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Looking to undo centuries’ worth of Western misrepresentations, both willful and inadvertent, this book reinstates the Twinned Cosmos of Native North America by exploring the Indigenous philosophy of Blood and Breath (or Water and Air). Looking first at the damage wrought by the governmental and missionary quest to dismantle not only Indian spiritualities, but even the memory of them, the text moves to examine the Sacred Twinship through its primary tropes. The necessary interface of earth and sky in constellations, as Serpents and Thunderbirds, are reflected in natural land formations and deliberately placed mounds, joining stories of star and serpent husbands and wives. The text also examines artifacts consciously mimicking the Twinship, from sweat and moon lodges to sweats of the dead and shake-tent ceremonies. The misappropriation of two-spiritedness by Western popular culture is rectified, by canvassing and analyzing the multiple, paired spirits belonging to every living being. The Blood-and-Breath Twinship of dreams and visions is canvassed, with a look at methods of accessing other-consciousness for the sake of community. The red-headed cannibal giants are shown in proper pairing with equally dangerous, underground dwarfs. The Twinship replicated in reincarnation and resuscitation joins the water and fire (cremation) of funerals crucial to setting the multiple spirits of each life free. Each aspect of the Cosmic Twinship is explored through an intensive use of traditional stories, replete with exhaustive examples of each concept, all analyzed from an Indigenous frame of reference.
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