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.

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.

He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

[last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

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 all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.

When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.

Do the very best you can.

All things are bound together. All things connect.

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.

This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things… This war has come from robbery – from the stealing of our land.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

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. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

Our land is everything to us…. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it – with their lives.

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.

Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors – the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone.

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man… the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports.

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.

Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness‘.

Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

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.

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.

Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

We do not want churches. They will teach us to quarrel about God.

I want my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again. We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother.

Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours.

Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease and herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

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.

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace.

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

The power of the world always works in circles.

The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children

Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

We do not want riches, we want peace and love.

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.