Native American quotes by Phase I students

The word impossible is not in my dictionary.-Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte

Be the Realist, but dream unrealistic dream in your heart
-Che Guevara

I think therefore I am. -Rene Descartes

It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied-Socrates


Whatever we once thought Nature was--wildness, God, a simple place free from human thumbprints, or an intricate machinery sustaining life on Earth--we have now given it a kick that will change it forever.
<> by Bill McKibben

Can anyone believe it is possible to lay down such a barrage of poisons on the surface of the earth without making it unfit for all life? They should not be called "insecticides," but "biocides."
<<>> by Rachel Carson

“That means we’re underestimating the amount of plastic that we’re finding. The true answer is we just don’t know how much is out there.”
<<>> by Alan Weisman

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
<> by John Muir



"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

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/quotes.html



1.All that we see of Him is the blue of the sky; but He is everywhere - Lakota.

2.The earth has received the embraces of the sun - Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Teton Sioux.

3.Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle - Lakota.

4.Every part of this soil is sacred - Squamish.


(I love these quotations because they have the spirituality of nature. The spirit is a tool which can control one's mind and belief; that will be fine.)




1 Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view and demand that they respect yours.
----Chief Tecumseh

2 "Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself."
----Hopi

3 "The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors."
----Chief Plenty Coups (Crow)

4 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



1.Black Elk (1863–1950)
religious leader (Oglala Sioux) from Black Elk Speaks (1961)

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. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.


2.Michael Dorris (1945–1997) writer and anthropologist (Modoc) from an Oct. 25, 1995, interview published in the Artful Dodge, College of Wooster (Ohio)

I certainly don't object to [writers] trying to imagine the lives of other societies, but you have to do it with a certain amount of humility and respect. If it were not for the ethnographic material that had been collected by missionaries and anthropologists and so forth, much of past Native American society would no longer be accessible. What I object to is making kitsch of things that are very serious.


3.N. Scott Momaday (1934– )
writer (Kiowa)interview, PBS television, The West, 2002

The turn of the century was the lowest point for the devastation of Indian culture by disease and persecution, and it's a wonder to me that they survived it and have not only maintained their identity, but are actually growing stronger in some ways. The situation is still very bad, especially in certain geographical areas, but there are more Indians going to school, more Indians becoming professional people, more Indians assuming full responsibility in our society. We have a long way to go, but we're making great strides.


4.Red Cloud (1822–1909)
chief (Oglala Sioux) speech, 1866

We were told that they wished merely to pass through our country. . . to seek for gold in the far west . . . Yet before the ashes of the council are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. . . . His presence here is . . . an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be allowed for corn?

cite fromhttp://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmquotes.html




1. When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them.
- Chief Seattle -

2. “The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.”
- William S. Burroughs quotes -

3. "Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself."
- Hopi -

4. Trouble no one about their religion respect others in their view
and demand that they respect yours.
- Chief Tecumseh -



1.Go where he will, the wise man is at home His harth the earth, his hall the azure dome. (R.W.Emerson, American thinker)

(Chose it because this quotation told us a smart person doesn’t care about the outer condition. They don’t care where they live. What they eat and wear. I guess he wanted to tell us the environment is also very important.)


2.Progress is the activity of today and the assurance of tomorrow. (Emerson, American thinker )

(Chose it because this quotation told us that we should progress every day. It can promise tomorrow we also can compete with other people. Tomorrow is a mystery.)


3.If you want to understand today , you have to search yesterday. (Pearl Buck , American female writer )

(Chose it because this quotation told us yesterday is very important for today. Because yesterday and today have some connection. I think this quotation is similar to Pearl's.)

4.The golden age is before us, not behind us .
(Mark Twain , American writer )

(Chose it because this quotation told us we should face the future and don’t compare with people who came before us. We can’t control the time and can’t go back to yesterday. Complete life will be created by us for the next generation.)



“According to our way of looking, the world is animate. This is reflected in our language, in which most nouns are animate...Natural things are alive, they have a spirit. Therefore, when we harvest wild rice on our reservation we always offer tobacco to the earth because, when you take something, you must always give thanks to its spirit for giving itself to you.”
----Winona LaDuke. Resurgence, Sept/Oct, Issue 178, p.8.
(http://www.greenspirit.org.uk/Resources/NatAmerSpirit.htm)

“Many American Indian names are based on geographic formations or natural elements, such as Brook, River, or Canyon. By giving your baby a name such as this, you will be instilling a feeling of natural appreciation in them from the beginning of their lives.”
----http://www.indians.org/articles/american_indian_baby_names.html
American Indian Baby Names

“Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our animal neighbours the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land”.
----http://members.aol.com/pantheism0/indians.htm
North American Indians: the spirituality of nature

"Lots of people hardly ever feel real soil under their feet, see plants grow except in flower pots, or get far enough beyond the street light to catch the enchantment of a night sky studded with stars. When people live far from scenes of the Great Spirit's making, it's easy for them to forget His laws."
--Tatanga Mani (Walking Buffalo), STONEY
(http://www.myfavoriteezines.com/native-american/native-american-wisdom-nature.html)




1. 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.
~ Chief Seattle, 1854 ~

This quotation tells people, all things are connected in the world, the more specific meaning is nature connects with human, human connects with nature. If people do good things to nature, nature will guarantee humans, otherwise, nature will punish humans. What I have learned from this sentence is that to take care of nature is also to take care of ourselves.


2. Fieldes have eyes and woods have ears.
~ John Heywood, 1565 ~

This quotation means each every thing in nature has life. The things I have learned from this quotation are we should not take anything’s life in nature, we don’t pollute the fields, we don’t cut the wood incessantly, treasure everything in nature.

3. In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia.
~ Charles A. Lindbergh, ' Life', 22 December 1967 ~

This quotation means at the same time scientific accomplishments brings a lot of achievements, but it also pollutes our environments and destroys some things in nature, such as trees, grass, rivers, and so on. Through this sentence, I have learned that humans should protect nature when we are improving our science; on the contrary, so many enviroments will be destroyed by scientific accomplishments.

4. Nature is the art of God.
~ Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, 1635 ~

Nature is the most beautiful thing on the planet; everybody should treasure nature. Otherwise, we lose the most valuable art in the world.