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.
BLACK ELKAnd I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.
More Black Elk Quotes
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I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead – and that one was myself.
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A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
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All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
BLACK ELK -
Once we were happy in our own country and we were seldom hungry, for then the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds lived together like relatives, and there was plenty for them and for us.
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The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.
BLACK ELK -
When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen; but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.
BLACK ELK -
The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us; we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body; but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
BLACK ELK -
You remember that my great vision came to me when I was only nine years old, and you have seen that I was not much good for anything until after I had performed the horse dance near the mouth of the Tongue River during my eighteenth summer.
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It’s in the darkness of men’s eyes that they get lost.
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Know the Power that is Peace.
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It is not enough to have a vision. In order to have its power, you must enact your vision on earth for all to see. Only then do you have the power.
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
BLACK ELK