Native American Quotes (from a variety of tribes)

Respect means listening until everyone has been heard and understood, only then is there a possibility of balance and harmony. - Dave Chief, Grandfather of Red Dog

If you talk to animals they will talk to you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them, you will not know them, and what you do not know you will fear; and what you fear, you will destroy.

One does not sell the land people walk on. - Crazy Horse, Sept. 23, 1875

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

The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call "assimilated," bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different
from our way. We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be congressmen, or bankers....we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here. The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this.
-From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians

Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."
-William Commanda, Mamiwinini, Canada, 1991

We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees. -Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation

Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank. -Chief Maquinna, Nootka

As a child I understood how to give, I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized. -Luther Standing Bear - Oglala

In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beasts, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and the moon should man learn.... all things tell of Tirawa.
-Eagle Chief (Letakots-Lesa) Pawnee

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks and the birds and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings of the earth. We learn to do what only the student of nature ever learns, and that is to feel beauty. We never rail at the storms, the furious winds, the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensifies human futility, so whatever comes we should adjust ourselves by more effort and energy if necessary, but without complaint. Bright days and dark days are both expressions of the Great Mystery, and the Indian reveled in being close the Great Holiness. -Chief Luther Standing Bear

Men have visions, Women have children. -Adeline Wanatee, Mesquakie, 1980

Our ancestors were really masters at controlling the environment, simply because they only took what they needed, they did not have to take anymore. Now, in the world that we live in, everybody is taking all they can and--I hope I'm wrong--we're headed for a disastrous situation. -Norton Rickard, Tuscarora, 1993

Indians chase visions, White men chase the dollar.
-John (Fire) Lame Deer, Rosebud Lakota, 1972

In the absence of the sacred, nothing is sacred-everything is for sale.
-Oren Lyons, Onondasa, 1992

The White man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it. -Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota, 1885

I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. -Santanta, Kiowa, 1867

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? -Nino Cochise, Chiricahua Apache, 1971

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. -Oral Tradition, Tenton Sioux

The Eskimo asked the local missionary priest, "If I did not know about God and Sin, would I go to Hell?" "No," said the Priest, "not if you did not know." "Then why," asked the Eskimo earnestly, "did you tell me?" -Circumpolar People's story

Now I know the government is going to break the treaty because when it was signed it was understood that it would last as long as the grass grew, the winds blew, and the rivers ran, and men walked on two legs--and now they have sent us an Agent who has only one leg. -Piapot (Flash In The Sky), Cree, 1895

The elders say, "The longest road you're going to have to walk is from here to here. From your head to your heart." But they also say you can't speak to the people as a leader unless you've made the return journey. From the heart back to the head.
-Phil Lane, Jr.; Yankton Sioux, 1992