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BEST MOST INSPIRING QUOTATIONS, SAYINGS & WRITINGS
Welcome to the California Indian Education collection of only the best, most inspiring quotes by Native American, American Indian, and world writers, philosophers, teachers, entertainers, warriors and leaders.
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The song that I will sing is an old song, so old that none knows who made it. It has been handed down through generations and was taught to me when I was but a little lad.
It is now my own song. It belongs to me. This is a holy song (medicine song), and great is its power.
The song tells how, as I sing, I go through the air to a holy place where Yusun (The Supreme Being) will give me power to do wonderful things.
I am surrounded by little clouds, and as I go through the air I change, becoming spirit only.
The Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world; a world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations; a world longing for light again.
I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again.
In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom.
I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am that place within me, we shall be one.
Crazy Horse is quoted while he sat smoking the Sacred Pipe with Sitting Bull for the last time.
Crazy Horse was killed four days later by US Army soldiers in a hand-to-hand scuffle as they attempted to imprison him.
There are no known photographs of Crazy Horse, he would not permit anyone to take his picture, presumably, Crazy Horse believed a photograph stole or unnaturally held the soul of the person(s) pictured.
You have to look deeper, way below the anger, the hurt, the hate, the jealousy, the self-pity, way down deeper where the dreams lie, son.
Find your dream. It's the pursuit of the dream that heals you.
I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead.
It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men is dead.
It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death.
I want to have time to look for my children and see how many I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.
Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.
Children learn from what they see. We need to set an example of truth and action.
- Howard Rainer, Taos Pueblo-Creek (2012)
When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will; no cold can touch your heart; no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive.
Eventually one gets to the Medicine Wheel to fulfill one's life.
- Old Mouse, Arikara
We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born.
The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees.
When the white man discovered this country Indians were running it. No taxes no debt, women did all the work. White man thought he could improve on a system like this.
Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle.
But he will not make friends with any of these creatures and when his heart aches with longing, he will curse me.
Have I done all to keep the air fresh?
Have I cared enough about the water?
Have I left the eagle to soar in freedom?
Have I done everything I could to earn my grandchild's fondness?
I am going to venture that the man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures, and acknowledging unity with the universe of things was infusing into his being the true essence of civilization.
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 encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son.
The Chief is considered to be the most learned, and the leader of the tribe.
The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration.
He is supposed to be in communion with spirits... He cures the sick by the laying of hands, and payers and incantations and heavenly songs.
He infuses new life into the patient, and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice... He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorates himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird...
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.
I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world.
And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father.
Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about his religion.
Respect others in their views and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and of service to your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
Touch not the poisonous firewater that makes wise ones turn to fools and robs their spirit of its vision.
When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that 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.
The buffaloes and black-tail deer are gone, and our Indian ways are almost gone. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I ever lived them.
My little son grew up in the white man's school. He can read books, and he owns cattle and has a farm. He is a leader among our Hidatsa people, helping teach them to follow the white man's road.
He is kind to me. We no longer live in an earth lodge, but in a house with chimneys, and my son's wife cooks by a stove.
But for me, I cannot forget our old ways.
Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the corn fields, and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young. No one cares for our corn songs now.
Sometimes in the evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. The sun sets, and dusk steals over the water. In the shadows I see again to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth lodges, and in the river's roar I hear the yells of the warriors, and the laughter of little children of old.
It is but an old woman's dream.
Then I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river, and tears come into my eyes. Our Indian life, I know, is gone forever.
- Waheenee, Hidatsa
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.
The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me.
The strength of the fire,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don't talk to the animals, they won't talk back to you, then you won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear, and when you fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, you will destroy yourself.
I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.
As a leader, you have to not only do the right thing, but be perceived to be doing the right thing.
A consequence of seeking a leadership position is being put under intense public scrutiny, being held to high standards, and enhancing a reputation that is constantly under threat.
In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.
Winners lose more than losers. They win and lose more than losers, because they stay in the game.
- Terry Paulson (Psychologist)
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
- Buddha (Founder of Buddhism, circa 563 BCE-483 BCE)
A prophet is without honor in his own community.
- The Holy Bible
Matt 13:57. “Then Jesus told them, ‘A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his own family.’ "
The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.
We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.
A wedding is just like a funeral except that you get to smell your own flowers.
- Grace Hansen
The most beautiful people I've known are those who have known trials, have known struggles, have known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.
I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family -- and I don't think I could ask for anything more than that, actually.
The children have been a wonderful gift to me, and I'm thankful to have once again seen our world through their eyes. They restore my faith in the family's future.
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
- Stephen King (Novelist, screenwriter, film director, 1947-)
If you need something done ask as busy man, no one else will have time to do it.
- Unknown
The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent.
It's the lack of a DEADLINE.
- Chris Baty (Writer)
His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred.
Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless.
A stranger stabs you in the front; a friend stabs you in the back; a boyfriend stabs you in the heart, but best friends only poke each other with straws.
It's a hell of thing killing a man. You take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have.
- William Murry in Unforgiven (played by Clint Eastwood)
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.
- Benjamin Franklin (Founding father, America's first millionaire, 1706-1790)
Girl & The Rattlesnake
A young girl walking along a mountain path to her grandmother's house heard a rustle at her feet. Looking down, she saw a snake, but before she could react, the snake spoke to her.
"I am about to die," he said. "It's too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you."
"No," the girl replied. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. And if I pick you up, you will bite me and your bite is poisonous."
"No, no," the snake said. "If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat YOU differently."
The young girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and she had to admit he was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.
Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."
She then reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and continued toward her grandmother's house.
Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her!
"How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!"
"You knew what I was when you picked me up," he hissed as he slithered away
- Ann Landers' column (with minor edits)
- Rattle Snake photo poster design: G BALLARD
I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
The song that I will sing is an old song, so old that none knows who made it. It has been handed down through generations and was taught to me when I was but a little lad. It is now my own song.
It belongs to me. This is a holy song (medicine song), and great is its power.
The song tells how, as I sing, I go through the air to a holy place where Yusun (The Supreme Being) will give me power to do wonderful things.
I am surrounded by little clouds, and as I go through the air I change, becoming spirit only.
The song that I will sing is an old song, so old that none knows who made it. It has been handed down through generations and was taught to me when I was but a little lad.
My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.”
Upon suffering beyond suffering: 
I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. 
I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulsote is dead. The old men are all dead. 
The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. 
The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle. 
Being is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. 
DOWNLOAD high resolution poster
This is the media, an irresponsible media. 
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. 
I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. 
His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. 
