By Lee Longhorn

“Up in the sky, grandmother sits and weaves a basket. Beside her is her small dog. Whenever grandmother gets close to finishing the basket, the dog jumps in her lap and tears the basket apart. Grandmother has to start all over again weaving the basket. It is said that when grandmother completely finished the basket, she will swoop down from the sky and collect all the Shawnee up in her basket. She will take them up into the sky and she will then destroy the Earth.” -Shawnee story, told to me by Darrell E. Longhorn

I was thinking about this story not too long ago. I think it is especially appropriate considering all the talk as of late that the world is supposed to end in 2012.

I wouldn’t consider myself a very religious person. In fact, I probably couldn’t name all 10 commandments. In fact, if a gun was pointed to my head, I could probably rattle off about five commandments. There are probably a few who would call me more cultural than religious. I think that is where the line can sometimes be blurred.

God, Creator, Grandfather, Grandmother, Ofvnkv; take your pick. Culturally and religiously, I grew up in the Absentee Shawnee and Muscogee (Creek) culture. In short, I grew up Shawnee and Creek. Yet, the one question that sometimes comes up in my head is which is right?

In the Shawnee culture, I remember hearing that “God” was a woman. In the Creek culture, Ofvnkv (Creek for word “Creator”) was a non-gender being. How do you know what’s right? A very long time ago my grandmother took me to church and I remember hearing about Adam and Eve, the Devil, Jesus and other stories that they teach you in Sunday school. Surprisingly, the most I learned about the Christian faith was at Christmas and Easter. Is it sad that I learned about Chanukah from the Rugrats television show?

To me, it’s more about following what you believe in and where your heart lies. In the future, I will indulge more about the cultures in which I grew up and their specifics. For now, I would consider myself a traditionalist. I support and follow the cultural and traditional practices in the Creek culture. I quit being active in Shawnee culture a couple of years ago and that’s a whole novel in itself. Because of my low blood-quantum on the Creek side, many people see me as just Creek. They know there’s some Shawnee in me because of my last name.

I’m going to affirm my belief that your religious beliefs coincide with your identity. I don’t want someone to just think that I’m some hippie, sky-watching, tree hugging, spiritual, crazy, person. I believe in the Creek traditional practices.

Sorry, Onondoga side. Maybe I should look more into it.

Lee Longhorn is a 2011 graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He is currently an intern reporter with the Muscogee Nation News.