Four Hills Of Life: Aboriginal Heritage And Culture

Four Hills of Life
Ebony Gribbons
Aboriginal Heritage and Culture-NATV1002
Monty McGahey
November 26, 2014

Four Hills of Life
The “Four Hills of Life” story is about people and their paths throughout their journey in life. Weegwauss (Birch) shares his disturbing dream with Chejuak (Crane) and asks for his guidance to help him understand his dream and the meaning of it. The dream is based on four hills and as Weegwauss tells Chejuak, he explains he saw four great hills “The first was steep and jagged; the second and third were less steep and rugged; the fourth was craggy and almost perpendicular, the top enshrouded by a thick white mist. And even though the hills were distant, I saw them clearly and everything upon them” (Johnston,
Weegwauss has a disturbing dream were he must find guidance and understand the meaning of it from Chejuak. Chejuak is a wise man where he helps and heals people. Weegwauss explains his story to Chejuak and tells him his dream he had where there was four great hills and how they each had different characteristics. As Weegwauss shares his story, he explains, “On the slop of the hill were countless infants crawling from bottom to the crown. At the base, only the smallest, youngest, and frailest were to be seen. As the infants proceeded toward the crest they got older and stronger. Near the top were the oldest infants.” (Johnston, 1929) Along the way, Weegwauss noticed that not all made it to the top of the crest, but the ones that did survive continued along the way while they were struggling. Not only did Weegwauss dreamed of this, but also he was living in it as well as he saw himself make it over the first hill. After he survives the first hill, he moves onto the second along with the other survivors, where the infants have now transformed into children. The second hill where these infants were now children, Weegwauss sees more energy. The boys and girls “had greater scope, greater powers; they played games of racing, wrestling, swimming shooting; they worked, carrying wood, picking berries, hunting, and fishing. Laughter filled the
As Weegwauss shares his story about his dream, he explains there were infants on the first hill, which represents new beginnings. The medicine wheel of “Wabanong, Spirit Keeper of the east, It is the place of new beginnings like spring. It is the life stage of infancy when everything is new to us.” (The Circle of Turtle Lodge , 2003) The first hill of “Four Hills of Life” and the east of the medicine wheel relate because both of the stories and teachings begin with infants and their new life. The second hill represents youth, and as told in the teachings of the medicine wheel of the south, “it is the place of growth, abundance and harvest, like the summer. It is the stage of adolescence when we test the boundaries of our own development.” (The Circle of Turtle Lodge , 2003) The second hill and he south of the medicine both represent youth childhood as well. As Weegwauss tells his story, the children on the second hill have tasks and duties that are responsible doing during their development in both the teachings. The third hill represents adulthood where their responsibilities are to work. In the west of the medicine wheel, “it is the place for maturity, experience, and expertise, like autumn. It is the life stage of adulthood when we can review our life paths and fine tune our intentions. It