Native America Quotes

• We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Fighting, American Indian

  33 Copy quote

• 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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• 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

  28 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Chief White Eagle

  Native American, Long, Pieces

  18 Copy quote

• 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

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

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Believe, Native American, Perfect

  16 Copy quote

• 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.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Dust, Tree

  118 Copy quote

• Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals. We cannot sell the lives of men and animals. It was put here by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it because it does not belong to us

  Crowfoot

  Native American, Animal, Men

  45 Copy quote

• Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Inspirational, Sweet, Morning

  Charles Alexander Eastman (2003). “The Soul of the Indian”, p.12, Courier Corporation

  37 Copy quote

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

  Chief Seattle

  Inspirational, Life, Native American

  65 Copy quote

• We were like deer. They were like grizzly bear.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Grizzly Bears, Deer

  13 Copy quote

• The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.

  Mary Brave Bird

  Inspirational, Mother, Native American

  Mary Brave Bird, Richard Erdoes (2007). “Ohitika Woman”, p.220, Grove Press

  67 Copy quote

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• 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.

  16 Copy quote

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• The idea of full dress in preparation for a battle comes not from a belief that it will add to the fighting ability. The preparation is for death, in case that should be the result of the conflict. Every Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet the Great Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether in imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace.

  Wooden Leg

  Death, Native American, Fighting

  "Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer".

  8 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Wise, Attitude, Believe

  63 Copy quote

• If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it.

  Sitting Bull

  Inspirational, Native American, Men

  63 Copy quote

• I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. 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. And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.

  Black Elk

  Mother, Children, Father

  "Black Elk Speaks". Book by John Gneisenau Neihardt, 1932.

  192 Copy quote

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• I was born where there were no enclosures.

  Geronimo

  Native American, Apaches, Born

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  53 Copy quote

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• 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

  18 Copy quote

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• 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?

  Chief Dan George

  Native American, Heart, Grandchildren

  496 Copy quote

• Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation. Silence was meaningful with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence to the speech-maker and his own moment of silence before talking was done in the practice of true politeness and regard for the rule that, "thought comes before speech."

  Luther Standing Bear

  Meaningful, Native American, Space

  90 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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• 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.

  9 Copy quote

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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

• 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.

  Tecumseh

  Life, Death, Wisdom

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

  210 Copy quote

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