If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian...we 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. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who is born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. We only ask an even chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognised as men. Let me be a free man...free to travel...free to stop...free to work...free to choose my own teachers...free to follow the religion of my Fathers...free to think and talk and act for myself."

~ Chief Joseph ~

 "You said that you wanted to put us upon a reservation, to build us houses...I do not want them.I was born upon the Prairie, where the Wind blew free and there...were no enclosures and everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within walls...The white man has the country we loved, and we only wish to wander on the Prairie until we die."

~ Ten Bears (Comanche) ~

Ten Bears - born Paruasemana (ca. 1790-1872), became the paraivo or chief of the Ketahto ("Don't Wear Shoes") local group of Native Americans, and later the Principal Chief of the northern Yamparika or "Root Eater" division of the Numunuu Comanche, ca. 1850-60.

 ~ Chief Luther Standing Bear ~ 

"There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unknown, secret place. 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. Their teepees were built upon the earth and their alters were made of earth. The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing. That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him."

~ Chief Luther Standing Bear ~

"Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom - an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations."

~ Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) ~

Luther Standing Bear (December 1868-February 20, 1939), aka Ota Kte (meaning Plenty Kill) or Mochunozhin, was a Native American writer and actor. he inherited the position of "chief" to the Lakota peoples. In the Lakota vernacular, "wise man" or "leader" or "speaker of the people" is probably a nearer meaning since chief has more of a "ruler" connotation. From the 1910s to the 1930s, he starred in Western films (White Oak and Cyclone of the Saddle).

Julyamish 2001

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see."

Julyamish 2001

"Authentic men aren't afraid to show affection, release their feelings, hug their children, cry when they're sad, admit it when they're wrong, and ask for help when they need it."          

~Charles Swindoll~

Red Clouds Wisdom

Red Cloud (Maȟpíya Lúta), (B:1822  D:12/10/1909)     was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux), his reign was from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced, he led a successful conflict in 1866–1868 known as Red Clouds War over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana. After the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, he led his people in the important transition tothe reservation life. Some of his US opponents thought of him as overall leader of the Sioux, but this was mistaken. The large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, even though some individual leaders such as Red Cloud were renowned as warriors.

Standing: Red Bear, Young Man Afraid of his Horse, Good Voice, Ring Thunder, Iron Crow, White Tail, Young Spotted Tail. Seated: Yellow Bear, Jack Red Cloud, Big Road, Little Wound, Black Crow, ca. 1860-1880

 "We held our dying children and felt thin little bodies tremble as their souls went out and left only a dead weight in our hands."

~Red Cloud~

 Red Clouds' farewell address to the Lakota People: July 4, 1903

 "My sun is set. My day is done. Darkness is stealing over me. Before I lie down to rise no more, I will speak to my people. "Hear me, my friends, for it is not the time for me to tell you a lie. The Great Spirit made us, the Indians, and gave us this land we live in. He gave us the buffalo, the antelope, and the deer for food and clothing. We moved our hunting grounds from the Minnesota to the Platte and from the Mississippi to the great mountains.  No one put bounds on us. We were free as the winds, and like the eagle, heard no man's commands. "I was born a Lakota and I shall die a Lakota.  Before the white man came to our country, the Lakotas were a free people.  They made their own laws and governed themselves as it seemed good to them. The priests and ministers tell us that we lived wickedly when we lived before the white man came among us. Whose fault was this?  We lived right as we were taught it was right.  Shall we be punished for this?  I am not sure that what these people tell me is true. As a child I was taught the Taku Wakan (Supernatural Powers) were powerful and could do strange things. This was taught me by the wise men and the shamans. They taught me that I could gain their favor by being kind to my people and brave before my enemies; by telling the truth and living straight; by fighting for my people and their hunting grounds. "When the Lakotas believed these things they were happy and they died satisfied.  What more than this can that which the white man offers us give? "Taku Shanskan is familiar with my spirit and when I die I will go with him.  Then I will be with my forefathers.  If this is not in the heaven of the white man I shall be satisfied. He is my father. The Wakan Tanka of the white man has overcome him.  But I shall remain true to him. "Shadows are long and dark before me.  I shall soon lie down to rise no more. While my spirit is with my body the smoke of my breath shall be towards the Sun for he knows all things and knows that I am still true to him."

~Red Cloud (1822-1909)~

  "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to this web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."

~ Chief Seattle (1786 - 1866) ~

"And when the last red man shall have perished from this earth and his memory among white men shall have become a myth, the shores shall swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children's children shall think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highways or in the silence of the woods, they shall not be alone.  In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude.  At night when the streets of your cities and villages shall be silent, and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land.  The white man will never be alone."

~ Chief Seattle ~

Julyamish 2003

 "I am the color of Red.

You are the color of Black.

Then came the color of White.

My land was taken from me.

You were taken from your land.

The Spirits have blessed us with water for many seasons.

The Spirits had blessed you with a safe sojourn across their vast waters.

We have struggled through many seasons’.

We have our place now.

As you have your place."

  Native Lakota 

 Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux

 "You have noticed that everything an 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. Our power came to us from the scared 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 rain, and the north with it's 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 is 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 up 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 tipis were round like the nests of birds and they 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."

1899 Bone Necklace, an Oglala Sioux Chief

Black Elk - Oglala Sioux

The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. That is why you notice the hawk knows how to get his prey. The Indian is like that. The hawk swoops down on its prey; so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal. For instance, the coyote is sly; so is the Indian. The eagle is the same. That is why the Indian is always feathered up; he is a relative to the wings of the air.

Black Elk - Oglala Sioux

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Taka (the Great Spirit), and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.

Hold on to what is good, even if it is a handful of earth. Hold on to what you believe, even when you are a tree that stands by itself. Hold on to what you must do, even if it is a long ways away. Hold on to your life, even when it is easier to let go. And hold on to my hand, even when I have gone away from you.

~ Vivian Wright ~

HOPI DEITY

 "When the forest weeps, the Anishinabe who listens will look back at the years. In each generation of Ojibway there will be a person who will hear the si-si-gwa-d, who will listen and remember and pass it on to the children."

~ Night Flying Woman ~

A TIME OF PRAYER