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of the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela describe the history of it is vividly imagined, sense of place asserts itself at vary-
human consciousness as beginning in the House of To- ing levels of mental and emotional intensity. Whether it
bacco Smoke. When a Warao shaman applies tobacco is lived in memory or experienced on the spot, the
smoke to a patient or a victim, he breathes a cosmolog- strength of its impact is commensurate with the richness
of its contents, with the range and diversity of symbolic
ical force that simultaneously reaches back to primordial
associations that swim within its reach and move it on its
origins, heals in the present, and establishes ethical re-
course. (Basso 1996, 143, 145)
sponsibilities and orientations into the future. For the
Warao wisdom-keepers tobacco symbolism is a linkage Thus, Native American lifeways provide multiple ways
to an archaic shamanistic substratum that still extends of thinking about history, namely, in terms of the pre-
throughout the American hemisphere, according to Wil- contact history of Native American societies, the history
bert in Mystic Endowment (1993). of the encounter with European cultures, and the modes
of historical consciousness embedded within Native
American religions themselves.
Place and Historical
John A. Grim
Consciousness
Finally, a widespread cultural activity among Native Amer- See also Art—Native North America
icans that provides exceptional insight into their histori-
cal consciousness is sensing place. Native sensing of
Further Reading
place is a daily, lifeway engagement with the local land-
Asatchaq. (1992). The things that were said of them: Shaman stories
scape as a means of cultivation of self and community. and oral histories of the Tikigaq. Berkeley: University of California
Ordinary lifeway interactions with local places are charged Press.
Basso, K. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Landscape and language
with stories that transmit ethical teachings, community
among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
identities, and cosmological presences. Press.
The felt authority of the past in a particular place is Capps,W. (1976). Seeing with a native eye: Essays on Native American
religion. New York: Harper Forum Books.
communicated with humor and poignancy by the West- Hill, J. D. (1988). Rethinking history and myth: Indigenous South
ern Apache, whose understanding of place is likened to American perspectives on the past. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press.
drinking deeply of the ancestral wisdom that resides
Hoxie, F. E. (1988). Indians in American history. Arlington Heights, IL:
there. Such wisdom cannot be taught by rote but is awak- Harlan Davidson.
ened by engaging place deeply with all of the senses, Mihesuah, D. A. (1998). Native and academics: Researching and writing
about American Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
with one’s body. This is a historical consciousness that Nabokov, P. (2002). A forest of time: American Indian ways of history.
acknowledges informative ideas rising up from soil, that Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ortiz, A. (1969). The Tewa world: Space, time, being, and becoming in a
filters stories linked to places through one’s own emo-
Pueblo society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
tions, and that searches visually and intellectually for a Sando, J. S. (1982). Nee Hemish:A history of Jemez Pueblo. Albuquerque:
whole understanding.After hearing a story of an Apache University of New Mexico Press.
Thornton, R. (1998). Studying native America: Problems and prospects.
ancestor who fooled Coyote by enticing him to look up Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
at her in a tree, Keith Basso describes how an Apache wis- Wa, G., & Delgam, U. (1987). The spirit of the land: The opening state-
ment of the Gitskan and Wets’uwetén hereditary chiefs in the Supreme
dom teacher, Dudley Patterson, affirmed his deep yearn-
Court of British Columbia. Gabrola, BC: Reflections.
ing to know the historical presence in places, saying: Walters,A. L. (1992). Talking Indian: Reflections on survival and writing.
Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.
“Our Ancestors did that!” Dudley exclaims with undis- Wilbert, J. (1993). Mystic endowment: Religious ethnography of the
guised glee.“We all do that, even the women and children. Warao Indians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Center for the
We all look up to see her with her legs slightly apart.These Study of World Religions.
Wub-e-ke-niew. (1995). We have the right to exist: A translation of “Abo-
places are really very good! Now you’ve drunk from one! riginal indigenous thought,” the first book ever published from an
Now you can work on your mind.” ... As vibrantly felt as Ahnishinahbaeotjiway perspective. New York: Black Thistle Press.