This is the material or physical
prayer.

The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water,
Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always
secondary and intermediate in character. We believed that the spirit
pervades all creation and that every creature possesses a soul in some
degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself. The tree, the
waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such an
object of reverence.

The Indian loved to come into sympathy and spiritual communion with his
brothers of the animal kingdom, whose inarticulate souls had for him
something of the sinless purity that we attribute to the innocent and
irresponsible child. He had faith in their instincts, as in a mysterious
wisdom given from above; and while he humbly accepted the supposedly
voluntary sacrifice of their bodies to preserve his own, he paid homage
to their spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings.

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with
the influence of pure reason over its devotees. The Indian was a logical
and clear thinker upon matters within the scope of his understanding,
but he had not yet charted the vast field of nature or expressed her
wonders in terms of science. With his limited knowledge of cause and
effect, he saw miracles on every hand,--the miracle of life in seed and
egg, the miracle of death in lightning flash and in the swelling deep!
Nothing of the marvelous could astonish him; as that a beast should
speak, or the sun stand still. The virgin birth would appear scarcely
more miraculous than is the birth of every child that comes into the
world, or the miracle of the loaves and fishes excite more wonder than
the harvest that springs from a single ear of corn.

Who may condemn his superstition? Surely not the devout Catholic, or
even Protestant missionary, who teaches Bible miracles as literal fact!
The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American
Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as
credible as those of the Hebrews of old. If we are of the modern type
of mind, that sees in natural law a majesty and grandeur far more
impressive than any solitary infraction of it could possibly be, let
us not forget that, after all, science has not explained everything. We
have still to face the ultimate miracle,--the origin and principle
of life! Here is the supreme mystery tha