We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling
hills, and winding streams with tangled growth, as wild.
Only to the white
man was nature a wilderness, and only to him was the land infested with wild
animals and savage people.
To us it was tame.
Earth was bountiful and we
were surrounded with the blessings of the great mystery.
Not until the hairy
man from the east came and with brutal frenzy heaped injustices upon us and upon
the families we loved was it wild for us.
When the very animals of the forest
began fleeing from his approach, then it was that for us the wild west
began.

Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala band of
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 the Great Spirit, and that this center is really
everywhere, it is within each of us."

Black Elk

You have stories to tell and that is what will keep the memory of a
great people alive.
Pass the stories to your children.
Teach them who,
where and what their people were.
Take time to search your
ancestry.
Remember the past they took and have patience.
Stay in tune with
your feelings and be strong in your search.

Trace your walk, feel
satisfaction in knowing the end of the rainbow you have looked for can be found
at the toe of your moccacin after realizing who we are and what we
have.

Chief John "Eagle Spirit" Campbell
Cherokee Elders Council,
Houston, TX

Learn how to withhold judgment
Learn to listen
Get in touch
with your own inner self
Look at life with joy
Don't ever cry over
something that cannot cry over you.

Cheewa James
Modoc

I did not know then how much was ended.
When I look back now from
this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children
lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw
them with eyes still young.
And I can see that something else died there in
the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard.
A people's dream died
there.
It was a beautiful dream.
And I, to whom so great a vision was
given in my youth, —you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for
the nation's hoop is broken and scattered.
There is no center any longer, and
the sacred tree is dead.

Hehaka Sapa (Black Elk)
Medicine Man of
the Oglala Sioux, 1931

It’s A Good Day To Die

I lift my hands
unto the Great Spirit and worship him who has by himself created all things
visible and invisible, who has blessed me with long life, who has set me upon my
Mother among the Human Beings that respect his name and worship him with an
unsoiled spirit and heart.

Many moons have passed and my memory flickers
as a candle on a windy day that is ready to die out forever more.
I have seen
unspeakable things that have been committed against the Human Beings, hard to be
spoken, the cry of the young for their mothers, and mothers for their children
that will never return unto to them ever again.

The wisdom of our Elders
died with our old a helpless people that embraced those who traveled across the
deep waters, they came with a split tongue killed our people and fed them to
their dogs, covering our Mother with a heavy blanket, killing our buffalo for
sport, our land is sacred!
Our Mother has nourished our fathers and our
children and the creatures have given their life for meat and their coat to keep
us warm.

They didn’t understand nor do they still understand the way of
life, they despise the day of small things and raped our mother for gain and
pleasure we must keep the decree of life and respect the land.
Our Mother has
been provoked and she will shake the heaviness that has been placed on
her.

The blood of our children cries unto the Great Spirit.
They
cannot feel the fire of the heavens that nourished their existence that gave
them their beauty.
Oh Great Spirit this is a good day to die, I’m weak but ye
are strong keep me in the right path which my fathers have taken back to you, I
humble myself to be accepted in your most sacred
presences.

Shanawanikki Nations (Nippowa Tribe)