Native American Earth Quotes - Page 3

• 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.

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

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White Man

  15 Copy quote

• 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.

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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

  39 Copy quote
• 

  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.

  204 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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• 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.

  23 Copy quote

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• As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Children, Native American, Giving

  10 Copy quote

• Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their
  fathers. These laws were good.

  Chief Joseph

  Father, Native American, Law

  8 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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• 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

• 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".

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• 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

• 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

  119 Copy quote

• Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

  Sitting Bull

  Country, Father, Native American

  48 Copy quote

• 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

  79 Copy quote

• Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!'

  Tecumseh

  Summer, Country, Giving Up

  48 Copy quote

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

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Grizzly Bears, Deer

  13 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

• Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

  Tecumseh

  Wise, Native American, Abuse

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

  53 Copy quote

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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

  25 Copy quote

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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

• If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Men, White

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

  12 Copy quote

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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.

  44 Copy quote

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