Bush Notes U.S. Prayer Tradition by Acknowledging “the Great Spirit”

Dear President Bush,

You noted that America’s history is inexorably tied to prayer saying “America is a nation of prayer. It’s impossible to tell the story of our nation without telling the story of people who pray.” How true as native Americans prayed to the Great Spirit long before the white man came to the new world. That they continued to pray as the white man preyed on them and the abundant natural resources is part of that history.

They prayed as the white man’s leaders broke treaty after treaty, preying on their ancestral lands. They prayed as their people were rounded up like cattle with many slaughtered, as the white man preyed on their people. In their darkest days the native leaders said “we will make war no more”, something the overtly faithful white leaders have yet to do over a hundred years later. They prayed as they were forced onto reservations, given white man last names, and the Great Spirit’s lands divided up according to their conqueror’s customs. Only men of age could hold titled land. They prayed as they were forced to attend English only schools in an attempt to white wash their culture. The white man preyed on their ways of living.

Yes, at quiet moments around the fire, the native people were humbled, strengthened and blessed by prayer. They needed such for the decisive moments the history writing white men had in store for them. And they still pray for the white man’s leaders. They pray for you….