Native American Quotes

Great Spirit – I want no blood upon my land to stain the grass. I want it all clear and pure, and I wish it so, that all who go through among my people may find it peaceful when they come, and leave peacefully when they go.

– Ten Bears

You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.

– Navajo proverb

I do not see a delegation for the Four Footed. I see no seat for the Eagles. We forget and we consider ourselves superior. But we are, after all, a mere part of Creation. And we must consider to understand where we are. And we stand somewhere between the mountain and the Ant. Somewhere and only there as part and parcel of the Creation.

– Oren Lyons

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.

– Luther Standing Bear

Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation…This fear of the Nation’s censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.

– George Copway

What is past is past – it is the present and the future that concern us.

– Hiawatha

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.

– Qwatsias (Edward Moody)

The soldiers…forced us across the Niobrara…just as one would drive a herd of ponies…And so I reached the Warm Land [Oklahoma]. We found the land there was bad and we were dying, one after another, and…our animals died, and, oh, it was very hot. ‘This land is truly sickly…and we hope the Great Father will take us back [home] again.’ That is what we said. There were one hundred of us died there.

– White Eagle

Before eating, always take time to thank the food.

– Arapaho proverb

In harmony may I walk.
With harmony ahead me, may I walk.
With harmony behind me, may I walk.
With harmony above me, may I walk.
With harmony underneath my feet, may I walk.
With harmony all around me, may I walk.
It is done in harmony.

– Navajo chant

I have never broken any of my treaties with the government. What does the President want to take my land away from me for? The President told me to work, and I have done it. He told me to not go on the warpath, even if the white men took away my horses and cattle, or killed my people. I promised I would not, and I have performed my promise. Although other people often move from place to place, yet I have always staid on our land. It is ours. My people have lived and died on this land as far back as we can remember. I have sown wheat and planted corn and have performed all my promises to the President. I have raised enough on my farm to support myself, and now it seems just as though the government were trying to drown me when he takes my land away from me. We have always been peaceful. The land is our own. We do not want to part with it. I have broken no treaties, and the President has no right to take it from me.

– White Eagle

Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people want it.

– Crow proverb

Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.

– Mohawk proverb

Being Indian is an attitude, a state of mind, a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings. It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet; to allow feelings and sensitivities to determine where energy goes; bringing aliveness up from the Earth and from the Sky, putting it in and giving it out from the heart.

– Brooke Medicine Eagle

If you talk to the animals they will talk with 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. What one fears, one destroys.

– Chief Dan George

All living creatures and all plants derive their life from the sun. if it were not for the sun, there would be darkness and nothing would grow – the earth would be without life. Yet the sun must have the help of the earth. If the sun alone were to act upon animals and plants, the heat would be so great and they would die, but there are clouds that bring rain, and the action of the sun and earth together supplies the moisture that is needed for life. The roots of a plant go down, and the deeper they go the more moisture they find. This is according to the laws of nature and is one of the evidences of the wisdom of Wakan Tanka.

– Shooter

The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.

– Mary Brave Bird

The rainbow is a sign from Him who is in all things.

– Hopi Indian proverb

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.

– Maquinna

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

Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, ‘Never! Never!’

– Tecumseh