"When you arise in the morning, give thanks
for the morning light, for your life and strength.
Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault
lies with yourself...."
 
-- Tecumseh
Shawnee

"Life....
It is the flash of a firefly in the night,
the breath of a buffalo in the winter.
It is the little shadow, which runs across
the grass, and loses itself in the sunset...."

 
-- Crowfoot
Blackfeet Elder

"Never pass up a chance to keep your mouth shut."
 
-- Will Rogers
Cherokee

"Hey-a-a-hay!  Lean to hear my feeble voice.  At the center of the sacred hoop, you have said that I should make the tree to bloom.  With tears running O Great Spirit, my Grandfather, with running eyes I must say.... The tree has never bloomed.  Here I stand, and the tree is withered.  Again I recall the great vision you gave me.  It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives....  Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds!  Hear me, that the people may once again go back to the sacred hoop, find the good road, and the shielding tree...."
-- Black Elk
Oglala Lakota

"I am the spirit's janitor....  All I do is wipe the
windows a bit, so you can see out for yourself."

-- Godfrey Chips
Lakota Medicine Man

Humor is the WD-40 of healing."
 
-- George Goodstriker
Kainai Elder

"Prayer unfolds in the stillness of the soul."
 
-- Unknown

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does
is in a circle.  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 nests 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...."
-- Black Elk
Oglala Lakota

"Creator gave you  two ears....
and one mouth....
So you can listen,
twice as much,
as you speak.

                                       Two Hawks' Grandfather
                                                                         Lakota

"One cannot sell the earth
upon which the people walk."

                            Tacunka Witco (Crazy Horse)
                                                          Oglala Lakota

"You have driven me from the east
to this place, and I have been here
two thousand years or more....
My friends, if you took me away
from this land it would be very hard
for me.  I wish to die in this land.
I wish to be an old man here....
I have not wished to give even a part
of it to the Great Father.
Though he were to give me a million dollars,
I would NOT give him this land...."

                                                    Standing Bear
                                                        Ponca Chief

"We do not want schools....
they will teach us to have churches.
We do not want churches....
they will teach us to quarrel about God.
We do not want to learn that.
We may quarrel with men sometimes
about things on this earth,
but we never quarrel about God.
We do not want to learn that."

                     -- Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph)
                                                     Nez Perce Leader

"The world of my childhood
was filled with wonder and magic.
Enchantment was the order of the day.
Mechanistic science has no place
for enchantment.  If it can't be
measured, it doesn't exist.
The problem is, the important things
cannot be measured...."

                         Anne Wilson Schaef (Cherokee)
         Author- 'Native Wisdom for White Minds'

 

Oh Great Spirit, who made all races,
look kindly upon the whole human
family and take away the arrogance
and hatred which separates us
from our brothers....

                                                   Cherokee Prayer