Words of Wisdom pg.3
__________________________________________________________
Peace... comes within the souls of men when
they realize their relationship, their oneness, with
the universe and all its powers, and when they
realize that at the center of the Universe dwells
Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really
everywhere, it Lis within each of us.
Black Elk (Hehaka Sapa)
OGLALA SIOUX
__________________________________________________________
From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit,
there came a great unifying life force
that flowed in and through all
things-the flowers of the plains,
blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds,
animals-and was the same force that
had been breathed into the first man.
Thus all things were kindred, and were
brought together by the same Great Mystery.
Chief Luther Standing Bear
SIOUX
__________________________________________________________
The Creator told everyone of us in our tribal beginnings to look after our
ceremonies, and each other.
Barney Bush
SHAWNEE
__________________________________________________________
Behold, my bothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the
embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love!
Sitting Bull
SIOUX
__________________________________________________________
He [The Great Spirit] only sketches
out the path of life roughly for all the
creatures on earth, shows them where
to go, where to arrive at, but leaves
them to find their own way to get there.
He wants them to act independently
according to their nature, to the urges
of each of them.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
_________________________________________________________
My pottery is the handiwork of God.
Teresita Naranjo
SANTA CLARA PUEBLO
_________________________________________________________
Flexible strength is better than
inflexible. Let the storm flow over you,
and then pop back up.
Michael Kabotie
HOPI
________________________________________________________
Sometimes we prayed in silence; sometimes each one prayed aloud;
sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us.
Geronimo
Apache
________________________________________________________
Everything I know I learned by listening and watching.
Vernon Cooper
LUMBEE
________________________________________________________
Parents have to demonstrate the value
of trust, respect and honor.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
_________________________________________________________
But if the vision was true and mighty, it is true and mighty yet.
Black Elk
Lakota
_________________________________________________________
We have to have one mind for the Four Directions. Until we reach that one
mind, we cannot be filled with understanding. The Creator will not answer
until you have just one mind, just like if you have one person.
Grandfather William Commanda
ALGONQUIN
_________________________________________________________
People are equal partners with the
plants and animals, not their masters
who exploit them.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
__________________________________________________________
Hear me! A single twig breaks, but
the bundle of twigs is strong.
Tecumseh
SHAWNEE
__________________________________________________________
If you have one hundred people who
live together, and if each one cares for
the rest, there is One Mind.
Shining Arrows
CROW
_________________________________________________________
I see before me men of age and dignity...
men of good judgement and
consider well what they do.
Spotted Tail
Brule Sioux
1700's
__________________________________________________________
The basis of knowledge is the fire, rock, water, and green. But when that
power was given to man, he used it to twist his own mind. Tunkashila gave
man just one drop of that wisdom.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
__________________________________________________________
Cultivate peace at home.
Petalesharo
Pawnee
__________________________________________________________
It is a paradox in the contemporary world that in our desire for peace we
must willingly give ourselves to struggle.
Linda Hogan
CHICKASAW
__________________________________________________________
I believe that being a medicine man,
more than anything else, is a state of
mind, a way of looking at and
understanding this earth, a sense of
what it is all about.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
__________________________________________________________
I have been in a great many councils, but I'm no wiser.
Too-hool-hool-suit
Nez Perce
__________________________________________________________
Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every
hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad
or happy event in days long vanished.
Chief Sealth
DUWAMISH
__________________________________________________________
The Great Spirit is our father, the earth is our mother. She nourishes
us, and what we put into the ground, she returns to us.
Bedagi Wabanaki
1900
__________________________________________________________
What you see with your eyes shut is what counts.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
__________________________________________________________
Telling our lives is important for those who come after as, for those who
will see our experience as part of their own historical struggle.
Linda Hogan
CHICKASAW
__________________________________________________________
Because if you believe in something, and believe
in it long enough, it will come into being.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
_________________________________________________________
So, with the Native way, it's not whether people
find out about what you've done or not... that's
not nearly as strong as having your source of
morality within you, having your morality arise
out of an inner perception of what is wrong,
ridiculous, or shameful. You are your own judge.
Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D.
PENOBSCOT
________________________________________________________
Each day, whatever I am doing, I am always praying and thinking of God.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
________________________________________________________
Native Americans are essentially calling for
righteousness. By this they mean a shared
ideology developed by all people using their
purest and most unselfish minds.
Lorraine Canoe/Tom Porter
MOHAWK
________________________________________________________
When we become hollow bones there is no limit
to what the Higher Powers can do in and through
us in spiritual things.
Frank Fools Crow
LAKOTA
________________________________________________________
When we're through with this earth and all
these problems, we don't have to come back. But
as long as we're here we have a job to do and a
purpose to fulfill and that means dealing with the
circumstances around us.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
_________________________________________________________
Always remember you are Indian.
Do things to make your people proud.
Joe Coyhis
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
_________________________________________________________
Our circle is timeless, flowing, it is a new life
emerging from death-life winning out over death.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
_________________________________________________________
We don't have to say or think what we don't
wish to. We have a choice in those things, and we
have to realize that and practice using that choice.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
_________________________________________________________
Always remember that the Great Mystery is
good; evil can come only from ourselves!
Grandmother of Charles Eastman
SANTEE SIOUX
_________________________________________________________
We hold on to our otuhan, our give-aways,
because they help us to remain Indians.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
_________________________________________________________
When you get older and you are ready, your ancestors will show up to guide
you.
Joe Coyhis
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
_________________________________________________________
On the other side of the river there is plenty of buffalo.
When we are poor we will tell you.
Mountain Crow
Blackfoot
_________________________________________________________
People have to be responsible for their thoughts,
so they have to learn to control them. It may not
be easy, but it can be done.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
__________________________________________________________
It is my duty as your chief to be your father while in the paths of
peace,and your leader and champion while on the war path.
Keokuk
1832
__________________________________________________________
They must give themselves to Wakan' Tanka and
live a spiritual life. They will have the peace that
frees them from fear.
Frank Fools Crow
LAKOTA
__________________________________________________________
Everyone got to find the right path. You can't see it so it's hard to find.
No one can show you. Each person got to find the path by himself.
Charlie Knight
UTE
__________________________________________________________
We cannot escape remembering the important
things that have happened, and we cannot escape
the awareness of the important things that have
not happened.
Ralph Salisbury
CHEROKEE
__________________________________________________________
The first thing that we want you to understand
is that spirit has no color or race to it. It doesn't
matter whether your skin is white, black, red,
Hispanic, whatever. No one out there is any
better than you, and you are no better than
anyone else out there.
John Peters (Slow Turtle)
WAMPANOAG
__________________________________________________________
This is the time of awakening to the inner father
and the inner mother. Without this we will
receive no high initiation; instead we get
initiated into darkness. That's because any
investigation or revolution without God leads,
not to freedom, but to more slavery.
Willaru Huayta
QUECHAU NATION, PERU
__________________________________________________________
Race and language makes no difference; the
barriers are gone when persons can come together
on high spiritual levels.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
__________________________________________________________
When you remove love and try to replace it with
monetary things, you've got nothing ... get him to
understand that he has to love himself before he
can love anything else.
John Peters (Slow Turtle)
WAMPANOAG
__________________________________________________________
Heal yourself-your physical and spiritual bodies.
Regenerate yourself with light, and then help
those who have poverty of the soul. Return to the
inner spirit, which we have abandoned while
looking elsewhere for happiness.
Willaru Huayta
QUECHUA NATION, PERU
__________________________________________________________
It is a native tradition to sit in a circle and
talk-to share what is in your heart.
John Peters (Slow Turtle)
WAMPANOAG
__________________________________________________________
Look behind you. See your sons and your daughters. They are your future.
Look farther and see your sons' and your daughters' children and their
children's children even unto the Seventh Generation. That's the way we were
taught. Think about it: you yourself are a Seventh Generation.
Leon Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
__________________________________________________________
If people are going to get back into balance, one
of the things they have to do is seek the truth.
They have to start really speaking the truth
themselves, and that's a difficult thing to do. The
way it is now in the world, we don't mind lying.
John Peters (Slow Turtle)
WAMPANOAG
__________________________________________________________
It's all spirit and it's all connected.
Grandfather William Commanda
ALGONQUIN
__________________________________________________________
Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body,
mind and spirit.
Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa)
SANTEE SIOUX
__________________________________________________________
In our story of Creation, we talk about each one of
us having our own path to travel, and our own gift to
give and to share. You see, what we say is that the
Creator gave us all special gifts; each one of us is
special. And each one of us is a special gift to each
other because we've got something to share.
John Peters (Slow Turtle)
WAMPANOAG
__________________________________________________________
The most important thing now is to reveal the
inner temple of the soul with right thinking and
right activity.
Willaru Huayta
QUECHUA NATION, PERU
___________________________________________________________
When we want to talk to Him we burn tobacco and it takes our prayers all
the way up to the Sky World.
Louis Farmer
ONONDAGA
___________________________________________________________
When the earth is sick, the animals will begin
to disappear, when that happens, the Warriors
of the Rainbow will come to save them.
Chief Seattle
___________________________________________________________
A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I
prefer to their dogma my excursions into the
natural gardens where the voice of the
Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of the
birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the
sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism,
then at present , at least, I am a Pagan.
Zitkala-Sa
__________________________________________________________
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in
the night. It is the breath of a buffalo
in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which
runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
Crowfoot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
__________________________________________________________
When it comes time to die, be not like those whose
hearts are filled with fear of death, so when their
time comes they weep and pray for a little more
time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.
Chief Aupumut
Mohican
__________________________________________________________
If there is a shadow of a doubt someplace, that will cause a weakness.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
__________________________________________________________
The Great Spirit in all things, he is 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
Algonquin
__________________________________________________________
A good heart and a good mind - those are what you need to be a chief.
Louis Farmer
ONONDAGA
__________________________________________________________
You can't just sit down and talk about the truth.
It doesn't work that way. You have to live it and
be part of it and you might get to know it.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
__________________________________________________________
The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the
region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits
into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the
continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings.
He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers,
he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.....
Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux
__________________________________________________________
The first factor in the revolution of
consciousness is the mystic death of the ego- the
death of negative thinking, negative
personalities. We must purify the soul of the
inner enemies. Every time a defect manifests-
envy, gluttony, anger, lust, whatever-that impulse
to the heart. Ask, `Do I really need to invoke
this?' And then honor the heart.
Willaru Huayta
QUECHAU NATION, PERU
__________________________________________________________
There is no death. Only a change of worlds.
Chief Seattle
SUQWAMISH AND DUWAMISH
__________________________________________________________
So we are connected to the moon. That gives us power, a connection to the
earth and the moon, men don't know about.
Cecilia Mitchell
MOHAWK
__________________________________________________________
All life is a circle.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
__________________________________________________________
Let us put our minds together as one.
Irving Powless, Sr.
ONONDAGA
__________________________________________________________
Also ask your heart to purify and cleanse this
defect and harmful desire. Ask also the help of
the inner father and mother. Every time we
eliminate a defect, we build our soul, our inner
temple. We ascend. like going up a stairway.
Willaru Huayata
QUECHUA NATION, PERU
_________________________________________________________
Always listen to what the Elders say.
Dona Josefa Medrano
HUICHOL
SIERRA MADRE, MEXICO
________________________________________________________
I can tell you that understanding begins with
love and respect. It begins with respect for the
Great Spirit. All things- and I mean ALL
things-have their own will and their own way and
their own purpose; this is what is to be
respected.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
________________________________________________________
Our true enemies, as well as our true sources of
strength, lie within.
Willaru Huayta
QUECHUA NATION, PERU
________________________________________________________
Oh God! Like the Thunderbird of old I shall rise
again out of the sea; I shall grab the instruments
of the white man's success- his education, his
skills, and with these new tools I shall build my
race into the proudest segment of your society.
Chief Dan George
SALISH
________________________________________________________
It's very hard to do things in the right manner,
but as long as we do things right, we are in turn
with the Great Spirit.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
________________________________________________________
These are our times and our responsibilities. Every human being has a
sacred duty to protect the welfare of our Mother Earth, from whom all life
comes. In order to do this, we must recognize the enemy - the one within us.
We must begin with ourselves.
Leon Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
________________________________________________________
Even the seasons form a great circle in their
changing, and always come back again to where
they were. The life of a man is a circle from
childhood to childhood and so it is everything
where power moves.
Black Elk (Hehaka sapa)
OGLALA SIOUX
________________________________________________________
We need to save those Elders who cannot speak for themselves -- the trees.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
________________________________________________________
The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It
is the dust and blood of our ancestors.
Plenty Coups
CROW
________________________________________________________
The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its
meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures and acknowledging unity with
the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of
civilization.
Luther Standing Bear
OGLALA SIOUX
________________________________________________________
Bright days and dark days were both expressions
of the Great Mystery, and the Indian reveled in
being close to the Great Holiness.
Chief Luther Standing Bear
SIOUX
________________________________________________________
It can be 100 degrees in the shade one afternoon
and suddenly there comes a storm with hailstones
as big as golf balls, the prairie is all white and
your teeth chatter. That's good-a reminder that
you are just a small particle of nature, not so
powerful as you think.
Lame Deer
LAKOTA
_________________________________________________________
No individual or group can block another
individual's path or change it against what fits
his nature and his purpose. It might be done for a
time, but in the end it won't work out.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
________________________________________________________
It is not through the great skill of the hunter himself that success is
achieved, but through the hunter's awareness of his place in Creation and
his relationship to all things.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
________________________________________________________
You have to have a lot of patience to hear those old people talk, because
when they talk, they talk about motivation, the feeling, the unsound that is
around the universe. They explain everything to one understanding. They
bring it all together, and when they finish, just one word comes out. Just
one word. They might talk all day, and just one word comes out.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
________________________________________________________
We must have respect and understanding for women and all female life on
this Earth which bears the sacred gift of life.
Traditional Circle of Elders
ONONDAGA
________________________________________________________
Let the person I serve express his thanks according
to his own bringing up and his sense of humor.
Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa)
SANTEE SIOUX
________________________________________________________
We say there is a right time and place for
everything. It's easy to say, but hard to
understand. You have to live it to understand it.
Rolling Thunder
CHEROKEE
________________________________________________________
Grandmother the Earth. That power is here all the time. It is
continuous, and nobody controls it.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
________________________________________________________
Sell a country? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth?
Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?
Tecumseh
SHAWNEE
________________________________________________________
In sharing, in loving all and everything, one
people naturally found a due portion of the thing
they sought, while in fearing, the other found
need of conquest.
Chief Luther Standing Bear
SIOUX
________________________________________________________
All the stones that are around here, each one has a language of its own.
Even the earth has a song.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
________________________________________________________
We grieve more because we have been
disconnected from our earth, our first Mother, our
spiritual Mother.
Larry P. Aitken
CHIPPEWA
________________________________________________________
The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left
as it was... The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no
man's business to divide it.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
________________________________________________________
