Finding Our Way Back

Prechtel says, "If we can get past the prejudices of the last ten thousand years’ worth of ancestors, then we can find our way back to our indigenous souls and culture, where we are always at home and welcome." This part was confusing to me because it seemed impossible for someone to find their way back. Prechtel says that when an ancestor dies, their death needs to be "properly paid with beauty, grief, and language." I think that Prechtel is suggesting that for someone like Jensen to "find his way back" he would have to mourn the deaths of all of his ancestors whose deaths had not been mourned. Seeing as Jensen's ancestors probably were not put in the ground in the same way as Prechtel's ancestors, it makes it seem impossible for Jensen to find his way back. Instead, he will always be chased by ghosts. It was confusing exactly what role these "ghosts" play in our lives. Prechtel says how these ghosts literally chase us. The only way to truly get rid of the ghosts is to either mourn the death of your ancestors, or a shaman to break the ghost up and send it to the other world.