“When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give
thanks for your food and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in
yourself.”
Tecumseh
Shawnee
“Let us put our minds together and see what kind of life we can make for our children.”
“All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.”
Sitting Bull
Chief Seattle
Suqwamish and Duwamish
“Flourishing through spirituality is not part of life, it is life.”
Laughing Eagle
Cherokee
“You must speak straight so that your words may go as far as sunlight into our hearts.”
Cochise
(“Like Ironweed”)
Chiricuhua Chief
“Knowledge is inherent in all things. The world is a library….”
Chief Luther Standing Bear
Oglala Sioux
“Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well at the earth?”
Tecumseh
Shawnee
“When you see a new trail, or a footprint you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing.”
Uncheedah
The grandmother of Ohiyesa
“Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth our
Mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?
Ohiyesa
“The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.”
Chief Joseph, 1879
“Treat the earth well.
It was not given to you by your parents,
It was loaned to you by your children.
We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,
We borrow it from our Children.”
Ancient Indian Proverb
“When you were born, you cried
And the world rejoiced.”
Live your life
So that when you die,
The world cries and you rejoice.”
White Elk
“Indian memories will last forever.”
Indian guide to Tom Wilson (1882)
If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indians,
He can live in peace…
Treat all men alike.
Give them all the same law.
Give them all an even chance to live and grow.
All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief.
They are all brothers,
The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it…
Let me be a free man, free to travel,
Free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose my own reachers,
Free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself,
And I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.
Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), NezPerce Leader
