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.

Black Elk

Oglala Sioux Holy Man 1863-1950

You have noticed that everything as 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...