Native American Quotes - Page 4

• I certainly don't object to [writers] trying to imagine the lives of other societies, but you have to do it with a certain amount of humility and respect. If it were not for the ethnographic material that had been collected by missionaries and anthropologists and so forth, much of past Native American society would no longer be accessible. What I object to is making kitsch of things that are very serious.

  Michael Dorris

  Humility, Past, Trying

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• It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. . . . Children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving. . . . The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have—to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Children, Generosity, Giving

  34 Copy quote

• If a child is inclined to be grasping, or to cling to any of his or her little possessions, legends are related about the contempt and disgrace falling upon the ungenerous and mean person.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Children, Fall, Mean

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• The most common trait of all primitive peoples is a reverence for the life-giving earth, and the Native American shared this elemental ethic: The land was alive to his loving touch, and he, its son, was brother to all creatures.

  Stewart Udall

  Brother, Son, Loving Life

  Stewart L. Udall (1988). “The quiet crisis and the next generation”, Gibbs Smith

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• For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Friendly, Wilderness, Lakota

  Luther Standing Bear (1978). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.196, U of Nebraska Press

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• We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth was beautiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Beautiful, Blessing, Thinking

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “My People the Sioux”, p.17, U of Nebraska Press

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• The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.

  Chief Joseph

  Race, Land, Waiting

  26 Copy quote

• It is my wish and the wishes of my people to live peaceably and quietly with you.

  Cornplanter

  People, Wish, My Wish

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• We have taken so much from your culture, I wish you had taken something from ours...For there were some beautiful and good things within it. Perhaps now that the time has come, We are fearful that what you take will be lost.... I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success: His education, his skills, and society.

  Chief Dan George

  Beautiful, Taken, Men

  281 Copy quote

• The Tonkawa killed him it make my heart hot. I want my people follow after white way. Some white people do that, too.

  Quanah Parker

  Heart, White, People

  49 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, People

  48 Copy quote

• A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

  Zitkala-Sa

  Inspirational, Life, Sweet

  62 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

  Thinking, Land, White

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• I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth.

  Red Cloud

  Children, Father, Blessing

  78 Copy quote

• There is a direct connection between violence against the Earth and violence against women.

  Lee Maracle

  Connections, Earth, Violence

  166 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 Country, Light

  367 Copy quote

• 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

  Technology, Two, Light

  49 Copy quote

• God made me an Indian.

  Sitting Bull

  Made, Indian

  100 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

  Animal, Men, Flames

  45 Copy quote

• How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the Earth is sacred to my people, every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clear and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people.

  Chief Seattle

  Brother, Horse, Memories

  "Flow: For Love of Water". Documentary, www.imdb.com. 2008.

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• Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds.

  Chief Seattle

  People, World, Deals

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

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• 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.

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• It is important to understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world and expressing the wisdom of Native belief...No one voice speaks for all voices.

  Joseph Bruchac

  Wisdom, Expression, Voice

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• The more I consider the condition of the white men, the more fixed becomes my opinion that, instead of gaining, they have lost much by subjecting themselves to what they call the laws and regulations of civilized socieities.

  Tomochichi

  Men, White, Law

  64 Copy quote

• When we become hollow bones there is no limit to what the Higher Powers can do in and through us in spiritual things.

  Frank Fools Crow

  Spiritual, Power, Limits

  107 Copy quote