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John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints |
| "...as long as the rivers shall run and the winds shall blow..." | From a treaty promising Native Americans rights to their lands forever. |
| "They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it." | Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux |
| "The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realise their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realise that at the centre of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this centre is really everywhere, it is within each of us." | Black Elk, Oglala Sioux 1863-1950 |
| "You have noticed that everything an Indian does in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything and everything tries to be round. In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop, and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peace and light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the north with its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. This knowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion. Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like the nests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation's hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children." | Black Elk
[The overhanging lips of the cliffs above many of the Anasazi ruins at Mesa Verde form arcs of circles when you look up at them from within the ruins.] |
| "Something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there." | Black Elk, speaking of the Wounded Knee Massacre. |
| "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." | Black Elk |
| "I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohulhulzote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led the young men [Joseph's brother, Ollokot] 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." | Chief Joseph, Nez Perce, upon surrender in October 1877. [After the surrender, Chief Joseph and his people were sent to Indian Territory where five of his children and many of his tribe died of disease.] |
| "We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live. Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say, why do you not become civilised? We do not want your civilisation! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them." | Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux |
| "Only when the last tree is cut; only when the last river is polluted; only when the last fish is caught; only then will they realise that you cannot eat money." | Cree Indian Proverb |
| "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 Native American Proverb |
| "The meat of the buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border." | Sitting Bull, when retreating to Canada after the Battle Of The Little Big Horn |
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Most recently modified 28-Apr-02