All tribal naming ceremonies are impressive. They are impressive for their expression of love from the tribe and from the family. They are impressive for showing the responsibility of being of service to the circle of the tribe and of family.
Here’s part of my story.
I hurried one afternoon to the bedside of a girl, 19 years old, dying of pneumonia. She had been with her parents in the Red River Valley working in the potato fields. I prayed over her, blessed her, visited with her parents. They were Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Cree. They stood praying, helpless in the darkening room.
When the sun had set, I had to leave.
Next morning, early, I came in the back door. The doctor met me, “What in the ----- did you do to that girl? She’s going to be OK.”
A year later, after he had made the right preparation, the father came up to the mission and knocked. “Father, I’d like to have a ceremony for you.” I was grateful. “When you finish your Masses on Sunday, you come to the powwow grounds. We’ll all be ready.” Other families were having ceremonies.
The prayer leader at a ceremony names the personality, or the character, of the person. He does not name the person. He prays and declares how the person is ready to serve the people. He said that I was “The Eagle That Blesses.”
Months later on my rounds with my partner Sister Susan, we stopped at the girl’s old home. She had married. She lived some distance away.
As we talked at the kitchen table a mood came over the father. I signaled to Sister, “Sssh. He’s got something to say.”
He raised his hand solemnly. “Father, when I was a little boy I got that sickness that we got from white people. Whenever we got that sickness we always died. I was hot, then I was cold. I was shivering, then I was sweating. I wanted to go to where the good people are. They always told me that where the good people are there are lots of nice things. Lots of kids, lots of ponies, lots of choke cherries, lot of pecans, lots of other good things and lots of fun, they say. So I wanted to go.
“But my mother wouldn’t let me go. She kept telling me, ‘You can’t go, my boy. We need you. You stay there. I’m going to get auntie.’
“Father, auntie could cure anything. And, when she came, she got down on the floor with me and made me take off my shirt, and she started rubbing me, and rubbing me, and rubbing me. That felt good, but I still wanted to go where the good people are.
“Then she quit, and she sat back on her heels. She told me, ‘Now you are well. You’re going to live a long time, and you will be a prayer leader. You will do good things, and your name now is “The Eagle That Blesses”.’
“She told me, ‘If you are a leader, here are four things that you’ve got to do: first, always listen. When you listen, you’ll hear God talking to you in the clouds and in the trees and in the animals and telling you what to do. Then, be humble. It’s only the humble one who can hear God and take Him in. The proud one, No. He can’t do that. Next, you must be forgiving. Never try to get even. If you try to get even, you get down, and that’s no good. Next, you have to be generous. If you can’t give it away, that means that it ain’t yours. You don’t even have it.’
“‘O yes,’ she said, ‘There’s one more thing. That’s a strong name you’ve got. Don’t let that name die. One day you will die, but don’t let that name die. Look around you, before you die, and give that name to some body else who can carry it.’
“And you know what, Father? Lately I don’t feel too good, and I told my wife that. She looked at me and she said, ‘You know what you got to do, old man. Don’t let that name die. Give that name to Father Stan. He’ll keep it for you.’
“And so, Father, that’s what I did and why I had that ceremony for you.”
Be silent, be humble, be forgiving, be generous. Would those ways of living be good for all leaders, do you think?