Wisdom's daughters : conversations with women elders of Native America
(Book)

This is the first book in which spiritual leaders among Native American women portray in their own words their ancestral knowledge, philosophies, and traditions. Steve Wall traveled across North America, visiting the Mohawk and the Hoh, the Chumash and the Seminole, the Tewa and the Ojibway, the Oneida and the Seneca, the Cowichan and the Northern Cheyenne. He talked at length with the women elders and their families as well as with the members of their nations. And he photographed them as he did for his previous book, Wisdomkeepers. Completely open and direct, the elders talk about their role as owners of the moon, as carriers of life and protectors of the life force, about the sacredness of menstruation, and about children, medicine, men, sex, and ceremony. There is an urgency to their words because, according to the ancient prophecies, "This is the time of the women." These daughters of wisdom speak for the first time in print of the necessity for unity and harmony with Mother Earth and all living things, and of their sense that for humankind and the earth time is running out. Wisdom's Daughters allows the reader to experience the daily transforming events of these women's lives in their homes and among their people.