Native American Indian Quotes:

Everything an 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. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Song, Love You, Heart, Indian Tribes, Indian Wisdom

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace.....Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.......Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade....where I choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

source: Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

topic: Strong, Circles, Long, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

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. All things are bound together. All things connect.

source: Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

topic: Mother, Teacher, Brother, Indian, Indian Wisdom

- Chief Seattle

topic: Life, Lonely, Nature, Indian, Inspirational Earth

Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.

- Terri Farley

topic: Tongue, Deaf, Indian Wisdom, American Indian, Native American Indian

All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

- Chief Seattle

source: Seattle (Chief) (1976). “Chief Seattle's Testimony”

topic: Native American, Men, Air, Indian Wisdom, Seattle

I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed. I see no seat for the Eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior. But we are after all a mere part of Creation. And we must consider to understand where we are. And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation.

- Oren Lyons

source: "Animal Grace: Can Humans Rise to the Call?" by Sheila Shayon, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 3, 2009.

topic: Native American, Eagles, Mountain, Delegation, Great Native American

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....

Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that, "thought comes before speech."

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.247, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Native American, Men, Hands, American Landscape, Native American Dream

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

topic: Meaningful, Native American, Talking, Indian Wisdom, Lakota

Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.194, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Knowledge, Library, World, Indian Wisdom, Lakota

The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.193, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Real, Animal, Sky, Indian Wisdom, Lakota

- Mary Brave Bird

source: Mary Brave Bird, Richard Erdoes (2007). “Ohitika Woman”, p.220, Grove Press

topic: Inspirational, Mother, Land, Native America, Native American Earth

As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized.

- Charles Alexander Eastman

topic: Children, Native American, Giving, American Indian, Great Native American

We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!

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. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. 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.

topic: Native American, Fighting, Native, Indian, American Indian

- William Commanda

topic: Native American, Technology, Light, Spiritual Indian, Two Roads

[last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

- Crowfoot

source: "Aging in the Modern World: Selections from the Literature of Aging for Pleasure and Instruction". Book by ‎Clark Tibbitts, p. 222, 1957.

topic: Sunset, Native American, Firefly, Indian Tribes, Spiritual Indian

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

- Chief Seattle

topic: Motivational, Wisdom, Peace, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself â€” and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.

source: Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

topic: Life, Strength, Teacher, Spiritual Indian, Law Abiding Citizen

- Crowfoot

topic: Life, Running, Nature, Indian Tribes, Indian Wisdom

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

topic: Song, Hero, Home, Indian Tribes, Meaningful Death

Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease and herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

topic: Moving, Native American, Circles, Cherokee, Back Again

- Mourning Dove

source: Mourning Dove (1994). “Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography”, p.69, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Marijuana, Earth, Disease, Indian Wisdom, American Spirit

Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours.

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 nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours...

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Native American, Views, Demand, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

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. 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. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

source: Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

topic: Stars, Native American, Wind, Indian Wisdom, Cherokee

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.192, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Healing, Feet, Air, Indian, Spiritual Indian

- Sitting Bull

source: "I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians". Book by Virginia Armstrong, Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.

topic: Heart, Men, Eagles, Indian, Indian Wisdom

Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage" people. To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. Not until the hairy man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and the families that we loved was it "wild" for us. When the very animals of the forest began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the "Wild West" began.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

source: Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.38, U of Nebraska Press

topic: Men, Animal, Blessing, Man And Nature, Lakota

I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Love You, Perfect, Love Your Life, Indian, Indian Tribes

He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone.

source: Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

topic: Native American, Circles, Shapes, Indian, Indian Wisdom

- Seneca the Younger

topic: Native American, American Indian, All Alone, Great Native American, Native American Indian

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Native American, Men, Sight, Indian, Lakota

Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Men, White, Poor, Indian, Footsteps

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that 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.

Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

source: "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

topic: Life, Death, Wisdom, Indian Wisdom, Meaningful Death

Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

source: "The Sacred Pipe : Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux" recorded and edited by Joseph Epes Brown, 1953.

topic: Children, Native American, Heart, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

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.

source: Speech in surrendering to General Nelson Appleton Miles, October 05, 1877.

topic: Tired, Heart, Fighting, Indian Culture, American Indian

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

topic: Inspirational, Together, Shapes, Indian, Indian Wisdom

All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.

topic: Honesty, Generosity, Justice, Supreme Power, Great Freedom

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

topic: Brother, Reality, Men, Indian, Indian Wisdom

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.

source: "Black Elk Speaks". Book by John Gneisenau Neihardt, 1932.

topic: Beautiful, Dream, Children, Wounded Knee, Blizzard