Everyday is our Christmas. Every meal is our Christmas. At every meal we take a little portion of the food we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged. We pray not the way most Christians pray but we thank the Grandfathers, the Creator…

We are taught as Traditional children that we have abundance. The Creator has given us everything: the water, the air we breathe, the earth, and our energy force: our heart. We are thankful every day. We pray early in the morning, before sunrise.

To the Indian People Christmas is everyday and they don't believe in taking without asking. Herbs are prayed over before being gathered by asking the plant for permission to take some cuttings. An offer of tobacco is made to the plant in gratitude. We do not pull the herb out by its roots, but cut the plant even with the surface of the earth, so that another generation will be born in its place.

It is really important that these ways never be lost. And to this day we feed the elders; we feed the family on Christmas day. We explain to the little children that to receive a gift is to enjoy it, and when the enjoyment is gone, they are to pass it on to another child, so that they, too, can enjoy it. If a child gets a doll, that doll will change hands about eight times in a year, from one child to another.

Everyday is Christmas in Indian Country. Daily living is centered around the spirit of giving and walking the Red Road or White path. Walking the Red Road or White Path means making everything you do a spiritual act. If your neighbor, John Running Deer, needs a potato masher; and you have one that you are not using, you offer him yours in the spirit of giving. It doesn't matter if it is Christmas or not.

If neighbors or strangers stop over to visit at your house, we offer them dinner we bring out the T-bone steak, not the cabbage. If we don't have enough, we send someone in the family out to get some more and mention nothing of the inconvenience to our guests. The more one gives the more spiritual we become. The same spirit of giving that is present at Christmas is present everyday in Indian Country.

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