Words of Wisdom pg.1
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You want to know who's a real medicine man? He's the one who doesn't say
'I'm a medicine man.' He doesn't ask you to come to him. You've got to go
and ask him. And you'll find he's always there among his own people.
Louis Farmer
ONONDAGA
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Respect should be given those indigenous nations who still carry on their
ceremonies; still following the ancient laws of nature with songs and ceremonies.
Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman
Traditional Circle of Elders
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People need to wake up. They can't hear God's voice if they're asleep.
Vernon Cooper
LUMBEE
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Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of
their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war,
and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.
Chief Seattle
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The path to glory is rough and many gloomy hours obscure it.
May the Great Spirit shed light on yours.
Black Hawk
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So I prayed, but I had to pray from my heart. All
of my concentration and thoughts went from my
head to my heart. All of my senses - hearing,
smell, taste, and feeling - were connected to my heart.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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I claim a right to live on my land, and
accord you the privilege to live on yours..
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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I had a dream .... that the maker of all was Wakan Tanka
... to honour Him, I must honour His works.
Brave Buffalo
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When life is too good, we think too highly of
ourselves and our blessings. Then we decide we
are the wisest and the favored ones, and we don't
think we need Wakan-Tanka and the Helpers
anymore.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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Life is like a path...and we all have to walk the path... As we
walk...we'll find experiences like little scraps of paper in front of us
along the way. We must pick up those pieces of scrap paper and put them in
our pocket... Then, one day, we will have enough scraps of papers to put
together and see what they say... Read the information and take it to
heart.
Uncle Frank Davis (quoting his mother)
PAWNEE
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If the child cries for mercy, that child must have mercy.
Handsome Lake
SENECA
1800
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There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike...give them the same
law...give them an even chance.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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I took to the warpath as a warrior not as a chief.
I had not been been wronged but some of
my people had been...and I fought with my tribe.
Geronimo
APACHE
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Let us form one body, one heart, and defend to the last warrior our country,
our homes, our liberty, and the graves of our fathers..
Tecumseh
SHAWNEE
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Before our red brothers pass to the happy hunting ground,
let us wash off our war paint in the river. Let us break our arrows.
Plenty Coups
CROW Chief
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Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves
of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.
Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come,
for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him
as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny.
We may be brothers after all. We will see.
Chief Seattle
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I must give something of real value to show
that my whole being goes with the lesser gifts..
Chased-By-Bears Santee
YANKTONAIO SIOUX
1867
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The greatest strength is in gentleness.
Leon Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
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I got my education from my culture. My teachers
were my grandmothers, and I am really thankful for that.
Mary One Spot
SARCEE
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I was living peacefully with my family, having
plenty to eat, sleeping well, taking care
of my people, and perfectly contented.
Geronimo
APACHE
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The Great Spirit is in all things;
he is in the air we breathe.
The Great Spirit is our Father,
but the earth is our mother.
She nourishes us; that which we put
into the ground she returns to us.
Big Thunder
Wabanaki Algonquin
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You must speak straight so that your words
may go as sunlight to our hearts.
Cochis
APACHE
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I am an Indian and looked upon by the whites as a foolish
man--but it must be because I followed their advice.
Shunka Witko
Sioux
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I am the maker of my own fortune.
Shooting Star
Shawnee War Chief
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All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children
of the earth.
Chief Seattle
SUQWAMISH AND DUWAMISH
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But in the Indian Spirit the land is
still vested; it will be until other men
are able to divine and meet its rhythm.
Men must be born and reborn to belong.
Their bodies must be formed of the dust of
their forefathers' bones.
Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Lakota
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My friends, your people have both intellect and heart;
you use these to consider in what way you can do the best to live.
Spotted Tail
Sioux
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Mentally and physically I have found enjoyment,
but spiritually I have been a mourner at the
bedside of a dying race. I have achieved peace
by accepting the inevitable destiny for the
people whose blood runs through my viens
and whose sublime love of nature has always
been on my mind.
Chief Red Fox
Sioux
nephew of Crazy Horse
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The white man's God cannot love our people or He would protect
them. They seem to be orphans who can look nowhere for help.
How then can we be brothers?
Chief Seattle
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Love is something that you can leave behind you
when you die. It's that powerful.
John (Fire) Lame Deer
ROSEBUD LAKOTA
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You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight into our
hearts.
Cochise "Like Ironweed"
CHIRICAHUA APACHE
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No one likes to be criticized, but criticism can be
something like the desert wind that, in whipping
the tender stalks, forces them to strike their roots
down deeper for security.
Polingaysi Qoyawayma
HOPI
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The old people must start talking and the young
people must start listening.
Thomas Banyacya
HOPI
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To me, the wisdom the Elders have to manifest
is in teaching people how to live in harmony and
balance with each other and the Earth.
Sun Bear
CHIPPEWA
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The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
Luther Standing Bear
Lakota Chief
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I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to
depend simply upon himself.
Lone Man
Teton Sioux
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Listen to all the teachers in the woods. Watch
the trees, the animals and all living things -
you'll learn more from them than from books.
Joe Coyhis
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
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One of the first things Seneca children learned
was that they might create their own world, their
own environment, by visualizing actions and
desires in prayer. The Senecas believed that
everything that made life important came from
within. Prayer assisted in developing a guideline
toward discipline and self control.
Twylah Nitcsh
SENECA
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Even the trees have spirits - everything has a spirit.
Mary Hayes
CLAYOQUOT
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When you begin a great work you can't expect to finish it all at once;
therefore, do you and your brothers press on and let nothing discourage you
until you have entirely finished what you have begun.
Teedyuschung
DELAWARE
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The indian people you put here weep
for what has happened. They have a
sturdy background of morality and
discipline. Forgive those who tried
to remake them into the image of
the white man, and let the wealth
of their heritage be preserved as a
vital force in the world, and not
entombed in museums or consigned to oblivion.
Chief Red Fox
Sioux
nephew of Crazy Horse
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They also learned, and perhaps this was the
most important thing, how to look at things
through the eyes of the Higher Powers.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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When I was ten years of age I looked at the land and the rivers,the sky
above, and the animals around me and could not fail to realize that they were made by some great power.
Tatanka-Ohitika
Sioux
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The first peace ... is that which comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship, their oneness , with the universe and
all its powers.
Black Elk
Lakota
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Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes
wise men turn to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
Tecumseh
SHAWNEE
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We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches
would do us no good.
We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches, we want peace and love.
Red Cloud
Sioux Chief
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The mind's eye changes the way we judge
things.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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Men and women have an equal responsibility to
restore the strength of the family, which is the
foundation of all cultures.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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I am here on my own ground and I will never go back. You can kill me here but you cannot make me go back.
Dull Knife
Cheyenne
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I think that's what unity is - knowing one another
and coming together and working with no conflict.
Chief Alan Wilson
HAIDA
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Let us put our minds together and see what we can do for our children.
Sitting Bull
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The time was when our Father, who lives above the clouds, loved our
fathers, who lived long ago, and His face was bright and He talked with
our fathers.
Washakie
Shoshone
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We want to keep peace; will you help us?
Red Cloud
Sioux Chieftain
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All men were made by the same Great Spirit
Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and
people should have equal rights upon it.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
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Any good thing you say to me shall not be forgotten.
Ten Bears
Comanche
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We are all poor men; and I think others have got all the goods.
Santanta
Kiowa
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My Great Father ... told me that fire and water were alike, and that we
cannot live without either of them.
Lone Wolf
Kiowa
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We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything,
and that He never forgets, that hereafter He will give every man a
spirit-home according to his deserts: If he has been a good man, he will
have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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When people come to trouble it is better for both parties to come
together
without arms, to talk it over, and find some peaceful way to settle.
Spotted Tail (Sinte Gleske)
Sioux (Sicangu)
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When that spirit comes, we don't ever ask
questions. If I don't understand, I just hold onto
it. Then later down the road, maybe in a couple of
years, I understand what that spirit meant.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle ever knew.
John Greenleaf Whittier
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I have buried the past; and I don't want to be mad for the past.
Captain Jack
Modoc
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It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and broken promises.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
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Everything is laid out for you. Your path is
straight ahead of you. Sometimes it's invisible but
it's there. You may not know where it's going, but
still you have to follow that path. It's the path to
the Creator. That's the only path there is.
Leon Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
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Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we
will have no more wars. We shall all be alike - brothers of one father and
one mother, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one
government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile
upon this land, and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers'
hands from the face of the earth.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
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The obstacle to the internal nature is the mind.
If it relies on logic such as the white man's mind,
the domain of the inner nature is inaccessible.
The simple fact is a man does not challenge the
wisdom of the Holy Mystery.
Turtleheart
TETON SIOUX
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Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it
and start truly living the life the Creator intended for
you.
Lelia Fisher
HOH
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Education is the new weapon of Indian people.
Eddie Box
SOUTHERN UTE
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Those who live for one another learn that love is
the bond of perfect unity.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to
trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself - and I
will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
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Had our fathers the desire, they could have have crushed the
intruders out of existence with the same ease we
kill the blood-sucking mosquitoes.
Black Hawk
Sac
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There are many people who could claim and
learn from their Indian ancestry, but because of
the fear their parents and grandparents knew,
because of past and present prejudice against
Indian people, that part of their heritage is
clouded or denied.
Joseph Bruchac
ABENAKI
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Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new
sweet earth and the Great Silence alone!
Ohiyesa (Dr. Charles A. Eastman)
SANTEE SIOUX
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Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their fathers.
These laws were good.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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Our children were never known to cry of hunger,
and no stranger, red or white, was permitted
to enter our lodges without finding food and rest.
Black Hawk
Sac
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All of us begin to rethink what is good about
ourselves - put the past where it belongs - and get
on with the possibilities of the present!
Howard Rainer
TAOS PUEBLO-CREEK
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I am but one man. I am the voice of my
people. Whatever their hearts are, that I talk.
Kintpuash
Modoc
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Nature is the storehouse of potential life of
future generations and is sacred.
Audrey Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
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A bit of sunshine, a drop of rain, a puff of life
from the Great Spirit as He gently breathed upon
that spot, created the Native Americans. They
were well formed and agile, copper colored and
proud.
Harriet Starleaf Gumbs
SHINNECOCK
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I travelled thousands of miles along our winding trails, through unbroken
solitudes of the wild forest, listening to the songs of the woodland birds.
Pokagon
Potawatomi Chief
1833
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My friends, how desperately do we need to be loved and to love.
Chief Dan George
SKOKOMISH
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Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and
water was a real and active principle.
Chief Standing Bear
Sioux
1800's
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If you tie a horse
to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian upon a
small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented,
nor will he grow and prosper.
Chief Joseph
Nez Perce
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Conciliation is the key to survival. Peace is the goal.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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You must be prepared and know the reason why you dance.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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We all come from the same root, but the leaves are all different.
John Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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Grandfather says...you must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must
not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life.
Wovoka
PAIUTE
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Each creature has a medicine, so there are many medicines. Because they are
so close to the Creator, they are to communicate that medicine. Then they
bring help and health.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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We are nothing compared to His power, and we feel and know it.
Black Hawk
SAUK
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