Chief Joseph
(Nez Perces')
"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 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 Seattle
Skokomish
"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 Crazy Horse
Sioux
Sept. 23, 1875
"One does not sell the land people walk on."
Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937
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.
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.
Chief Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return to
Main Menu
"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 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 Seattle
Skokomish
"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 Crazy Horse
Sioux
Sept. 23, 1875
"One does not sell the land people walk on."
Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937
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.
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.
Chief Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Chief Crazy Horse
Sioux
Sept. 23, 1875
"One does not sell the land people walk on."
Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937
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.
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.
Chief Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux, 1868-1937
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.
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.
Chief Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
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.
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.
Chief Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
You have noticed that 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. 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 nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
Crow Foot
Blackfoot warrior and orator
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Eagle Chief
(Letakos-Lesa)
Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn, all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are ugly. We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Mourning Dove
Salish, 1888-1936
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it; and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
John Stands In Timber
A Cheyenne Proverb
Névé'novôhe'étanóme mâsęhánééstóva, onésetó'ha'éeta netáhoestovevoo'o, onésęhestóxévétáno mâsęhánééstóva!
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Don't race in craziness, try to stop your mounts, try to come in last in terms of craziness!
From Cheyenne historian, John Stands In Timber. Its essential meaning is "Don't live a hurried life!"
Chief Flat-Iron
(Maza Blaska)
Oglala Sioux
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca
Paiute (1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits. He cures the sick by the laying of hands, prayers, incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice. He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Shooter
Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Chief George Copway
Kah-ge-ga-bowh
Ojibwa (1818-1863)
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation. This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Tecumseh
Shawnee
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
"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!"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, want us to be what they call "assimilated;" bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers,we want to be ourselves.
We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
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We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, "there is freedom and justice for all." We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated."
Chief Black Hawk
Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
Shinguaconse
"Little Pine"
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see the promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power, I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them.
The Tracker
Tom Brown, Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
Wintu Woman
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots, we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes. When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things. We shake down acorns and pine nuts. We don't chop down the trees. We only use dead wood. But the white people plow up the ground, pull down the trees, kill everything, the White people pay no attention. How can the spirit of the earth like the White man? Everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
Chief Aupumut
Mohican, 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
GO TO "Sacred Ways - PEACE PIPE"
Return toMain Menu
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so 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."
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