And 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.
BLACK ELKFor instance, the coyote is sly, so is the Indian. The eagle is the same. That is why the Indian is always feathered up, he is a relative to the wings of the air.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
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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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It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death.
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I cured with the power that came through me.
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Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
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The Universe is circles within circles, and everything is one circle, and all the circles are connected to each other.
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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.
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Each family is a circle, and those family circles connect together and make a community, and the community makes its circle where it lives on the Earth.
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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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But the Wasichus came, and they have made little islands for us and other little islands for the four-leggeds, and always these islands are becoming smaller, for around them surges the gnawing flood of the Wasichu; and it is dirty with lies and greed.
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Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.
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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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I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured,it was the power from the Outer World.
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I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
BLACK ELK






