The visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds.
BLACK ELKBirds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.
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The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. That is why you notice the hawk knows how to get his prey. The Indian is like that.
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If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.
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I might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
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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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Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us; and it was very still; but there were whispers.
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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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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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Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.
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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.
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I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
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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.
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Know the Power that is Peace.
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Hear me, four quarters of the world-a relative I am! Give me the strength to walk the soft earth, a relative to all that is! Give me the eyes to see and the strength to understand, that I may be like you. With your power only can I face the winds.
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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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Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions
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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.
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For 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.
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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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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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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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It’s in the darkness of men’s eyes that they get lost.
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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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Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
BLACK ELK