Best Native Wisdom Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“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.”

Source: Land of the Spotted Eagle

“The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle. But he will not make friends with any of these creatures and when his heart aches with longing, he will curse me. Have I done all to keep the air fresh? Have I cared enough about the water? Have I left the eagle to soar in freedom? Have I done everything I could to earn my grandchild's fondness?”

“If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys.”

Ifs Knows Life Inspirational Animal Native Native American Native American Wisdom Great Spirit Native America Great Native American Native American Earth Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Spiritual Native American Proverbs

Author:Chief Dan George

“I want my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again. We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother.”

“You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest.”

“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard.”

Source: Land of the Spotted Eagle

“We believe profoundly in silence-the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.”

“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

“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. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.”

Source: Land of the Spotted Eagle

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

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

“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.”

Long Stills Pieces Native Sunlight Native American Elders Mist Native American Wisdom Native America Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom American Spirit Native American Spiritual Native American Proverbs

Author:Chief White Eagle

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

“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because 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

“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”

“It does not require many words to speak the truth.”

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

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

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

“If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace.”

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

“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.”

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

Source: Chief Seattle's Testimony

“There is no death, only a change of worlds.”

Source: Answering Chief Seattle

“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.”

“Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.”

“Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.”

“When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.”

“The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

“Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it.”

People Age Old Age Native Native American Honorable American Indian Native American Wisdom Native America Native American Indian Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native American Indian Inspirational Proverbs Wisdom Native American Proverbs Honorable Death

Author:David Gemmell

“If we must die, we die defending our rights.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

Source: Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches

“He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.”

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

“Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.”

“The earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.”

Ifs Men Earth Mother Son Spit Mother Earth Seattle Nature And Environment Native American Wisdom Save Mother Earth Native American Earth Native Wisdom

Book:Chief Seattle's Testimony

Source: Chief Seattle's Testimony

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

Children Wisdom Motivational Earth Peace Environment Land Wise Words Words Of Wisdom Our Children Environmental Climate Change Indian Native Ancestor Native American Elders Inheritance Our Planet Our Environment Environmentalism Mother Earth Borrowing Descendants American Indian Earth Day Nature And Environment Native American Wisdom Great Spirit Native America Save Mother Earth Native American Indian Earth And Nature Great Native American Native American Earth Green Earth Indian Wisdom Native Wisdom Native Land Nature Conservation World Environment Beautiful Earth Green Living Save The Environment Native American Indian Inspirational Save Nature Native American Spiritual Native American Dream World Earth Day Environmental Pollution Inspirational Earth Inspirational Environmental Spiritual Indian Native American Proverbs Saving The Earth Go Green Happy Earth Day Ancient India Earth Friendly Protect Nature Cherokee Indian Native Place

Author:Chief Seattle

“It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. . . . Children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving. . . . The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have—to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.”

Giving May Children Belief Poor Taught Return Taste Weakness Overcoming Simplicity Possession Generosity Indian Native Prize Guests Native American Tribes Clans Native Wisdom

Author:Charles Alexander Eastman

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

Men Want May Sometimes Earth Spirit Church Justice Teach Diversity Social Justice Quarrels Native American Wisdom Great Spirit Native Wisdom

Author:Chief Joseph

“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.”

“Do the very best you can.”

Giving Success Fear Giving Up Native Native American Not Giving Up Native American Wisdom Native Wisdom

Book:How to enjoy your life and your job

Source: How to enjoy your life and your job

“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.”

Native Wisdom Quotes

Related topics

Native Wisdom Quotes