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.
BLACK ELKEverything 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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
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Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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But if the Vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet;for such things are of Spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men 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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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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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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And as he spoke of understanding, I looked up and saw the rainbow leap with flames of many colors over me.
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
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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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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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And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.
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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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Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.
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I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.
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The Holy Land is everywhere.
BLACK ELK