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                                            Native Wisdom

Great Spirit Prayer
Oh, Great Spirit Whose voice I hear in the winds, And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me, I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my Spirit may come to you without shame.

Sitting Bull - Hunkpapa Sioux
"I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in his sight.

It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows. We are poor...but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die...we die defending our rights"

Two Wolves
One evening a Cherokee elder told his grandson about a great battle that goes on inside people. He said,"My son" the battle is between two "Wolves" that live inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The grandson thought about it for a minute then asked his grandfather - "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee looked him in the eye and replied - "The one you feed."

Walking The Red Road
Step 1: Observe nature with awe and gratitude, and a sense of love and respect for all creation will begin to grow within you.

Step 2: Learn to trust the Creator, and accept your circumstances. Overcoming adversity will produce spiritual growth within you.

Step 3: Seek for truth within yourself, that you may remove hypocrisy and evil intent from within your heart.

Step 4: Repent and humbly surrender your will to the Creator, that you may become one with the Great Spirit.

Step 5: Communicate with the Great Spirit from your heart. Listen, and live with the insight you receive.

Step 6: Learn true abstinence. It is in serving others, with an attitude of loving-kindness, so that you create a flow of living water that will purify your heart.

Step 7: Attain complete, joyous harmony with the Great Spirit. This requires that you totally surrender your will to the will of the Creator, and love others unconditionally without judgment because that is who you are.

Cree Proverb
Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only after the last fish has been caught; And the last river has been poisoned; Only then will you realize money cannot be eaten .

Crazy Horse - Oglala Sioux
"Upon suffering beyond suffering: 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."

Dance of the Blue Blanket - Barbara"Shining Woman"Warren
Nadia was four years old...and she loved Indians. Everything about Indians excited her. One day Nadia's grandmother came for a visit. Grandmother recalled those old stories the family told of Cherokee blood. So Grandmother decided to take Nadia, along with Nadia's mother and baby brother, to her first pow wow.

Little Nadia stood at the edge of the Circle. She watched with awe as the dancers passed by her dressed in their beautiful clothing. She listened intently to the drum, her knees dipping with the beat and Nadia knew she wanted to dance. But there were so many kinds of dances going on. She watched the men; then the women. She lifted one foot, then the other, puzzled about just what she should do with her feet.

Nadia felt a tap on her shoulder. Looking up she saw a smiling woman dressed in beautiful clothing holding out her hand toward Nadia. Nadia hesitated and glanced at her grandmother for approval. Grandmother's eyes smiled, "Yes." So Nadia accepted the hand of the stranger and together they danced and danced around the Circle. After a while, Nadia began to dance on her own. As Grandmother watched, Nadia started to twirl and whirl holding her arms up high in the air in imitation of the lovely fancy shawl dancers.

Grandmother beckoned to Nadia. She gave her a small blue blanket belonging to Nadia's baby brother. Nadia placed the blanket around her shoulders and began to dance with it in the Circle, the blue blanket twirling and whirling about her like the wings of a butterfly. She felt another tap on her shoulder, and there stood a different woman, and in her out-stretched hand she held a child-sized fringed shawl. Nadia glanced at Grandmother for approval. Grandmother's eyes smiled, "Yes." So Nadia accepted the gift from the stranger.

She placed the fringed shawl about her shoulders and then began to dance, the fringed shawl twirling and whirling about her like the wings of a butterfly. Nadia danced in honor of all those ancestors who had come before and with the pure joy of being a little girl at her very first pow wow.

Lakota Prayer
Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, and the blessings in my spirit.

Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my Sacred Space and love beyond my fear, and thus Walk in Balance with the passing of each glorious Sun.

Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, 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. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat ? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper.

Tecumseh - Shawnee

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. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the 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.






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