Sacred Breath shares spiritual teachings and philosophy from tribal traditions across a swath of the Pacific Northwest near the U.S.–Canadian border. Native tradition bearer Johnny Moses (Nuu-chah-nulth and Tulalip Coast Salish) conveys teachings and practices of his family medicine tradition, SiSíWiss (Sacred Breath), which is based in the Coast Salish Longhouse or spirit power tradition: Syéwen. The teachings, stories, and practices that he shares are intended to encourage healing, well-being, and good relations in the domains of nature, community, and spirit. By means of teachings and stories about respect, resilience, and other principles common to Native American lived philosophies across the continent, Moses imparts an extensive array of knowledge and oral tradition that reveals the contours of Native Northwest systems of cosmology, ethics, and religious philosophy.
Moses was trained by elders of the early postcontact generations, and in Sacred Breath he connects readers with lineages of knowledge that reach back for generations. The SiSíWiss tradition encompasses stories, songs, and teachings from the Straits Coast Salish, Halkomelem Coast Salish, and Puget Sound Salish regions, as well as other places in British Columbia and Washington where Moses, his ancestors, and his relatives lived and traveled. Essays by Gregory P. Fields provide context and resources on topics such as place, nature and culture, memory and identity, Native American philosophy, environmental ethics, Native American epic, and the healing power of stories.
Sacred Breath offers a new view of the history of religiodn in the American West. It explores ideas and events from the standpoint of the Native Northwest and contextualizes Coast Salish spiritual traditions in relation to Christianity, the Washát tradition of the Northwest Plateau, and the Ghost Dances that began in the nearby Great Basin.