Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.
Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone.
We believe profoundly in silence-the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.
He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God’s.
The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity.
Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?
The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.
Silence is the cornerstone of character.
In the life of the Indian there is only one inevitable duty-the duty of prayer-the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. Our daily devotions were more necessary to us than daily food.
Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.
If you ask him: “What is silence?” he will answer, “It is the Great Mystery! The holy silence is His voice!” If you ask: “What are the fruits of silence?” he will say: “They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.”
The red man divided mind into two parts, – the spiritual mind and the physical mind.
As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized.
The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.
There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in itself mysterious and holy.
The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character.
The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.
The clan is nothing more than a larger family, with its patriarchal chief as the natural head, and the union of several clans by intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe.