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