Native American Indian Quotes

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  I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become One Circle again.

  Crazy Horse

  Native American, Color, Circles

  293 Copy quote

• The old Indian teaching was that is is wrong to tear loose from its place on the earth anything that may be growing there. It may be cut off, but it should not be uprooted. The trees and the grass have spirits. Whatever one of such growth may be destroyed by some good Indian, his act is done in sadness and with a prayer for forgiveness because of his necessities.

  Wooden Leg

  Prayer, Teaching, Native American

  46 Copy quote

• Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony.

  Chief Dan George

  Native American, Harmony, American Indian

  149 Copy quote

• Upon suffering beyond suffering: the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.

  Crazy Horse

  Native American, Blessing, Circles

  471 Copy quote

• I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.

  Crazy Horse

  Eye, Native American, Native Country

  367 Copy quote

• 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

• So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

  Tecumseh

  Song, Love You, Native American

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

  180 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.

  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

  89 Copy quote

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• 

  The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Native American, Rights

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

  142 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

  206 Copy quote

• Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.

  Terri Farley

  Native American, Tongue, Deaf

  17 Copy quote

• 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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• I do not see a delegation for the four-footed. I see no seat for the eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior, but we are after all a mere part of the Creation. And we must continue to understand where we are. And we stand between the mountain and the ant, somewhere and there only, as part of the Creation.

  Oren Lyons

  Native American, Eagles, Understanding

  "Animal Grace: Can Humans Rise to the Call?" by Sheila Shayon, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 3, 2009.

  90 Copy quote

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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

  80 Copy quote

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• 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

• 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

  72 Copy quote

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• Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Real, Animal, Sky

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.193, U of Nebraska Press

  65 Copy quote

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• 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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• 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

• 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

• 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.

  225 Copy quote

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• Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.

  William Commanda

  Native American, Technology, Two

  49 Copy quote

• [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.

  17 Copy quote

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• I do not see a delegation for the four-footed. I see no seat for the eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior.

  Oren Lyons

  Nature, Native American, Eagles

  "Animal Grace: Can Humans Rise to the Call?" by Sheila Shayon, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 3, 2009.

  16 Copy quote

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• We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

  Chief Seattle

  Motivational, Wisdom, Peace

  293 Copy quote