Best Great Native American Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“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 — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.”

Source: American Indian Stories

“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.”

“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.”

“All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.”

“Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them." I say to him, "No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them." Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him, "Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell." My neighbor answers, "Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses." The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them." If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.”

“Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?”

Wells Children Country Use Earth Spirit Justice Air Sea Social Justice Sells Clouds Why Not Great Spirit Great Native American Trinkets

Author:Tecumseh

“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.”

Remember Land Paid Grandfather Native American Grandparent Great American Native American Wisdom Native America Parents And Grandparents Native American Indian Great Native American Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom

Author:John Wooden

“I do not see a delegation for the four-footed. I see no seat for the eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior.”

Nature Forget Environment Four Environmental Superiors Seats Native Native American Eagles Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Native American Earth Delegation Native American Spiritual

Author:Oren Lyons

“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.”

“Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!'”

“How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.”

Looks America Language Indian Native Native American Smooth Indigenous American Indian Native American Wisdom Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Native American Earth Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Indian Inspirational Native Language

Book:Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war

Source: Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war

“If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!”

“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.”

“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, free to 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

Ifs Fighting Indian Native Native American American Indian Great American Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Native American Earth Indian Wisdom

Author:Chief Joseph

“The idea of full dress in preparation for a battle comes not from a belief that it will add to the fighting ability. The preparation is for death, in case that should be the result of the conflict. Every Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet the Great Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether in imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace.”

“Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike-brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all.”

Men War Country Government Father White Sky Brother Treats Indian Native Native American White Man Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Native American Earth Native Country

Author:Chief Joseph

“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 the Creation. And we must continue to understand where we are. And we stand between the mountain and the ant, somewhere and there only, as part of the Creation.”

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

“A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.”

“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.”

“Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony.”

Harmony Native Native American American Indian Native American Wisdom Great Spirit Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Indian Inspirational

Author:Chief Dan George

“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.”

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

“I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth.”

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

Should Great Things Indian Native Native American All Alone American Indian Native American Wisdom Native America Native American Indian Great Native American Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Indian Inspirational Native American Proverbs

Author:Seneca the Younger

“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.”

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

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

“Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.”

Men Spirit Sitting Sight Native Native American Great Spirit Great Native American

Author:Sitting Bull

“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.”

Source: Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography

“We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone.”

“We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth was beautiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.”

Source: My People the Sioux

“At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.”

“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.”

“If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The power of the world always works in circles.”

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

“We do not want riches, we want peace and love.”

“I was born where there were no enclosures.”

Born Native Native American Native America Great Native American Native American Earth Enclosure Apaches

Author:Geronimo

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

World Knowledge Standing All Things Library Inherent American Indian Native American Wisdom Native American Indian Great Native American Indian Culture Native American Earth Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Modern Culture Lakota

Book:Land of the Spotted Eagle

Source: Land of the Spotted Eagle

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

Great Native American Quotes

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Great Native American Quotes