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AMERICAN INDIAN QUOTES
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare
to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know
if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams,
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own
sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have
become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine your own:
if you can dance with the wildness and let the ecstasy
fill you to the finger and toes without cautioning us
to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations
of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint others to be true to
yourself: if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and
not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithless
and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see the beauty even when it
is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life
from Its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure,
yours and mine, and still stand on the edge
of the lake and shout to the silver
of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live,
or how much money you have. I want to know
if you can get up after the night of grief and
despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me who you are,
or how you came to be here,
I want to know if you will stand in
the center of the fire with me and not
shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or
with whom you have studied. I want to know
what sustains you from the inside when
all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.
"Oriah Mountain Dreamer"
" We are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us. Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves. What befalls the Earth also befalls the children of the Earth." Chief Seattle
" My father, have pity on me! I have nothing to eat, I am dying of thirst--- everything is gone!" Arapaho Ghost Song
" Who would have thought the dancing could make such trouble? For the message I brought was peace. And that message was given by the father to all tribes." Short Bull (Brule Sioux- Ghost Dance)
"May harmony live in the hearts of all people.
May peace be their way.
May we all be kind and gentle,
our paths straight and true.
May star beings show the way
and dark clouds never stay.
May life thrive upon the land,
and peace dwell,
in the hearts of all man." Ten Bears
" Behold my brother, 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 Hunkpapa, Teton Sioux
WISDOM OF THE CREE
" Only when the last tree is cut,
the last river is poisoned,
the last fish is caught,
will man understand that you cannot
eat money!"
“When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.” carlos Castaneda
"Give me the strength to walk the soft Earth, a relative to all that is!" Black Elk
"Treat the Earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." ancient Indian Proverb
"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
"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 (Bedagi) Wabanaki Algonquin
"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren, and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish, and trees." Qwatsinas (hereditary Chief Edward moody) Nuxalk Nation
"A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer 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 the mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan." Zitkala-Sa
"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
"When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre." Chiksika, Shawnee
"You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours"....
"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 in everything where power moves."Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man
OH GREAT SPIRIT
Whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to the world,
Hear me!
I come to you as one of your many children.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
May I walk in beauty.
Make my eyes behold the red and purple sunset.
Make me respect the things that you have made,
And my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things That you have taught your children--
Make me strong, not to be superior to my brothers,
but to be able to fight my greatest enemy: myself.
Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
so that When life fades as the faded sunset My spirit will come to you without shame.
~Native American Prayer~ By Chief Yellow Hawk
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack
Rudyard Kipling
"The true shaman is one who holds the golden dream in her heart until it comes true on Mother Earth." *** Brooke Medicine Eagle
"If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it he will find it." Sitting Bull
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me
The faintness of the stars,
the freshness of the morning,
the dewdrop on the flower,
speaks to me.
The strength of fire,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.
Chief Dan George
"The only thing I'm guilty of, and which I was convicted for, was being Chippewa and Sioux blood and for believing in our sacred religion."
Statement of Leonard Peltier at his sentencing.
"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes from within the spirits of people when they realize that their relationship... their oneness with the universe and all it's powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe, dwells the greatest spirit, and that this center is really everywhere...For it is within each of us.
CHEROKEE PRAYER (unknown)
As I walk the trail of life
in the fear of the wind and rain,
Grant, O Great Spirit
that I may always walk like a man.
A nation is not conquered
until the hearts of it's women
are on the ground.
Then it is done,
no matter how brave it's warriors
nor how strong it's weapons.~Traditional Cheyenne Saying
"We must take care to live not merely a long life, but a full one; for living a long life requires only good fortune, but living a full life requires character. Long is the life that is fully lived; it is fulfilled only when the mind supplies its own good qualities and empowers itself from within." ~Seneca~
The Great Spirit is displeased with you for accepting the ways of the white people. You can see for yourselves, your hunting is gone and you are planting the corn of the white men...You yourselves can see that the white people are entirely different beings from us; we are made from Red Clay.-Tsali, Cherokee Medicine Man.
Soon there will come from the rising sun a different kind of man from any you have ever yet seen. -Spokane Prophecy.
Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley...has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Chief Seattle, Duwamish.
When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre.-Chiksika, Shawnee.
Will you ever begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet? From a grain of sand to a great mountain, all is sacred. Yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent. We natives are guardians of this sacred place. -Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk.
When the first white man came over the wide waters, he was but a little man...very little. His legs were cramped by sitting long in his big boat, and he begged for a little land. But when the white man had warmed himself at the Indian's fire, and had filled himself with the Indian's hominy, he became very large... -Speckled Snake, Creek.
Deer, I am sorry to hurt you, but the people are hungry.-Choctaw hunter prayer.
I have long since learned who you Castilians are... To me you are professional vagabonds who wander from place to place, gaining your livelihood by robbing, sacking, and murdering people who have given you no offense. Florida Chief, 1539.
If we possessed such large canoes, we would follow you to your land and conquer it, for we too are men. -Cherokee Chief, 1543.
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