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.
BLACK ELKNow 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.
More Black Elk Quotes
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Perhaps you have noticed that even in the very lightest breeze you can hear the voice of the cottonwood tree; this we understand is its prayer to the Great Spirit, for not only men, but all things and all beings pray to Him continually in differing ways.
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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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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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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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We should understand that the Great Spirit is also above all these things and peoples.
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The Great Spirit is everywhere; He hears whatever is in our minds and our hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to Him in a loud voice.
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The power of a thing or an act is in the meaning and the understanding.
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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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Everything tries to be round.
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The hawk swoops down on its prey, so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal.
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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 as one of many hoops that made one circle.
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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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The visions and ceremonies only made me like a whole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds.
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Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.
BLACK ELK