Spirit of the Land: Sacred Places in Native North America

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Canadian photographer Courtney Milne established an international
reputation with The Sacred Earth. Spirit of the Land, with its 193 color
photographs, takes us to 54 places in North America that have special
significance for Native peoples. Milne’s photographs are breathtaking.
They pulse with emotional and spiritual power, as well as visual
splendor. It would be difficult to imagine better nature photography.
Brief yet substantial texts accompany each group of photos, providing
historical and geological data and information on the Native traditions
connected with the area. Milne has divided the book into four major
parts to correspond with the four cardinal directions, the four seasons,
and the four stages of life.

Brian Maracle, a Mohawk Nation writer, notes in a foreword that the
ancient sacred places are enveloped in mystery. Yet rock paintings,
petroglyphs, inukshuks, and totem poles continue to testify to
humankind’s sacred bond with the land, and they confront us with the
question of what we are leaving for our descendants.

In a short introduction, Milne writes that the idea for the book came
to him at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It struck a chord, as
he has long felt a kinship with Native spiritual values: “Twenty years
of photographing the land have drawn me ever closer to the life-giving
cycles and rhythms of nature. ... The photos in this book have been
selected to convey my impressions of how it felt to be at these
places.” They succeed in doing just that.