The tree of life

The tree of life

A tree is an image of the life.
It grows.
If he is badly, he heals himself.
If it is exhausted, he died.

A tree reflects the life.
It changes itself.
When changes, he restores himself
...and the same always remains.

A tree gives life.
He is steady.
He grants lives,
but its own remains without reduction.

Trees give me everything,
everything that I need.
I do not have to give anything to the tree
…as my praise singing.

When I look at a tree,
thus I remember that:

The apple tree can my hunger satisfy,
the maple can delete my thirst,
the spruce can heal my wounds and cuts,
the bark of the birch can form my home
....and can form my canoe and my receptacles,
that the skin of the birch the pictures to take up,
which I paint,
the fruits of the grapevine can my feathers give color.
the Hickory bends itself to my bow
...and the wood of the cherry tree
becomes the shank of the arrow.



The fern can bed my body for my sleep,
the lime tree can form the doll for my daughter,
the ash, my snow shoe, can carry me over the snow,
the tobacco can carry my prayers to God,
The sweet grass can fulfill my tepee with smell,
the root of the evergreen can hold my carriage
and my boat together,
stub and branch can warm my Tepee,
the rose and the daisies can warm up
the soul of the woman,
the leaves in the wind can open my spirit.

The elder says, "Kitche Manitu (our Creator)
have create the world in a certain order.
First the material world, the sun, moon, earth and stars;
afterwards the plant world, the trees,
flowers, grasses and fruits.

Thus in former times there were the plants
and the animals bevor the Anishnabeg (Ojibwa).
They could exist alone; they were not dependent for their life
or well-being issued on other natures.

Aho
~u-ne-ga-wa-ya~
(Whitewolfe)