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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.

Black Elk

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.
BLACK ELK

Good Memory People Some Vision
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.
BLACK ELK

Circles Country Inspirational Native
I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
BLACK ELK

Summer Thinking Years
Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.
BLACK ELK

Dream Wake Up Waking
We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
BLACK ELK

Great People Spirit Things Understand
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.
BLACK ELK

Country Honesty Inspirational Native True
So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation’s hoop I thrust it in the earth.
BLACK ELK

Earth Red Sticks
The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
BLACK ELK

Animal Country Down Hawk Lament Swoops
A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
BLACK ELK

Given Make Nations Over Said
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
BLACK ELK

Ignorance Men Passion
All over the sky a sacred voice is calling your name.
BLACK ELK

Inspirational Life Sky
And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
BLACK ELK

Breath Country Lightning Native
The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.
BLACK ELK

Country Native Sky Song
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.
BLACK ELK

Country Dirty Legend Lying Seldom
And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
BLACK ELK

Circles Country Native People
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 ELK

Dead Except Lying People Saws

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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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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