John Fire Lame Deer Quotes

• We Sioux spend a lot of time thinking about everyday things which in our minds are mixed up with the spiritual. We see in the world around us many symbols that teach us the meaning of life. We have a saying that the white man sees so little, he must see with only one eye. We see a lot that you no longer notice. You could notice if you wanted to, but you are usually too busy. We Indians live in a world of symbols and images where the spiritual and commonplace are one…We try to understand them not with the head but with the heart

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Spiritual, Heart, Eye

  35 Copy quote

• If this earth should ever be destroyed, it will be by desire, by the lust of pleasure and self-gratification, by greed of the green frog skin, by people who are mindful of their own self, forgetting about the wants of others.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Self, People, Greed

  53 Copy quote

• Listen to the air.
  You can hear it, feel it,
  smell it, taste it.
  Woniya wakan, the holy air,
  which renews all by its breath.
  Woniya wakan, spirit, life, breath, renewal,
  it means all that.
  We sit together, don’t touch,
  but something is there,
  we feel it between us
  as a presence.
  A good way to start thinking
  about nature
  is to talk to it,
  talk to the rivers, to the lakes,
  to the winds,
  as to our relatives.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Mean, Thinking, Smell

  49 Copy quote

• We all come from the same root, but the leaves are all different.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Roots, Different

  55 Copy quote

• Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It's that powerful.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Powerful, Love Is, Behind You

  43 Copy quote

• To our way of thinking the Indians' symbol is the circle, the hoop. Nature wants to be round. The bodies of human beings and animals have no corners. With us, the circle stands for togetherness of people who sit with one another around the campfire, relatives and friends united in peace while the sacred pipe passes from hand to hand. To us this is beautiful and fitting, symbol and reality at the same time, expressing the harmony of life and nature.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Beautiful, Reality, Thinking

  33 Copy quote

• If nature puts a burden on a man by making him different, it also gives him a power.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Men, Giving, Vision

  33 Copy quote

• We have a new joke on the reservation: 'What is cultural deprivation?' Answer: 'Being an upper-middle class white kid living in a split-level suburban home with a color TV.'

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Home, Kids, Color

  42 Copy quote

• Indians chase the vision, white men chase the dollar.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Men, White Man, Vision

  24 Copy quote

• Our beliefs are rooted deep in our earth, no matter what you have done to it and how much of it you have paved over. And if you leave all that concrete unwatched for a year or two, our plants, the native Indian plants, will pierce that concrete and push up through it.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Years, Two, Done

  34 Copy quote

• You can pray for whatever you want, but it is always best to pray for others, not for yourself.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Want, Praying

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  18 Copy quote

• Laughter - that is something very sacred especially for us Indians.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Laughter, Sacred

  13 Copy quote

• Men cannot live without mystery. He has a great need of it.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  Men, Needs, Mystery

  15 Copy quote

• Tell the people not to cry. Tell them to be happy.

  John Fire Lame Deer

  People, Cry

  11 Copy quote

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