Quotes by Black Elk, Chief Joseph, Chief Seattle, and Crazy Horse

Black Elk and Family

-- You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.

-- From that time on, I always got up very early to see the rising of the daybreak star. People knew that I did this, and many would get up to see it with me, and when it came we said: "Behold the star of understanding!"

Chief Joseph and Family

-- The earth and myself are of one mind.

-- It does not require many words to speak the truth.

Chief Seattle

-- The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things are the same breath - the animals, the trees, the man.

-- 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.

Crazy Horse

-- One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.

-- A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.