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Native American Wisdom Quotes
Inspirational sayings, quotes, and words of wisdom from a
Native American perspective, reflecting Native American beliefs, philosophy and
spirituality.
Cherokee Prayer Blessing
May the Warm Winds of Heaven
Blow softly upon your house.
May the Great Spirit
Bless all who enter there.
May your Mocassins
Make happy tracks
in many snows,
and may the Rainbow
Always touch your shoulder.
Native
American Prayer
Oh, Great
Spirit
Whose voice I
hear in the winds,
And whose
breath gives life to all the world,
hear me, I am
small and weak,
I need your
strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in
beauty and make my eyes ever behold
the red and
purple sunset.
Make my hands
respect the things you have
made and my
ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise
so that I may understand the things
you have
taught my people.
Let me learn
the lessons you have
hidden in
every leaf and rock.
I seek
strength, not to be greater than my brother,
but to fight
my greatest enemy - myself.
Make me always
ready to come to you
with clean
hands and straight eyes.
So when life
fades, as the fading sunset,
my Spirit may
come to you without shame.
(translated by
Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887)
published in
Native American Prayers - by the Episcopal Church.
Honor the
sacred.
Honor the
Earth, our Mother.
Honor the
Elders.
Honor all with
whom we
share the
Earth:-
Four-leggeds,
two-leggeds,
winged ones,
Swimmers,
crawlers,
plant and rock
people.
Walk in
balance and beauty.
Native American
Elder
Lakota
Instructions for Living
Friend do it
this way - that is,
whatever you
do in life,
do the very
best you can
with both your
heart and mind.
And if you do
it that way,
the Power Of
The Universe
will come to
your assistance,
if your heart
and mind are in Unity.
When one sits
in the Hoop Of The People,
one must be
responsible because
All of
Creation is related.
And the hurt
of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor
of one is the honor of all.
And whatever
we do effects everything in the universe.
If you do it
that way - that is,
if you truly
join your heart and mind
as One - whatever
you ask for,
that's the Way
It's Going To Be.
passed down
from White Buffalo Calf Woman
Go Forward
With Courage
When you are
in doubt, be still, and wait;
when doubt no
longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.
So long as
mists envelop you, be still;
be still until
the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists
-- as it
surely will.
Then act with
courage.
Ponca Chief
White Eagle (1800's to 1914)
Earth, Teach
Me
Earth teach me
quiet ~ as the grasses are still with new light.
Earth teach me
suffering ~ as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me
humility ~ as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth teach me
caring ~ as mothers nurture their young.
Earth teach me
courage ~ as the tree that stands alone.
Earth teach me
limitation ~ as the ant that crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me
freedom ~ as the eagle that soars in the sky.
Earth teach me
acceptance ~ as the leaves that die each fall.
Earth teach me
renewal ~ as the seed that rises in the spring.
Earth teach me
to forget myself ~ as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me
to remember kindness ~ as dry fields weep with rain.
- An Ute
Prayer
Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
it was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
we borrow it from our Children.
Ancient Indian Proverb
You have noticed that everything an Indian does in a circle,
and that is because the Power of the World always works in
circles,
and everything and everything tries to be round.
In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred
hoop
of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the
people
flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the
hoop,
and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east
gave peace
and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the
north
with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance.
This
knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.
Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.
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.
The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The
moon
does the same and both are round. 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. Our teepees were round like
the
nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the
nation's hoop,
a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to
hatch our children.
Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux 1863-1950
Over a hundred
years ago Black Elk had a vision of the time when Indian people would heal from
the devastating effects
of European
migration. In his vision the Sacred Hoop which had been broken, would be mended
in seven generations.
The children
born into this decade will be the seventh generation.
When you were born, you cried
and the world rejoiced.
Live your life
so that when you die,
the world cries and you rejoice.
White Elk
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.
Heinmot Tooyalaket
( Chief Joseph), Nez Perce Leader
Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.
Chief Seattle, 1854
The True Peace
The first peace, which is the most important,
is that which comes within the souls of people
when they realize their relationship,
their oneness, with the universe and all its powers,
and when they realize that at the center
of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit),
and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each
of us.
This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections
of this.
The second peace is that which is made between two
individuals,
and the third is that which is made between two nations.
But above all you should understand that there can never
be peace between nations until there is known that true
peace,
which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.
Black Elk, Oglala Sioux & Spiritual Leader (1863 - 1950)
May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong.
Chief Dan George
Hold On
Hold on to what is good,
Even if it's a handful of earth.
Hold on to what you believe,
Even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
Hold on to what you must do,
Even if it's a long way from here.
Hold on to your life,
Even if it's easier to let go.
Hold on to my hand,
Even if someday I'll be gone away from you.
A Pueblo Indian Prayer
Before our white brothers arrived to make us civilized men,
we didn't have any kind of prison. Because of this, we had
no delinquents.
Without a prison, there can be no delinquents.
We had no locks nor keys and therefore among us there were
no thieves.
When someone was so poor that he couldn't afford a horse, a
tent or a blanket,
he would, in that case, receive it all as a gift.
We were too uncivilized to give great importance to private
property.
We didn't know any kind of money and consequently, the value
of a human being
was not determined by his wealth.
We had no written laws laid down, no lawyers, no
politicians,
therefore we were not able to cheat and swindle one another.
We were really in bad shape before the white men arrived and
I don't know
how to explain how we were able to manage without these
fundamental things
that (so they tell us) are so necessary for a civilized
society.
John (Fire) Lame Deer
Sioux Lakota - 1903-1976
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.
Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator 1830 - 1890
And while I stood there
I saw more than I can tell,
and I understood more than I saw;
for I was seeing in a sacred manner
the shapes of things in the spirit,
and the shape of all shapes as they must
live together like one being.
Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks
Lakota Prayer
Wakan Tanka, Great Mystery,
teach me how to trust
my heart,
my mind,
my intuition,
my inner knowing,
the senses of my body,
the blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things
so that I may enter my Sacred Space
and love beyond my fear,
and thus Walk in Balance
with the passing of each glorious Sun.
According to the Native People, the Sacred Space
is the space between exhalation and inhalation.
To Walk in Balance is to have Heaven (spirituality)
and Earth (physicality) in Harmony.
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter
your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect
yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in
your life.
Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service
of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the
great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or
passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and
for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only
in yourself.
Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to
fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose
hearts are filled
with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they
weep
and pray for a little more time to live their lives over
again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.
Chief Tecumseh (Crouching Tiger) Shawnee Nation 1768-1813
O' GREAT SPIRIT
help me always
to speak the truth quietly,
to listen with an open mind
when others speak,
and to remember the peace
that may be found in silence.
Cherokee Prayer
Peace and happiness are available in every moment.
Peace is every step. We shall walk hand in hand.
There are no political solutions to spiritual problems.
Remember: If the Creator put it there, it is in the right
place.
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.
Tell your people that, since we were promised we should
never be moved,
we have been moved five times.
An Indian Chief, 1876.
When all the trees have been cut down,
when all the animals have been hunted,
when all the waters are polluted,
when all the air is unsafe to breathe,
only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Cree Prophecy
Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other,
thus should we do,
for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.
Black Elk
I do not think the measure of a civilization
is how tall its buildings of concrete are,
But rather how well its people have learned to relate
to their environment and fellow man.
Sun Bear of the Chippewa Tribe
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
Certain things catch your eye,
But pursue only those
that capture your heart.
old indian saying
Thanksgiving
We return thanks to our mother, the earth,
which sustains us.
We return thanks to the rivers and streams,
which supply us with water.
We return thanks to all herbs,
which furnish medicines for the cure of our diseases.
We return thanks to the moon and stars,
which have given to us their light when the sun was gone.
We return thanks to the sun,
that has looked upon the earth with a beneficent eye.
Lastly, we return thanks to the Great Spirit,
in Whom is embodied all goodness,
and Who directs all things for the good of Her children.
Iroquois
"Give thanks for unknown blessings
already on their way."
Native American saying
There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and
seldom traveled,
which leads to an unkown, secret place.
The old people came literally to love the soil,
and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of
being close to a mothering power.
Their teepees were built upon the earth
and their altars were made of earth.
The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.
That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead
of
propping himself up and away from its life giving forces.
For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to
think more deeply
and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the
mysteries of
life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
Chief Luther Standing Bear
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Music on this page:
excerpt of "Wind Voices" from cd Good Medicine by
John Two-Hawks
- American Indian Lakota flute player& musician.
Used here with permission.
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