Words of Wisdom pg.5
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We as men should not fear our mates; we should listen to their counsel.
Oren R. Lyons
Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders
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Humility is probably the most difficult virtue to realize.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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You are going to learn the most important lesson - that God is the most
powerful thing there is.
Mathew King
LAKOTA
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IN THE BEGINNING were the Instructions... The Instructions was to live in a
good way and be respectful to everybody and everything.
Vickie Downey
TEWA/Tesuque Pueblo
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Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new, sweet earth, and the great
silence alone.
Charles Alexander Eastman
OHIYESA SANTEE SIOUX
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I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts
more.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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It is well to be good to women in the strength of our manhood because we
must sit under their hands at both ends of our lives.
He Dog
OGLALA LAKOTA
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The sacred ceremonies given to us by the Creator are the Heart of our
existence. These ceremonies are our first duty.
Traditional Circle of Elders
NORTHERN CHEYENNE
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Abuse and repression have no place in a traditional family.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.
Sitting Bull
TETON SIOUX
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You can pray for whatever you want, but it is always best to pray for
others, not for yourself.
John Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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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
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If you listen close at night, you will hear the creatures of the dark, all
of them sacred -- the owls, the crickets, the frogs, the night birds -- and
you will hear beautiful songs, songs you have never heard before. Listen
with your heart. Never stop listening.
Henery Quick Bear
LAKOTA
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Everybody should pray together, cheer along, root along. That brings the
circle together. Everything is together.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph
NEZ PERCE
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Language is a vehicle for carrying spirit, life, family. Language,
religion, and land base are three things that characterize culture.
Edmund Ladd
ZUNI PUEBLO
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A good heart and a good mind - those are what you need to be a chief.
Louis Farmer
ONONDAGA
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We have to educate ourselves to know who we are. That's what I mean when I
say, 'Teach the children.'
Eddie Benton-Banai
OJIBWAY
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If anyone has children, they better teach their children to follow the
traditions that we're leaving behind because it is later than we think with
all that's going on.
Juanita Centeno
CHUMASH
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With children we always have to think about seven generations to come but
yet unborn.
Janice Sundown Hattet
SENECA
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my
feeble voice. You lived first, and You are older than all need, older than
all prayer...You are the life of all things.
Black Elk
OGLALA SIOUX
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The Natural Law is the final and absolute authority governing E Te No Ha,
the earth we call our Mother.
Traditional Circle of Elders
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Silence is the cornerstone of character.
Charles Alexander Eastman
OHIYESA SANTEE SIOUX
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If those bad words come, I let them come in one ear and go out the other. I
never let them come out of my mouth. If a bad word comes in your ear and
then comes out of your mouth, it will go someplace and hurt somebody. If I
did that, that hurt would come back twice as hard on me.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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Women know more about love than men do...Love is taking. Love is sharing.
Love is learning things about each other.
Mary Leitka
HOH
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Sacred sites and areas are protection for all people-the four colors for
man-and these sites are in all areas of the earth in the four directions.
Traditional Circle of Elders
NORTHERN CHEYENNE
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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
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The battle for Indian children will be won in the classroom, not on the
streets or on horses. The students of today are our warriors of tomorrow.
Wilma P. Mankiller
CHEROKEE
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If you don't know the language, you'll only see the surface of the
culture...the language is the heart of the culture and you cannot separate it.
Elaine Ramos
TLINGIT
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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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That is not our way, to set yourself apart and talk about who you are and
what you've done. You let your life speak for you. With the Mohawk people,
wisdom is how you live and how you interpret what your mother and father,
what your grandmothers and grandfathers have told you about this world - and
then how you interpret that into the fact of living every day.
Tom Porter
MOHAWK
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In Tunkashila, there is no time. Everything moves in the blink of an
eye. It's as fast as thought. So there is no speed there. There is no time
in between.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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The way of knowledge is like our old way of hunting. You begin with a mere
trail -- a footprint. If you follow that faithfully, it may lead you to a
clearer train-a track- a road. Later on there will be many tracks, crossing
and diverging one from the other. Then you must be careful, for success lies
in the choice of the right road.
Many Lightenings Eastman
SANTEE SIOUX
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Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death
will come, always out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and
all nations and people must obey. What is past and what cannot be prevented
should not be grieved for.
Big Elk
OMAHA Chief
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Tell the people not to cry. Tell them to be happy.
John Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA (told to his son, Archie, as he died)
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The greatest strength is in gentleness.
Leon Shenandoah
ONONDAGA
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People think other things are more important than prayer, but they are
mistaken.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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When you see a new trail, or a footprint that you do not know, follow it to
the point of knowing.
Grandmother of Charles Eastman
SANTEE SIOUX
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The land is a sacred trust held in common for the benefit of the future of
our nations.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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The very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to [my
people's] footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our
ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch.
Chief Sealth
DUWAMISH
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We forget so we consider ourselves superior. But we are, after all, a mere
part of the creation and we must consider to understand where we are and we
stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there
is a part and parcel of the creation.
Chief Oren Lyons
ONONDAGA
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The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart away from nature becomes
hard; he knew the lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to a
lack of respect for humans too. So he kept his youth close to its softening
influence.
Luther Standing Bear
OGLALA SIOUX
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The Natural Law is a spiritual law. Its powers are both light and dark.
Oren R. Lyons
Spokesman Traditional Circle of Elders
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Women. They have the power of generations. Women have the power to have
children and not to have children.
Cecilia Mitchell
MOHAWK
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People say that crisis changes people and turns ordinary people into wiser
or more responsible ones.
Wilma Mankiller
CHEROKEE
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Our people don't come in parts. Either you are Indian, or you are not.
Nippawanock
ARAPAHOE
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We know that in all creation/Only the human family/Has strayed from the
Sacred Way.
OJIBWA Prayer
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Whenever you take anything from the earth,
remember to leave an offering.
Joe Coyhis
STOCKBRIDGE-MUNSEE
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Women know more about love than men do...Love is taking. Love is sharing.
Love is learning things about each other.
Mary Leitka
HOH
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But one should pray in one's heart during a sacred ceremony; this is the
purpose of the ceremony, to purify the participants both inside and
outside.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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Anyways, with medicine there's a time and a place for everything. It only
comes around once. You have to get it at the right time.
Cecilia Mitchell
MOHAWK
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We must all become caretakers of the Earth.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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We must remember that the heart of our religion is alive and that each
person has the ability within to awaken and walk in a sacred manner.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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There are many things to be shared with the four colors of man in our
common destiny as one family upon our Mother the Earth.
Traditional Circle of Elders
NORTHERN CHEYENNE
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Dead -- I Say? There is not death. Only a change of worlds.
Chief Seattle
DWAMISH
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But I have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather, sometimes
about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit.
Walking Buffalo
STONEY
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Think only about what is holy. Empty your mind.
Archie Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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All living creatures and all plants derive their life from the sun. If it
were not for the sun, there would be darkness and nothing could grow-the
earth would be without life.
Okute
TETON SIOUX
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What could be greater than to be Wakan-Tanka's mind, eyes, ears,
nose, mouth, arms, hands, legs, and feet here on earth?
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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Modern civilization has no understanding of sacred matters. Everything is
backwards.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on
the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power...The soil was
soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing...
Luther Standing Bear
OGLALA SIOUX
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Indians living close to nature and nature's ruler are not living in
darkness.
Walking Buffalo,
STONEY
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The law is that all life is equal in the Great Creation, and we, the Human
Beings, are charged with the responsibility, each in our generation, to work
for the continuation of life.
Traditional Circle of Elders
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The real meaning of life is your family, the love that you have, the
respect, the traditional ways, carrying on with them.
Ethel Wilson
COWICHAN
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Each person's prayers can help everyone.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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In some mysterious and wonderful way you are part of everything, Nephew.
And in that same mysterious and wonderful way, everything is a part of you.
Nippawanock
ARAPAHOE
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If those bad words come, I let them come in one ear and go out the other. I
never let them come out of my mouth. If a bad word comes in your ear and
then comes out of your mouth, it will go someplace and hurt somebody. If I
did that, that hurt would come back twice as hard on me.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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The sacred ceremonies given to us by the Creator are the Heart of our
existence. These ceremonies are our first duty.
Traditional Circle of Elders
NORTHERN CHEYENNE
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If the Great Spirit wanted men to stay in one place He would make the world
stand still; but He made it to always change.
Chief Flying Hawk
OGLALA SIOUX
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A vision could put you on a path you don't want to follow.
Archie Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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Grandmother the Earth. That power is here all the time. It is
continuous, and nobody controls it.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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Prayer is the best answer to all of the trials that face us, because
without prayer, even if we succeed in accomplishing some great goal in the
eyes of men, we have failed in our sacred responsibilities, and thus we have
failed in what is truly important.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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We are called hollow bones for our people and for anyone else we can help,
and we are not supposed to seek power for our personal use and honor.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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To be able to greet the sun with the sounds from all of Nature is a great
blessing, and it helps us to remember Who is the real provider of all of our
benefits.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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It's time. If you are to walk the path of heart, then it is time.
Nippawanock
ARAPAHOE
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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
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Without a sacred center, no one knows right from wrong.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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But the great spirit has provided you and me with an opportunity for study
in nature's university, the forests, the rivers, the mountains, and the
animals which include us.
Walking Buffalo
STONEY
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When you go inside that power, there's no fear. It's so beautiful!! There's
no fear there. There's no pain.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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Prayer is the best answer to all of the trials that face us, because
without prayer, even if we succeed in accomplishing some great goal in the
eyes of men, we have failed in our sacred responsibilities, and thus we have
failed in what is truly important.
Thomas Yellowtail
CROW
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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
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If there is a shadow of a doubt someplace, that will cause a weakness.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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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
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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
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Let us put our minds together as one.
Irving Powless, Sr.
ONONDAGA
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IN THE BEGINNING were the Instructions... The Instructions was to live in a
good way and be respectful to everybody and everything.
Vickie Downey
TEWA/Tesuque Pueblo
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We need to save those Elders who cannot speak for themselves -- the trees.
Haida Gwaii
Traditional Circle of Elders
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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 Natural Law is the final and absolute authority governing E Te No Ha,
the earth we call our Mother.
Traditional Circle of Elders
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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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Wakan Tanka never stops creating.
Archie Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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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
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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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Power comes and goes. It can vanish in the twinkling of an eye, like smoke
dissolving in the air.
Archie Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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One of the things the old people taught me about the spirits was to never
have a doubt.
Wallace Black Elk
LAKOTA
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It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people liked to
remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. The
soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing.
Chief Luther Standing Bear
TETON SIOUX
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We are nothing compared to His power, and we feel and know it.
Black Hawk
SAUK
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A vision could put you on a path you don't want to follow.
Archie Fire Lame Deer
LAKOTA
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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
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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
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When faithful human beings or other creatures called upon them for help,
they [the Powers of the Four Directions] must send their powers.
Fools Crow
LAKOTA
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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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All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children
of the earth.
Chief Seattle
SUQWAMISH AND DUWAMISH
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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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To me, if you're Indian, you're Indian. You don't have to put on your
buckskin, beads, and feathers, and stuff like that.
Cecilia Mitchell
MOHAWK
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If you listen close at night, you will hear the creatures of the dark, all
of them sacred -- the owls, the crickets, the frogs, the night birds -- and
you will hear beautiful songs, songs you have never heard before. Listen
with your heart. Never stop listening.
Henery Quick Bear
LAKOTA
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Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my
feeble voice. You lived first, and You are older than all need, older than
all prayer...You are the life of all things.
Black Elk
OGLALA SIOUX
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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
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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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...in Tunkashila, there is no time. Everything moves in the blink of an
eye. It's as fast as thought. So there is no speed there. There is no time
in between.
Wallace Black Elk
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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Believing people can soar beyond ordinary life.
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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