Drumbeat of the Earth

The two-minute video above was taken in 1894. There are three separate clips that show when you tap the picture. It is unique in being rare and old footage of Native Americans drumming and dancing, accessing the drumbeat of the earth. It is also a testament to the lingering intricacy and total culture and traditions of a people who, by then, had faced near genocide in America by white settlers.

Lost Traditions

Each individual wears clothing symbolic of their way of life and for the purpose of the dance. Each one has preserved traditions that had existed for centuries, millennia even. This culture, now almost obliterated, is still treated with bigotry and persecution, four hundred years after the Pilgrims landed and stepped into the American wilderness, a landscape that did not belong to them.

It was not a shining hour for the European invaders — it was a travesty against life. One has to ask why. And no answer comes.

But one of my greatest heroes, Dr. Jane Goodall, was asked how she could feel hope in the midst of what was described as the planet’s race to annihilate itself, much of which she has witnessed firsthand. Dr. Goodall said she finds the good, and focuses on that. It is what gives her strength, and energy, and trust in the universal truth — that whether we know it or not, we are meant to discover how to live in harmony and with compassion.

The Great Spirit

There are powerful forces in Native American culture. These forces come out of immense reverence for the earth, for all of Nature, and for the Great Spirit. Native American traditional drumming, some of which is sounded in the video, has always been a way to express this deep connection.

Our world has let go of this reverence, not only for the planet’s ecology, but for its inhabitants. What is to become of us if we let things stay this way?

We are each responsible for the answer to this. What drives us to care, or not to care?  And if we do not care, do we understand why? It is vital that we do understand, for then we can change our perceptions, and see how to offer hope for our children and their children, onward into the future.

Not everyone wants or needs to be an activist. But everyone has the freedom to act in their own corner of the universe according to their values. It is a choice we always are free to make. So that is where our responsibility lies. Every thought we have, every word we speak, every action we carry out, helps shape this world into what it is and what it becomes.

Our Deep Connection with the Earth

Our heart — our physical heartbeat — is in direct synchronization with the pulsing — the drumbeat of the earth. This has been scientifically measured. It is no accident. We sense this for ourselves when we walk barefoot in the grass. We feel it when we enter the natural world in silence. We know this when we listen to the sound of a thunderstorm. And a thousand other times, we know. It is a knowing that comes from being willing to live in harmony with the earth and with ourselves. It is a form of living in a state of grace.