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Clare Sheridan – Redskin interlude

…..the Tailfeather family had a salutary effect upon me, they brought me back to earth.

It is not good to remain indefinitely in a state of ecstatic emotion. Not only my work, but the prairie at sunset, affected me in an extraordinary way. I believe that vibrations are responsible for most of our actions and reactions, our ills and depressions, and also for our moods and inspirations.

In populated districts the ether is vibrant with human thought and tangles, hates, loves, ambitions, and complexes. It was very different on this sheltered Reservation far from " the intricate cross-currents of world life." Here were 500 square miles inhabited by 1500 people, without shops, factories, newspapers, or politics. There was never any talk of war, of armaments, investments, or labour troubles. A self-contained, poverty-stricken, serene world.

Just as the Sahara awakens in one's soul a deep spiritual consciousness, so too the prairie in the stillness of its immensity filled one with a realisation of the Great Spirit.

One evening, which for me was an anniversary of rather more than usual significance, the sky in every direction was so brilliant, the clouds so varied in colour and form, I found myself pivoting on one spot, gazing upward in bewildered wonderment. This glory seemed to be circling round my head-I felt myself being drawn up in a kind of spiral out of my body.

It lasted perhaps only a second-a flash of illumination so wonderful, so unearthly, that it left me dizzy.

The sun set behind a hill which was a solid dark mass against the flaming glow. In the far distance the Rocky Mountains formed a clear blue parapet. There was an uncanny hush, in vivid contrast to the day, when the prairie was full of the sounds of birds and beasts, of foals crying for their mothers, stallions neighing noisily, the lowing of cattle and chattering of magpies-but this night the horses were silent shadows.

Surely the world on the Other Side must be like this ?

I thought I had passed over.