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MyStory: Seeking: A Spiritual Path
by Carolyn Woodall
Elder Ben Weenie didn’t set out to be a spiritual leader. He is a sweat lodge leader and pipe carrier by right of knowledge, given to him by the Spirits and added to and acknowledged by other Elders in his community. In Aboriginal communities it is one of the few ways to become a spiritual leader.
“I didn’t say, ‘Oh one day I’m going to be a spiritual powerful person.’ Cause to us that’s dangerous. ‘By what means,’ they’ll (the Elders) say. ‘By what means? You gonna step on people?’”
The spiritual teachings of the Aboriginal people remain oral histories, passed on only to those who are found worthy. The right to perform any ceremony is granted in dreams sent by the Spirits. Sweat lodge leaders must then seek further understanding and knowledge with the help of Elders in the community.
“You have to attain that right. It has to come to you in a dream. If you appease your people and you appease on a spiritual level then you’re there.”
“I was 27 when I started my ceremonial Ways. When the elders knew I didn’t drink or had quit drinking then they opened up to me and showed me a lot of the Ways.”
However not every Aboriginal senior can pass on this knowledge. “There are a lot of people that are older than me but they don’t have that knowledge because of the residential schools. Some are 70(yrs) or 80(yrs) but they’re not into ceremonies. They don’t have the songs because they were brainwashed by the Church in the residential schools.”
Aboriginal ceremonies are known as lodges. This term refers to the ceremony and includes the structure built specifically to hold it. Although Aboriginal ceremonies can be likened to church services, they are in fact a more complex celebration. Ceremonial leaders must be granted the right and the knowledge to perform a ceremony. And unlike a priest, no one individual leader necessarily has the knowledge or the permission to perform each individual ceremony.
“There are other people for different lodges. I’m not the only lodge holder. We have about seven or eight lodges. Our big lodge is our Rain Dance Lodge. That’s held in the summer.”
“In the Horse Dance Lodge we use poplar poles and make a Teepee-like lodge. Fourteen poles are covered with canvas. Then we have a feast in there and pipe ceremonies, and there are people sitting outside. Whoever holds the feast brings the food and then clears away and then brings in horses. The horses are led in succession a round the circle. We sing spiritual songs of the Horse spirit…” The Horse Dance lodge is held in times of need, when someone is ill or when it is given in a dream by the Spirits.
There are fewer sweat lodge leaders in Weenie’s community now than when he was younger. His childhood was a time of happy memories and closely-held traditions. Many Elders have since passed on, leaving fewer leaders to perform the ceremonies and carry out their traditions. It is now up to him and the other Elders to pass this knowledge on to worthy Aboriginal youth.
“Now a lot of our younger people are learning, but what we’re scared of is that the theory, the teachings… to maintain that, to not sell-out, not to desecrate the knowledge. It’s not something we put on for a show. Pow wows, Round Dance - we can do that for the general public. The ceremony is only for the believers. It’s not there to show. Don’t exploit your religion. Don’t exploit people’s problems, use them as learning tools.”
“We can never go back to buffaloes and Teepee days but our teachings are meant to last us even if we live under the earth, under the ocean, in the sky someplace. The teachings are there because they come from our Creator – the laws of the universe; the laws of nature; the laws of man. We need to respect what we have.”
Elder Ben J. Weenie, is a Cree healer from the Sweetgrass Cree Nation of Saskatchewan, and a spiritual leader in the Aboriginal community.
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