Ohiyesa/The Great Mystery...

The original attitude of the American Indian toward the Eternal, the 'Great
Mystery' [_Wakan Tanka_] that surrounds and embraces us, was as simple as it was
exalted. To him it was the supreme conception, bringing with it the fullest
measure of joy and satisfaction possible in this life.

"The worship of the 'Great Mystery' was silent, solitary, free from all
self-seeking. It was silent, because all speech is of necessity feeble and
imperfect; therefore the souls of my ancestors ascended to God in wordless
adoration. It was solitary, because they believed that He is nearer to us in
solitude, and there were no priests authorized to come between a man and his
Maker. None might exhort or confess or in any way meddle with the religious
experience of another. Among us all men were created sons of God and stood
erect, as conscious of their divinity. Our faith might not be formulated in
creeds, nor forced upon any who were unwilling to receive it; hence there was no
preaching, proselyting, nor persecution, neither were there any scoffers or
atheists.

"There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural
man, the Indian was intensely poetical. He would deem it sacrilege to build a
house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of
the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy
spires and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night
sky! He who enrobes Himself in filmy veils of cloud, there on the rim of the
visible world where our Great-Grandfather Sun kindles his evening camp-fire, He
who rides upon the rigorous wind of the north, or breathes forth His spirit upon
aromatic southern airs, whose war-canoe is launched upon majestic rivers and
inland seas -- He needs no lesser cathedral!

That solitary communion with the Unseen which was the highest expression of our
religious life is partly described in the word _bambeday_, literally 'mysterious
feeling,' which has been variously translated 'fasting' and 'dreaming. It may
better be interpreted as 'consciousness of the divine'."

Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles Eastman)
_The Soul of the Indian_
http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/eassoul.htm