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American Indian Quotes

Browse 214 quotes about American Indian.

American Indian Quotes

“Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.”

Source: Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

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

“All things are bound together. All things connect.”

Source: How can one sell the air?: the manifesto of an Indian chief

“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.”

“Every culture from the Egyptians to the Mayans to the American Indians to the Bedouins created bestiaries that enabled them to express their relationship with nature. Ashes and Snow is a 21st-century bestiary filled with species from around the world. Nature’s orchestra includes not just Homo sapiens but elephants, whales, manatees, eagles, cheetahs, orangutans, and many others.”

World Culture Century Filled Species Snow Around The World Ashes 21st Century Elephants Orchestra Eagles Whales Homo Sapiens American Indian Cheetahs Orangutans Mayans

Author:Gregory Colbert

“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.”

“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: Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

“It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain.”

Way Values Strong Effort Traditional Indian Elders American Indian Traditional Values

Author:Russell Means

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

“The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.”

War Church Army Indian Organized American Indian

Book:The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World

Source: The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World

“The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.”

Men Stories Hero Miracle Deny Myth Indian Logical Hebrew American Indian Credible

Book:The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World

Source: The Essential Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa): Light on the Indian World

“The following twenty years would be the nadir of American Indian history, as the total Indian population between 1890 and 1910 fell to fewer than 250,000. (It was not until 1917 that Indian births exceeded deaths for the first time in fifty years.)”

Years Firsts Would Be Birth First Time Twenties Population Following Indian Fifty Fewer American Indian Nadir

Book:Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned

Source: Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History But Never Learned

“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.”

“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.”