Sacred Places in North America: A Journey into the Medicine Wheel [Hardcover]

Courtney Milne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1995

With the guidance of local Native American peoples, Milne has photographed more than 50 of the most sacred places in North America that capture the profound legacy of this land's original inhabitants and celebrate the beauty and magic of its natural landscape. Over 100 color photos.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

At the dawn of the 1990 autumn equinox, Courtney Milne climbed into the bucket of a hydraulic lift and was hoisted forty feet into the air beside the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in northern Wyoming. From that perspective, it seemed to him as though the Big Horn Wheel linked the distant plains with the heavens. And so, the wheel became the starting point of his photographic journey as he followed each spoke across the continent in search of sacred landscapes.

The photographs in "Sacred Places in North America" include specific sites that the First Nations identify as holy, as well as other natural landforms that capture the mystical essence of the earth.

With the guidance of local Native peoples, Milne has photographed such well-known sites as Mount Shasta and the Badlands, to lesser-known but no less spectacular places like Manito Ahbee, Enchanted Rock, and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

With more than 125 spectacular full-color photographs, this extraordinary book documents fifty fascinating places that capture the profound legacy of this land's original inhabitants and celebrate the magic and beauty of its natural landscape. Here is a sensitive and inspiring portrait of the land the Native Americans called Great Turtle Island, and of the enduring spiritual and cultural traditions of its people.

From EAST Page 14

EAST - To the East and thy sentry, the Red Eagle/ Grant us light that we may see our faults/ And have better understanding with everyone.

Manito Ahbee -Place of Beginning

The story of the Origin of Man

Here at Manito Ahbee, it is said the Original Man was lowered by rope from the sky to become the first inhabitant of Turtle Island, so named because after the Great Flood, the Earth was formed on the back of a turtle. It is here that Original Man received from the Great Spirit the following seven sacred teachings: wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth-the principles to guide the Anishanabe in caring for the earth and for each other. These teachings have been recorded in the stone shapes of animal figures and geometric designs called petroforms, which are unique to Manito Ahbee.

The age of the petroforms is not known, but the Anishanabe believe they were built by spirits as a physical reminder of their sacred instructions. One form of a turtle and a snake is said to interpret the afterlife journey of the spirit. Some are used ceremonially by medicine people during tobacco offerings and healing rituals. At Bannock Point, one of two major sites in the area of Manito Ahbee, a human effigy lies face up, arms and legs outstretched. According to the Medewewin, an Anishanabe asked Waynaboozhoo (also known as Nanabush, or in Cree as Wesake Jack) to grant him everlasting life. Waynaboozhoo, ho was both spirit and man, both trickster and guide, complied by turning him forever into a stone effigy.

Today Manito Ahbee is revered by the Anishanabe as a gateway to higher understandings, as a site of origin that is connected to other spiritual centers on our planet. It will stand for eternity as a place to teach, to heal and to pray. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Stewart Tabori & Chang; First edition. edition (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556704143
• ISBN-13: 978-1556704147
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,747,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Pictures; thoughtful; insightful; get it!, October 13, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Places in North America : A Journey Into the Medicine Wheel (Paperback)

Saw this at a friend's house and had to purchase it. Incredible listing of magical places and spaces to visit from afar or plan to visit in person.

This should be a must for everyone's coffee table; the power of the places emanate from every page and suggests visions and answers that elders have found and preserved for us to investigate now.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and fascinating book., May 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sacred Places in North America: A Journey into the Medicine Wheel (Hardcover)

This is a very beautiful and fascinating book. It has wonderful photographs of sacred sites in Canada and the United States, along with Native American legends about the sites. I highly recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful photography!, June 12, 2007

By 

T. Martin "Walk with the Ancient Ones" (Prairie land USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sacred Places in North America : A Journey Into the Medicine Wheel (Paperback)

This is a really nice book, gorgeous photo work, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more on Medicine Wheels in it. Nevertheless, it's a keeper.