Native Wisdom Quotes:

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

Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Travel, Men, Let Me, Indian, Spiritual Indian

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.

- Will Rogers

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Moving On, Indian, Indian Wisdom

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.

- Chief Seattle

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

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

There is no death, only a change of worlds.

- Chief Seattle

source: Albert Furtwangler, Chief Seattle (1997). “Answering Chief Seattle”, p.25, University of Washington Press

topic: Change, Native American, Psychics, Indian Wisdom, Meaningful Death

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.

- Chief Joseph

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

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

I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.

- Red Cloud

topic: Love, Life, Peace, Indian, Indian Wisdom

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

- Sitting Bull

topic: Men, White, Poor, Indian, Footsteps

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.

- 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

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

- Sitting Bull

source: Sitting Bull, Mark Diedrich (1998). “Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches”

topic: Animal, Yield, Land, Spiritual Indian, Animal Spirits

I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.

- Sitting Bull

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

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

- Sitting Bull

topic: Fake People, Native American, Men, Indian, Indian Wisdom

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.

- Luther Standing Bear

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

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

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.

- John Fire Lame Deer

topic: Horse, Tents, Poor, Elders, Native American Spiritual

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

- Tecumseh

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

The power of the world always works in circles.

- Black Elk

topic: Circles, World, Indian, Indian Wisdom, Spiritual Indian

Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.

- Black Elk

topic: Native American, Grandfather, Wish, Spiritual Indian, Native America

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...

- Black Elk

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

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.

- Black Elk

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

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

- Tecumseh

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

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

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.

- 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

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.

- Black Elk

topic: Inspirational, Wisdom, Peace, Spirit And Soul, Elders

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

- Seneca the Younger

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

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

topic: Native American, Long, Pieces, Indian Wisdom, Elders

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

- Black Elk

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

[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

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide

- Tecumseh

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

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

The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, they speak 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 the fire, the taste of the salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.

- Chief Dan George

source: Chief Dan George, “My Heart Soars”

topic: Nature, Morning, Stars, Indian Wisdom, Softness

We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Native American, Dust, Tree, Great Native American, Great Spirit

The Wise Man believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astire on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool-his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

- Charles Alexander Eastman

source: Charles Alexander Eastman, Michael Oren Fitzgerald (2007). “The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World”, p.23, World Wisdom, Inc

topic: Wise, Attitude, Believe, Indian Wisdom, Cornerstones

Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony.

- Chief Dan George

topic: Native American, Harmony, Native, Indian Wisdom, Great Native American

Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors - the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

- Chief Seattle

topic: Dream, Heart, Night, Seattle, American Indian

We do not want churches because 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 the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Men, Justice, Church, Native 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.

- Luther Standing Bear

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

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

This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things... This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land.

- Spotted Tail

topic: Children, Spring, War, Lakota, Great American

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

- Black Elk

source: "Black Elk Speaks : being the life story of a holy man of the Ogalala Sioux" by John Neihardt, (Ch. 17), 1961.

topic: Circles, Doe, Done, Indian Wisdom, Native Wisdom

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.

- William Commanda

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

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. 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... The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

- John Neihardt

topic: Stars, Native American, Moon, Indian Wisdom, Native America

Our land is everything to us.... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives.

- John Wooden

topic: Land, Grandparent, Grandfather, Parents And Grandparents, Great American

Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

- Standing Bear

topic: Nature, Heart, Men, Man And Nature, Beautiful Nature

My young men shall never work, men who work cannot dream; and wisdom comes to us in dreams. You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mothers breast? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men. But how dare I cut off my mother's hair.

- Smohalla

topic: Mother, Dream, Cutting, Great Native American, Native America

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

- Luther Standing Bear

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

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

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

- Chief Seattle

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

topic: Mother, Respect, Children, Seattle, Mother Earth

We do not want churches. They will teach us to quarrel about God.

- Chief Joseph

topic: Religion, Church, Want, Indian Wisdom, Great Spirit