Native American Wedding Vows and American Indian Prayers

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the
journey ahead and through all the years,
May happiness be your companion and
your days together be good and long upon the earth.

Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and
remind yourselves often of what brought you together.
Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.
When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship,
as they threaten all relationships at one time or another,
remember to focus on what is right between you,
not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms when
clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that
even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there.
And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your
life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

Groom, Step 1:
O' my beloved, our love has become firm by your walking one with me. Together we will share the responsibilities of the lodge, food and children. May the Creator bless noble children to share. May they live long.

Bride, Step 1:
This is my commitment to you, my husband. Together we will share the responsibility of the home, food and children. I promise that I shall discharge all my share of the responsibilities for the welfare of the family and the children.

Groom, Step 2:
O' my beloved, now you have walked with me the second step. May the Creator bless you. I will love you and you alone as my wife. I will fill your heart with strength and courage: this is my commitment and my pledge to you. May God protect the lodge and children.

Bride, Step 2:
My husband, at all times I shall fill your heart with courage and strength. In your happiness I shall rejoice. May God bless you and our honorable lodge.

Groom, Step 3:
O my beloved, now since you have walked three steps with me, our wealth and prosperity will grow. May God bless us. May we educate our children and may they live long.

Bride, Step 3:
My husband, I love you with single-minded devotion as my husband. I will treat all other men as my brothers. My devotion to you is pure and you are my joy. This is my commitment and pledge to you.

Groom, Step 4:
O' my beloved, it is a great blessing that you have now walked four steps with me. May the Creator bless you. You have brought favor and sacredness in my life.

Bride, Step 4:
O my husband, in all acts of righteousness, in material prosperity, in every form of enjoyment, and in those divine acts such as fire sacrifice, worship and charity, I promise you that I shall participate and I will always be with you.

Groom, Step 5:
O' my beloved, now you have walked five steps with me. May the Creator make us prosperous. May the Creator bless us.

Bride, Step 5:
O my husband, I will share both in your joys and sorrows. Your love will make me very happy.

Groom, Step 6:
O' my beloved, by walking six steps with me, you have filled my heart with happiness. May I fill your heart with great joy and peace, time and time again. May the Creator bless you.

Bride, Step 6:
My husband, the Creator blesses you. May I fill your heart with great joy and peace. I promise that I will always be with you.

Groom, Step 7:
O' my beloved goddess, as you have walked the seven steps with me, our love and friendship have become inseparable and firm. We have experienced spiritual union in God. Now you have become completely mine. I offer my total self to you. May our marriage last forever.

Bride, Step 7:
My husband, by the law of the Creator, and the spirits of our honorable ancestors, I have become your wife. Whatever promises I gave you I have spoken them with a pure heart. All the spirits are witnesses to this fact. I shall never deceive you, nor will I let you down. I shall love you forever.

Let us take the first step to provide for our household
a nourishing and pure diet, avoiding those foods injurious to healthy living.
Let us take the second step to develop physical, mental and spiritual powers.
Let us take the third step to increase our wealth
by righteous means and proper use.
Let us take the fourth step to acquire knowledge,
happiness and harmony by mutual love and trust.
Let us take the fifth step, so that we be blessed
with strong, virtuous and heroic children.
Let us take the sixth step for self-restraint and longevity.
Finally, let us take the seventh step and be true companions
and remain lifelong partners by this wedlock."

We have taken the Seven Steps. You have become mine forever.
Yes, we have become partners. I have become yours.
Hereafter, I cannot live without you.
Do not live without me. Let us share the joys.
We are word and meaning, united.
You are thought and I am sound. May the night be honey-sweet for us;
may the morning be honey-sweet for us;
may the earth be honey-sweet for us and the heavens
be honey-sweet for us. May the plants be honey-sweet for us;
may the sun be all honey for us;
may the cows yield us honey-sweet milk.
As the heavens are stable, as the earth is stable,
as the mountains are stable, as the whole universe is stable,
so may our unions be permanently settled.

God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honor all you created as we pledge
our hearts and lives together.
We honor mother-earth - and ask for our marriage to
be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honor fire - and ask that our union
be warm and glowing with love in our hearts;
We honor wind - and ask we sail though life
safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honor water - to clean and soothe our relationship -
that it may never thirsts for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created,
we pray for harmony and true happiness as
we forever grow young together. Amen.

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions

Great Spirit, Creator of all that we
see, hear, smell, taste, and all that we touch.
Mother Earth, Make Ina, Womb of all beings,
Provider of all our needs.

Keeper of the West, Home of the Thunder People,
place where Grandfather Sun sleeps at night.

Keeper of the North, Home of the Great White Giant,
from where fresh breezes blow.

Keeper of the East, Land of the Rising Sun,
Home to the Big Red Mountain.

Keeper of the South, Land that we always face,
from where the Growing Warmth comes.

I pray to the Stone Peoples, the Green Peoples, the Winged Peoples,

I pray to the Four-legged Peoples, the Swimming Peoples,
the Crawling Peoples, and to the Star Peoples.
I pray to ALL who give us food, clothing, medicine, dwellings, and designs

To the Ancestors of All The Peoples,
I pray for their Help in Keeping Us in Balance and
Teaching us the ways of the Creator and Mother Earth.

To the Star Peoples, Grandfather Sun, Grandmother Moon
I give thanks for their lighting our way in times of darkness.

To All these Peoples, I give Thanks for all the Gifts and Help
I get in My Life Each and Every Day.

For all these reasons and for life itself, I give my thanks!

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever
behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand
the things you have taught my people.
Help me to remain calm and strong in the
face of all that comes towards me.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the
intention of helping others.
Help me find compassion without empathy
overwhelming me.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands
and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you without shame.

May you always walk in Beauty.

My Grandfather is the Fire
My Grandmother is the Wind
The Earth is my Mother
The Great Spirit is my Father
The World stopped at my birth and laid itself at my feet

And I shall swallow the Earth whole when I die,
and the Earth and I will be one.

Hail The Great Spirit, my Father, without him no one
could exist because there would be no will to live.

Hail The Earth, my Mother, without which no food
could be grown and so cause the will to live to starve.
Hail the wind, my Grandmother, for she brings loving,
life-giving rain nourishing us as she nourishes our crops.
Hail the fire, my Grandfather, for the light, the warmth,
the comfort he brings without which we be animals, not men.

Hail my parent and grandparents without which,
not I, nor you, nor anyone else could have existed.

Life gives life which gives unto itself a promise of new life.

Hail the Great Spirit, The Earth, the Wind, the Fire
praise my parents loudly for they are your parents, too.

Oh, Great Spirit, giver of my life please accept this
humble offering of prayer, this offering of praise,
this honest reverence of my love for you.

Fair is the white star of twilight, and the sky clearer
at the day's end, but she is fairer, and she is dearer
She, my heart's friend.
Fair is the white star of twilight, and the moon roving
to the sky's end; but she is fairer, better worth loving
She, my heart's friend.

You are my <husband/wife>
My feet shall run because of you
My feet shall dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love because of you.