copy of the nature of the universe, and deep knowledge
of the self comes from nature. Western society’s materialism and
technology is unnatural to the point that many people are
unaware of natural cycles and energies and even fear insects,
animals, trees, and birds. As humans become unbalanced, so does
their world. Medicine people understand natural laws and work
with varying frequencies of energy to accomplish what seems
impossible. They know there is a right time and place for
everything and what is possible given a certain set of
circumstances. They know when to pick herbs and not to waste
anything, because waste is unnatural. (Meili, 82f.)

In the Cree language, to take only
one example, the prefix kihci denotes a wide range of
meanings associated with our word, the sacred…admiration,
respect, greatness, venerable, esteemed, holy, hallowed, much
regarded, highly thought of, great value, ultimate, saintly,
sanctity, heavenly, piety, consecration, being blessed, having
to do with deity, taking an oath. Yet it also can have less
spiritual connotations, as for example, thinking one’s self to
be very good (i.e. being ‘snooty’), making a good start on
things, making reference to the queen or a grand chief and even
a great body of water. Consequently, one would adjust one’s
understanding of the word used by the context in which it as
uttered, and even then, one might contend that the usage was not
up to standard. Thus we have suggested in the Introduction that
Nature’s Law can be translated as Kihci weyasowewin
kisipikaskamihk, which can be parsed into the prefix
kihci
(Ultimate, or Sacred) plus weyasowewin (Law) plus kisipikaskamihk (All-over -the-World). What this means; however, cannot be reduced to the meaning of each of these
terms, for the first word alone could be translated a number of
ways, as we have suggested, providing rich potential meanings. The following meanings are merely suggestive, not exhaustive.
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