The life cycle of the individual was marked by fixed ritual acts that opened the gateway to the different social roles he had to enact. These rituals began before birth. Among the Sinkaietk, for example, a pregnant woman was supposed to give birth in a lodge that had been constructed for this purpose. A newborn spent its day strapped in a cradleboard. Naming practices varied among the tribes. The training of the child was left to the mother and grandmother, but even as a small boy a Sinkaietk could accompany his father on fishing and small-game hunting trips, while small girls helped their mothers about the house and in gathering wild foods. Children learned to be hardy through activities such as swimming in cold streams; such exertions were generally supervised by grandparents. Disobedience was rare. When it did occur, it was sometimes met with corporal punishment; some groups allowed parents to call upon the village whipper when children misbehaved.

Religion was, like the rest of the culture, closely intertwined with the region’s ecology. Plateau religions shared several features with indigenous North American religions in general, most notably in their emphases on animism, shamanism, and individual communion with the spirit world.

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak out. Be willing to be split open.” Natalie Goldberg

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Oh, oh-oh-ohOh, oh-oh-ohAll I know, all I knowLoving you is a losing game