InnerSelf.com

I'm an Indian. I'm one of God's children.

It's time Indians tell the world what we know . . . about Nature and about God. So I'm going to tell what I know and who I am. You better listen. You've got a lot to learn.

I'm a full-blood Indian from the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. My Indian name is Noble Red Man. That was my grandfather's name. White Man mistranslated his name as "King," so they call me Mathew King. But my real name, my Lakota name, is Noble Red Man.

I speak for the Lakota people. You call us "Sioux." But that's White Man's name for us.

Our real name is "Lakota." That means "People together," or "Allies."

That's what we call ourselves.

And that's what God calls us.

Call me a chief of the Lakota. I'm a speaker for the chiefs. I say what I have to say. That's my duty. If I don't say it, who's going to say it for me?

I'm a prophet of the Indian people. I can see what's coming. I prophesy what's going to happen. I walk with the Great Spirit, with God. Wakan-Tanka, that's what we call him in Lakota. I talk to Him. The Great Spirit guides me in my life.

Sometimes He comes to me and tells me what to say. Other times I just speak for myself, for Mathew King.

THE GREAT MYSTERIOUS

You can call Wakan-Tanka by any name you like. In English I call Him God or the Great Spirit.

He's the Great Mystery, the Great Mysterious. That's what Wakan-Tanka really means -- the Great Mysterious.

You can't define Him. He's not actually a "He" or a "She," a "Him" or a "Her." We have to use those kinds of words because you can't just say "It." God's never an "It."

So call Wakan-Tanka whatever you like. Just be sure to call Him.

He wants to talk to you.

TALKING TO GOD

When we want wisdom we go up on the hill and talk to God. Four days and four nights, without food and water. Yes, you can talk to God up on a hill by yourself. You can say anything you want. Nobody's there to listen to you. That's between you and God and nobody else.

It's a great feeling to be talking to God. I know. I did it way up on the mountain. The wind was blowing. It was dark. It was cold. And I stood there and I talked to God.

LISTENING TO GOD

When I go up on the hill to pray I don't just talk to God. I try to get the talking over quick. Mostly I'm listening.

Listening to God -- that's praying, too.

You've got to listen. God's talking to you right now. He's telling you all the words you've got to speak and all the things you've got to do in this life. If you don't listen, you don't hear what God's saying, and then you don't know what God wants you to say and do.

So that's how you pray to God.

You listen.