Native Wisdom Quotes

• If we must die, we die defending our rights.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Rights, India

  242 Copy quote
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  There is no death, only a change of worlds.

  Chief Seattle

  Change, Sympathy, Native American

  Albert Furtwangler, Chief Seattle (1997). “Answering Chief Seattle”, p.25, University of Washington Press

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

  Chief Seattle

  Native American, Men, Air

  Seattle (Chief) (1976). “Chief Seattle's Testimony”

  97 Copy quote

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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

  209 Copy quote

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

  Will Rogers

  Inspirational, Motivational, Moving On

  116 Copy quote

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

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Law, American Indian

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

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

  Chief Joseph

  Travel, Native American, Men

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

  16 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White Man

  "God Is Red: A Native View of Religion". Book by Vine Deloria, Jr., 1972.

  59 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Animal, Yield

  Sitting Bull, Mark Diedrich (1998). “Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches”

  146 Copy quote

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

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Heart, Wish

  "God Is Red: A Native View of Religion". Book by Vine Deloria, Jr., 1972.

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

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White Man

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Red Cloud

  Love, Life, Peace

  183 Copy quote

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

  Sitting Bull

  Fake People, Native American, Men

  169 Copy quote

• 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.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Healing, Native American, People

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.192, U of Nebraska Press

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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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• 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.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White

  60 Copy quote

• 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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• 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.

  Mourning Dove

  Native American, Marijuana, Purpose

  Mourning Dove (1994). “Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography”, p.69, U of Nebraska Press

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• 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.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Teacher, Brother

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

  226 Copy quote

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

  Black Elk

  Peace, Native American, Oneness

  170 Copy quote

• 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

  21 Copy quote

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

  Seneca the Younger

  Native American, American Indian, All Alone

  9 Copy quote

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

  Tecumseh

  Death, Song, Hero

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

  63 Copy quote

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