Native Quote #42

"Sometimes I go about pitying myself
And all the while I am being carried across the sky
By beautiful clouds."

 Ojibway (Ojibwa, Chippewa) Poem

Native Quote #41

"Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision."

Chief Tecumseh (Tecumtha or Tekamthi), Shawnee

Native Quote #40

"When you know who you are;
when your mission is clear and you
burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will;
no cold can touch your heart;
no deluge can dampen your purpose.
You know that you are alive."

 

 

Si'ahl (Chief Seattle), Dkhw’Duw’Absh (Duwamish)

Native Quote #39

"And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. 

And I saw that it was holy."

 

Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) , Wičháša Wakȟáŋ, Oglala Lakota

Native Quote #38

"I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being."

 

Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) , Wičháša Wakȟáŋ, Oglala Lakota

Native Quote #37

"When you are in doubt, be still, and wait;
when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage. So long as mists envelop you, be still; be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists — as it surely will.
Then act with courage."

  Chief White Eagle, Ponca

Native Quote #36

"Oh Great Spirit,
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me!"

 

Chief Yellow Lark

Native Quote #35

"May the Forest be with you."

 Rif-Raf, Rainbow Family of Living Light (Southern District)

Native Quote #34

"The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had 'freedom and justice,' and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this."

  

1927 Grand Council of American Indians

Native Quote #33

"One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don't talk to the animals, they won't talk back to you, then you won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear and when you fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, 

you will destroy yourself."

Geswanouth Slahoot (Chief Dan George), Tsleil-Waututh Nation

Native Quote #32

 "There is no death. Only a change of worlds.”

 

 

Si'ahl (Chief Seattle), Dkhw’Duw’Absh (Duwamish)

Native Quote #31

"May the Warm Winds of Heaven blow softly upon your house. May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there. 

May your Moccasins make happy tracks in many snows,and May the Rainbow Always touch your shoulder."

 

Cherokee Prayer Blessing

Native Quote #30

"Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but the using of knowledge in a good way is what makes for wisdom.  Learning how to use knowledge in a sacred manner, that's wisdom to me.  

And to me, that's what a true Elder is."  

 Sun Bear, Chippewa

Native Quote #29

"Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality...Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."

 

Ojigkwanong (William Commanda),Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg (Algonquin)

Native Quote #28

"From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka."

Maza Blaska (Flat-Iron) Oglala Sioux Chief

Native Quote #27

"In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn.. all things tell of Tirawa."

 

 

Letakos-Lesa (Eagle Chief), Pawnee

 

Native Quote #26

"Follow your own footsteps.
Learn from the rivers,
the trees and the rocks.
Honor the Christ, the Buddha,
your brothers and sisters.

Honor your Earth Mother and the Great Spirit.
Honor yourself and all of creation. 
Look with the eyes of your soul and engage the essential."

Q'ero Inca

Native Quote #25

"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."

Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak (Black Hawk), Sauk and Fox

Native Quote #24

"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."

 Sahpo Muxika (Crowfoot), Blackfoot

 

Native Quote #23

Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men,
we didn't have any kind of prison. 
Because of this, we had no delinquents. 

Without a prison, there can be no delinquents.
We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were 

no thieves.

When someone was so poor that he couldn't afford a horse, a tent or a blanket,
he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift.
We were too uncivilized to give great importance to 

private property.

We didn't know any kind of money and consequently, the value of a human being was not determined by his wealth.
We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no politicians,
therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.
 
We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and 

I don't know how to explain how we were able to manage without these fundamental things
that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized society.

Tȟáȟča Hušté (John Fire Lame Deer), Mineconju-Lakota

Native Quote #22

"The devastated earth, the air, water, the extinct species of mankind, animalkind, and plantkind, the drugs, suicides, family separations - 

these are all the result of false ceremonies."   

Barney Bush, SHAWNEE

Native Quote #21

"We do not want schools...they will teach us to have churches.
We do not want churches...they will teach us to quarrel about God.
We do not want to learn that.
We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth,
but we never quarrel about God.
We do not want to learn that."

Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

Native Quote #20

O' GREAT SPIRIT, help me always
to speak the truth quietly,
to listen with an open mind
when others speak,
and to remember the peace
that may be found in silence. 

Cherokee Prayer

Native Quote #19

Honor the sacred.
Honor the Earth, our Mother.
Honor the Elders.
Honor all with whom we share the Earth:-
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones,
Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty.

 

 
Anonymous Native Elder