Native American Wisdom Quotes - Page 3

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

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Men, White

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

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

  Luther Standing Bear

  Knowledge, Library, World

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

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• 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

  Horse, Native American, Tents

  17 Copy quote

• Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Doe

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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• 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

  Native American, Land, Grandparent

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• 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

  Children, Father, Spring

  78 Copy quote

• 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

  Dream, Mother, Native American

  "Wisdom of the North American Indian in speech and legend". Book by Alexander Francis Chamberlain, 1913.

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• 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.

  Black Elk

  Inspirational, Honesty, Native American

  38 Copy quote

• From where the sun now stands I will fight no more.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Fighting, Sun

  Quoted in Herbert J. Spinden, The Nez Perce Indians (1908)

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• 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.

  Wovoka

  Mother, Father, Home

  25 Copy quote

• Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

  Black Elk

  Strong, Native American, Circles

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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• 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.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Nature, Native American, Men

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.247, U of Nebraska Press

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• 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

  Life, Lonely, Nature

  202 Copy quote
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  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.

  Chief Joseph

  Life, Strength, Teacher

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

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• 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.

  Canasatego

  Native American, Thinking, Land

  10 Copy quote

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

  Chief Joseph

  Brother, Native American, Reality

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

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• 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.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Life, Children, Native American

  64 Copy quote

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

  Tecumseh

  Song, Native American, Great Day

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

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• 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

  Moving, Native American, Circles

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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• 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

  Native American, Heart, Men

  "I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians". Book by Virginia Armstrong, Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.

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

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Shapes

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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

  Tecumseh

  Native American, Views, Demand

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

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• 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

  Stars, Native American, Wind

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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• 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

  Native American, Grandfather, Wish

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

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

  Crowfoot

  Sunset, Native American, Firefly

  "Aging in the Modern World: Selections from the Literature of Aging for Pleasure and Instruction". Book by ‎Clark Tibbitts, p. 222, 1957.

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