"Being Indian is mainly in your heart. It's a way of walking with
the earth instead of upon it. A lot of the history books talk about
us Indians in the past tense, but we don't plan on going anywhere...
We have lost so much, but the thing that holds us together is that we
all belong to and are protectors of the earth; that's the reason for
us being here. Mother Earth is not a resource, she is an heirloom."
"The strength of our future, lies in the protecting of our past."
Do not misunderstand me; but understand me fully with reference to my affection for the land. I never said the land was mine to do with as I choose. The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to return to yours. Brother, we have listened to your talk coming from our father, the Great White Chief in Washington, and my people have called upon me to reply to you. The winds which pass through these aged pines we hear the moaning of departed ghosts, and if the voice of our people could have been heard, that act would never have been done. But alas though they stood around they could neither be seen nor heard. Their tears fell like drops of rain. I hear my voice in the depths of the forest but no answering voice
comes back to me. All is silent around me. My words must therefore be
few. I can now say no more. He is silent for he has nothing to answer
when the sun goes down." "Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their
fathers. They told us to treat all men as they treated us. That we should
never be the first to break a bargain. That it was a disgrace to tell
a lie. That we should speak only the truth. We were taught to believe
that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything and that he never forgets.
This I believe and all my people believe the same." "Wars are fought to see who owns the land, but in the end it possesses
man. Who dares say he owns it- is he not buried beneath it?" "When you are a person who belongs to a community, you have to know
who you are. You have to know who your relatives are, and as a tribe
we have to know where we came from..." "Marriage among my people was like traveling in a canoe. The man
sat in front and paddled the canoe. The woman sat in the stern but she
steered." "A Nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the
ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors nor how strong
its weapons." "Have patience. All things change in due time. Wishing cannot bring
autumn glory or cause winter to cease." "Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself."
"With all things and in all things, we are relatives." "Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real
and active principle. And so close did some of the Lakotas come to their
feathered and furred friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common
tongue. "We who are clay blended by the Master Potter, come from the kiln
of Creation in many hues. How can people say one skin is colored, when
each has its own coloration? What should it matter that one bowl is
dark and the other pale, if each is of good design and serves its purpose
well." "Walk on a rainbow trail, walk on a trail of song, and all about
you will be beauty. There is a way out of every dark mist, over a rainbow
trail." "What is life? "Hold on to what is good even if it is a handful of earth. Will Rogers, the world famous humorist born in Claremore, Oklahoma, was 1/4 Cherokee. When asked to respond to the question, "But you are an American citizen?", Will had a quick reply. "Well", he drawled, "I think I am. My folks were Indian. Both my mother and father had Cherokee blood in them. (I was) born and raised in Indian Territory. 'Course we're not the Americans whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but we met them at the boat when they landed." "There is no such thing as 'part-Cherokee.' Either you're Cherokee
or you’re not. It isn't the quantity of Cherokee blood in your veins
that is important, but the quality of it -your pride in it. I have seen
full-bloods who have virtually no idea of the great legacy entrusted
to their care. Yet, I have seen people with as little as 1/500th blood
quantum who inspire the spirits of their ancestors because they make
being Cherokee a proud part of a their everyday life." "They had an ancient lost reverence for the earth and its web of
life. They had what the world has lost. The world must have it back
lest it die." "I think the Spirit, is the one thing we have to rely on. It has
been handed to us as a live and precious coal. And each generation has
to make that decision whether they want to blow on that coal to keep
it alive or throw it away... Our language, our histories and culture
are like a big ceremonial fire that's been kicked and stomped and scattered...Out
in the darkness we can see those coals glowing. But our generation,
whether in tribal government or wherever we find ourselves Choctaw,
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole--are coal gatherers. We bring the
coals back, assemble them and breathe on them again, so we can spark
a flame around which we might warm ourselves." "Learn how to withhold judgment "When the last red man shall have become a myth among the white men,
when your children' s children think themselves alone in the field,
upon the highway or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will
not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude.
At night when the streets of your cities are silent, they will throng
with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful
land. The white man will never be alone." "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 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." |
