The Book of the Omaha

The Turning of the Child
 
Here is an excerpt from The Book of the Omaha (pp.9-12) that explains the ritual of The Turning of the Child. It involves presenting a child and having them take their first steps with moccasins that symbolize the importance of walking on the earth. In the ceremony the priest says the words, “Here the truth has been spoken to you. Because of this truth you shall stand.” We are called to stand in the strength of truth. Truth is the way.
 
The Book of the Omaha contains many stories that teach Omaha tribal wisdom and ways.

Blackbird Bend Farm, where I spent my childhood, is surrounded by sacred Omaha Tribal lands. Wisdom comes from walking the sacred land. Let’s put on our moccasins and walk forward.
 
V. The Child is Placed in the COSMOS, in the Tribe, and in the Tribe's Fight

The sacred winds which blew the land dry for the first elk and eventually for mankind were also the sacred winds which were called when a child was brought to a priest to be placed in the midst of time, at the ceremony of the "Turning of the Child." One author describes the ceremony as follows:

The ceremony of the Turning of the Child took place in the springtime, after the first thunders had been heard when the grass was well up and the birds were singing, usually the meadowlark. A t the time the tribal herald pro- claimed that the time for the ceremony had come. A tent was set up for the purpose, a tent which was made sacred. And the priest made himself ready and entered the tent. Meanwhile, the parents, whose children had arrived at the proper age, would walk with their little ones to the sacred tent. The only thing necessary for the child to bring was a pair of new moccasins. Much of the ceremony was lost before recordings of Omaha ceremony were made, but some things are recorded.

The tent in which the ceremony was conducted was always the large one set facing the east and opened at the entrance so that the people of the Omaha tribe could see something of what was going on inside the tent. In the center of the tent was a fire. On the east of the fire was placed a stone, which probably symbolized the rock of the universe. There was also a ball of grass placed at the west of the fireplace, near its edge which symbolized the lightning in the sky. The mother, who led the child to the tent, paused at the door of the tent, and addressed the priest, saying "Venerable man, I desire my child to wear moccasins. " She then dropped the hand of the child; the little one, carrying his new moccasins, entered the tent, alone. He was met by the priest who went to the door to receive the gifts brought by the mother. Here, she again addressed the priest, saying "I desire my child to walk long upon the earth; desire him to be content with the light of many days; we seek your protection. We hold to you for strength. "

The priest would reply to the mother, addressing the child, "You shall reach the fourth hill sighing:

You shall be bowed over;
You shall have wrinkles;
Your staff shall bend under your weight.
 
I speak to you that you may be strong.

Laying his hand on the shoulder of the child, he would add: "What you have brought me shall not be lost to you. You will live long and enjoy many possessions.
Your eyes will be satisfied with many good things."

Then the priest would move with the child toward the fireplace in the center of the lodge. He would speak as if he were the thunder:
HI the thunder, am a powerful being. I breathe from my lips over you."
Then the priest would begin to sing a prayer addressed to the winds which asked that the winds do for the child what the wind did for the first elk and the first man: place him firmly upon the rock in the center of the universe and give him a long and well nourished life. The four who are addressed in the prayer are the four winds.

Ye four, come hither and stand Near shall ye stand.
In four groups shall ye stand, Here shall ye stand
In this place stand.
There follows a roll of thunder (drum) and then the thunder goes on to speak as the child is being turned from the East to the South to the West to the North:

Turned by the winds goes the one I send yonder.
Yonder he goes, who is whirled by the winds,
Goes where the four hills of life and the four winds are standing. There in the midst o f the winds do I send him,
Into the midst of the winds. Stand there.
The thunder rolls one more time.
The priest now places the moccasins on the feet of the child. The child is then lifted and put on his feet and made to take four steps, which symbolize

his entrance into a long life. As the new moccasins are put on, and the four steps are taken, the priest says or sings:
Here the truth has been spoken to you.
Because of this truth you shall stand.
Here the truth is declared.
Here-in this place-the truth has been shown you. Therefore, arise, go forth in the strength of the truth.
The thunder rolls one more time and the name of the child is announced. Then the priest in the voice of the thunder cries:
Ye hills, grass, trees, creeping things,
Both great and small-/ bid you hear.
This child has thrown away his baby name.

The thunder which speaks in the poem is the power of war and a main messenger between the First Spirit and man. He is particularly the messenger of that power which is placed in man for the purposes of protecting his society. Each of the four directions has its thunderbird, and the thunder- birds are the bringers of the thunder and of power.

When a boy was two years old, old enough to be consecrated as a warrior, he was brought to the sacred tent for the ceremony of the consecration to the thunder. In the ceremony, the priest cut the young man's hair as a symbol of the thunder's capacity to cut down the child's life. The priest gathered a tuft from the crown of the boy's head, tied it, cut it off, and then laid it away in a case which was kept as a sacred case. As the priest cut the hair, he sang a ritual song to explain what he had done.

In the ceremony, a rock was placed to the west of the fire, a bundle of grass was placed near the fire to represent the force of lightning and thunder. In the first part of the ceremony, the priest took the young man to the west of the fire and faced him toward the east, he cut a piece of hair from the crown of his head, and as he cut the piece of hair, he sang the following song:

Grandfather, Grandfather Thunder, far above on high: The hair like a shadow passes before you.
Grandfather Thunder, far above on high;
Dark like a shadow the hair sweeps before you,
into the midst of your realm.