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Your missionary ancestors told Indian people that they were worshipping a false god when we prayed to the sun. The sun is the most powerful physical presence in our lives. Without it we could not live and our world would perish. Yet our reverence for it, our awe, was considered idolatry.

But your missionary ancestors misunderstood even that much, because we never worshipped the sun. We merely saw in it the reflection of the sacred, the creator, and used its image to focus our prayers of thanksgiving for Creator’s life-giving power. It is, for us, a constant reminder of the creative power of God, as we greet the sun in the morning when we first arise and again in the evening. In between, as we go about our day, we constantly will see our shadow on the ground and will be reminded again of God’s creative goodness. We can stop, look up, and say a short prayer whenever this happens.

From A Native American Theology, by Clara Sue Kidwell, Homer Noley and George E. “Tink” Tinker, published by Orbis Books in 2001