NATIVE AMERICAN / CHEROKEE In a time before ours, humans could talk with animals, hear whisperings from plant life, and understand the origin stories written in the stars. Survival depended on active kinship with family and tribe, with four-leggeds and plant people, with sun and moon and fire. The Cherokee, known widely as the Principal People or the First People, hold a deeply tapestried collection of stories about human interrelatedness with nature. Those stories, passed down through countless generations of Cherokee, are especially significant at this time in human history, when Mother Earth suffers under the weight of unchecked "progress." As a boy, J.T. Garrett sat beside his grandfather and the other medicine men of his tribe as they chanted and drummed the stories of his ancestry. From those stories of the Sun (Nu Dah), Grandmother Moon, Spring Rain, and Little Eagle comes this collection of active meditations for reconnecting with the natural intelligence that is our birthright. Recognizing that we are all kin in the Universal Circle of Life opens us to communication with all beings, bringing us back to our natural spirit selves. If we listen carefully to the Cherokee stories of the Old Ways we can gain understanding of lost social and spiritual traditions that can help ensure a thriving future. J.T. GARRETT, ED.D., M.P.H., of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, is a public health director in North Carolina and is retired from the U.S. Public Health Service, Indian Health Service.Trained in Native American medicine and coauthor of Medicine of the Cherokee, Dr. Garrett is devoted to presenting the old teachings of his ancestry to guide people in living the Medicine Way.