Chief Thomas Yellowtail’s prayer for inter-faith understanding using the symbolism of a wagon wheel

In his autobiography (“Yellowtail: Crow Medicine Man and Sun Dance Chief”), the late Thomas Yellowtail (1903-1993) explained the outer forms and inner meanings of the essential elements of the Crow Sun Dance religion. In Part Three, “Conclusions,” the final chapter of the book is titled “Make Your Choice.” The text of this clip is excerpted from that chapter. Yellowtail introduces his prayer, and concludes the book, saying: “Each person [can] choose whether to join a religion and way of prayer. There are different reasons why you should do this: of course, you can fear punishment just like the child who disobeys, or you can follow a sacred path because you know and love the sacred ways … There is nothing more I can say except to raise my voice in prayer:…”