Best Indian Wisdom Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“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.”

“May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears. And, above all, may silence make you strong.”

“Man's heart away from nature becomes hard.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

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

World Should Faces Wish Grass Native Grandfather Native American Native American Wisdom Native America Native American Indian Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Indian Inspirational Native American Spiritual Spiritual Indian

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

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

“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

“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.”

“The mystic and the physicist arrive at the same conclusion; one starting from the inner realm, the other from the outer world. The harmony between their views confirms the ancient Indian wisdom that Brahman, the ultimate reality without, is identical to Atman, the reality within.”

Source: The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision

“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.”

“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.”

“Our religions will never at any time take root; the ancient wisdom of the human race will not be supplanted by the events in Galilee. On the contrary, Indian wisdom flows back to Europe, and will produce a fundamental change in our knowledge and thought.”

Humans Race Events Produce Europe Flow Roots Fundamentals Ancient Contrary Indian Human Race Indian Wisdom Ancient Wisdom

Book:The World as Will and Representation

Source: The World as Will and Representation

“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.”

“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.”

Poor Cases Pieces Horse Native Native American Elders Blanket Tents Native American Wisdom Native America Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Spiritual

Author:John Fire Lame Deer

“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.”

“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.”

“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: Land of the Spotted Eagle

“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.”

World Doe Done Circles Native Native American American Indian Native American Wisdom Native America Native American Indian Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Spiritual

Author:Black Elk

“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.”

“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.”

“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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

Want Religion Church Teach Quarrels Native American Wisdom Great Spirit Native America Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom

Author:Chief Joseph

Indian Wisdom Quotes

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Indian Wisdom Quotes