| Words of Wisdom |
| "Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do no inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." --Ancient Indian Proverb ~*~ "...Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sharing. When a girl picked her first berries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encourage not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling." --Mourning Dove Salish ~*~ "All birds, even those of thae same speices, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and with human beings. The reason Wakan Tankan(Great Spirit) does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is placed here by Wakan Takan to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself." --Shooter, Teton Sioux ~*~ "When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so 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 Aupumut, Mohican, 1725 ~*~ "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." --John Wooden Legs, Cheyenne ~*~ "You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stones! Shall I dig under her skin for bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell be rich like white men, but how dare I cut my mother's hair? 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." --Wovoka, Paiute ~*~ "...All things share the same breath--the beast, the tree, the man...the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." --Chief Seattle, Dwamish ~*~ "They made us many promises, more then I can remember, but they never kept one; they promised to take our land, and they did." --Red Cloud, Oglala Lakota ~*~ "How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look wrong, and wrong like right." --Black Hawk, Sauk ~*~ "Great Spirit, save me from judging a man until i have walked a mile in his moccasins." --Apache Warrior "The woman is sacred. We respect out mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, ganddaughters and nieces. Women are the ones who give us life, who nurture us, and who teach us to walk and to speak. Men are their eyes, their ears and their mouths." --Birgil Kills Straight "For us, warriors are not what you think of aswarriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another's life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who cannot provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity." -- Sitting Bull |
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