Native Village

WORDS FROM THE CIRCLE

"A cold wind blew on the prairie on the day the last buffalo fell. A death wind for my people."Sitting Bull

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."  Ambrose Redmoon

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."  Cherokee Proverb

**Take only memories. Leave nothing but footprints. Chief Seattle

"To say nothing is out here is incorrect; to say the desert is stingy with everything except space and light, stone and earth is closer to the truth."  William Least Heat Moon

** "In our story of Creation, we talk about each one of us having our own path to travel, and our own gift to give and to share. You see, what we say is that the Creator gave us all special gifts; each one of us is special. And each one of us is a special gift to each other because we've got something to share."  John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG

"All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports." (Chief Seattle)

**"Someday the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you too will die."  John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota

**"The thing you learn over and over and over in Indian Country is that nobody is going to come do it for us." Dr. Earl Sutherland, Crow

"How can we still have a nation, if we don't speak our own language?" Ellie Mitchell, Chippewa

"We are not a new or different type of people, we are one and our people have always lived across mother earth to live from her and protect her. This is the beginning of that story." Joseph Podlasek, Ojibwe

**“Do something of consequence. Don’t be mediocre.”  Winona LaDuke

"Let's start with equality. Let's start with when you have power and prejudice combined, it often results in racism. We can talk about equality, but we have to make it real. ... It's time to end the lip service.  We have institutionalized racism in this country  that must end."  Kay Givens McKowan, Cherokee and Choctaw

**"It's important to teach people, both tribal members and other communities, about our history because we want our culture to continue. I think all cultures should share like that; they'd become less intimidating to each other." Barry Phillips, Potawatomi

"I apologize to my elders for speaking. I am young, and I am learning. I want you to know that I take the thoughts of all the people with me with a good heart each day when I go to work. I carry that good with me all day, the best I can." Bill Mendoza, Lakota

**"[Grandmother Earth] is our medicine. We need to give back to her, so she will provide." Dinah Crow Dog

**"If you do not stand with what is right, you become a collaborator in acts of injustice. We need the moral courage to stand and be counted. It is about the power of one. And when the power of one meets other powers of one, there is a collective voice." Tome Roubideaux, Lakota

"Sovereignty rests with the people. It grows inside us. Sometimes our anger can lead us to sovereignty of self. Direct it inward to build strength. Don't rely on courts or governments."  Tome Roubideaux, Lakota

**"I would rather stand with a handful of strong people than with a million weak ones." Francis Zephier, Yankton Sioux

"The 'White Indian' is too susceptible to wrongdoing. He always wants money. That is the reason for such poverty. What is being left for our children - for the future generation? And what then will they live on?"  George Walters, White Earth Chippewa

**"Today almost all the prophecies have come to pass. Great roads like rivers pass across the landscape; man talks to man through the cobwebs of telephone lines; man travels along the roads in the sky in his airplanes; two great wars have been waged by those bearing swastika or rising Sun; man is with the Moon and the stars. Most men have strayed from the path shown us by the Great Spirit. For Massau'u alone is great enough to portray the way back to Him."  Thomas Banyacya, Hopi

"We laud the folks who explored the frontier and talked about how valued they were. But we give little consideration to the people whose lands were being taken."  Stephen Adkins, Chickahominy

''I'm just waiting for more kids to come out of the woodwork and become their own writer so we have views from every perspective, from lots of different tribe affiliations, so that we really understand the complexities of Indian peoples' lives.''  Mandy Smoker, Assiniboine-Sioux

"I've always wanted to be role model. I've always wanted to stay an Indian.  I wanted the little kids to know that."  Norval Morrisseau, Anishinabe

**"Today we are fighting a great battle against the popular culture that surrounds [our children]. It's a battle for their hearts and minds. We need to work to inspire them to embrace their own history and culture. Without them, we Indians have no future." Floyd Crow Westerman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota

**"Our stories tell us how to live, and we don't have to lose them when we move into university settings.  It's all in the stars." Dennis Lamenti

"It's hard to be proud of your cultural heritage and traditions if every day you face extinction," Debra White Plume

**"An elder carries the spirit of a people from one generation to the other."  Rick Williams, President, American Indian College Fund

"To me, an elder is one who reaches an age of wisdom. Someone who knows the cultural values and brings them forward. A teacher." Della Badwound, Oglala Lakota

"It's what you see along the way that makes you an elder. You can live a long time and not see anything, not be any wiser. Pay attention to what you see along the way." Vera Mitchell, Mescalero and Lakota

"We honor that with white tops. The eagles. The mountains. The elders."  Dr. Chuck Ross, Sioux

**"...you have to earn that respect. A lot of people will give you the benefit of the doubt, but you have to earn it. It's a journey from wise ass to wise man."  John Compton, Sioux

"We don't have to say or think what we don't wish to. We have a choice in those things, and we have to realize that and practice using that choice."    Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE

**“The more selfish you are the smaller your world becomes. You make yourself smaller by being selfish."
Edna Gordon, Seneca

"What I see,
I want you to see,
so that what you see,
your children will be able to see."
Edna Gordon, Seneca

“I love poetry because it’s simple. Poetry brings out the beauty of man and the beauty of creation ... We lack communication, and this is why poetry is important, because communication is important.” Edna Gordon, Seneca

**“We’ve gone away from the naturalistic way of life for the materialistic. We’ve forgotten about nature, to be thankful even for just the breath of life, for the sun coming up.” Edna Gordon, Seneca

“It’s important to know nature to relate to something, to see something (in nature) and look at the struggle that it faced in order for us to go on with life.” Edna Gordon, Seneca

“Life is simple. Man complicates it.” Edna Gordon, Seneca

“I want you to go on and build onto all that’s going on today because it makes the tomorrow.”  Edna Gordon, Seneca
“We have to have the unity of one mind."  Edna Gordon, Seneca

“Everybody expects us to pick up guns, and that’s the first thing they want the Indians to do — pick up their guns so they can come and bomb us. We don’t believe in that ... If you want peace, you have to work for peace. You cannot do it with a gun.”  Edna Gordon, Seneca
 

Words from the Circle p. 20Words from the Circle p. 22

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