"You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers.  So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the lives of our kin.  Teach your children that we have taught our children that the earth is our mother.  Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth...  This we know, the earth does belong to man: man belongs to the earth.  This we know.  All things are connected..." Additional Info   I have deeply appreciated these words and have taught them to others."





As a landscaper/gardener I have attempted to use natural solutions to gardening such as avoiding the use of pesticides, herbicides,composting...  and thus his words did resonate to me.

I do not know if you feel they fit in the spirit of your site but thought to share them with you since first exploring here. My interest in archaelogy also causes a great respect for the words of Chief Seattle.  I do not know where the words are originally found as there was no source document cited in the publication where I found this quote.

Jadon

Look at me - I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches, but we want to train our children right. Riches will do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.

They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one--They promised to take our land...and they took it.

In 1868, men came out and brought papers. We could not read them and they did not tell us truly what was in them. We thought the treaty was to remove the forts and for us to cease from fighting. But they wanted to send us traders on the Missouri, but we wanted traders where we were. When I reached Washington, the Great Father explained to me that the interpreters had deceived me. All I want is right and just.

Whose voice was first sounded on this land? The voice of the red people who had but bows, and arrows....What has been done in my country I did not want, did not ask for it; white people going through my country.... When the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him....I have two mountains in that country.... The Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountain. I want the great father to make no roads through them. I have told these things three times; now I have come here to tell them the fourth time.

"The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there. Since they crossed the sea, I have given them room. There are now white people all about me. I have but a small spot of land left. The Great Spirit told me to keep it."

Chief Red Cloud - Sioux

I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...in the winter..and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape...but we were so hemmed in we had to fight. After that I lived in peace, but the government would not let me alone. I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting...They tried to confine me.. and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.

"We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here, you are taking my land from me, you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live.

Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them."

Crazy Horse - Sioux

 

When the white man discovered this country Indians were running it. No taxes no debt, women did all the work White man thought he could improve on a system like this. Old Cherokee Saying

~~~~~~ We, the great mass of the people think only of the love we have for our land, we do love the land where we were brought up. We will never let our hold to this land go, to let it go it will be like throwing away (our) mother that gave (us) birth. Letter from Aitooweyah to John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokees.

~~~~~~ Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss. Black Elk

~~~~~~ A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. Crazy Horse

~~~~~~ I am tired of fighting...from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more. Chief Joseph

~~~~~~ The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. Chief Joseph

~~~~~~ Treat the earth well, It was not given to you by your parents, It was loaned to you by your children. Indian Proverb

~~~~~~ All things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. Chief Seattle

~~~~~~ When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre. Chiksika, Shawnee

~~~~~~ We are now about to take our leave and kind farewell to our native land, the country the Great Spirit gave our Fathers, we are on the eve of leaving that country that gave us birth, it is with sorrow we are forced by the white man to quit the scenes of our childhood...we bid farewell to it and all we hold dear. Charles Hicks, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Vice Chief speaking of The Trail of Tears, Nov. 4, 1838

 

There was once a young Indian maiden who lived with her tribe in central Oklahoma.The young maiden was always cheerful and singing and was much loved by the people of her tribe. Then one night she became very ill. The medicine man could do nothing to make her well. When she died the tribe was so grief stricken that they built huge altars made of small sandstone rocks as an offering to the Great Spirit.

After several days the Great Spirit spoke and the sound of his voice turned the little red sandstone rocks into roses, an eternal symbol of the young maiden's spirit.

Another version of this legend says that the rose rocks represent the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens who traveled the Trail Of Tears.

The rose rock is Oklahoma's State Rock. Rose rocks are actually barite rock crystals and are found in central Oklahoma. They say you can find them laying on the ground but I didn't, I bought the two pictured above in Oklahoma City.

Cherokee Blessing May the warm winds of Heaven blow softly on your home, And the Great Spirit bless all who enter there. May your mocassins make happy tracks in many snows, And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.

 

Cherokee Prayer Oh Great spirit, grant that I may never find fault with my neighbor until I have walked the trail of life in his moccasins.

 

Indian Blessing Let us walk softly on the Earth with all living beings great and small remembering as we go, that one God kind and wise created all.

 

Navajo Blessing We walk in our moccasins upon the Earth And beneath the sky As we travel on life's path of beauty We will live a good life and reach old age.

 

James Earle Fraser was born in Minnesota in 1876. In 1880, his family moved to South Dakota. He grew up with the Sioux Indians. Fraser felt the Indians had been treated unfairly by the white man and developed a great deal of compassion for them. He remembered how badly the pioneers spoke of the Indians and he could not understand why such animosity developed.

In 1915 he completed The End of the Trail, a dejected Indian sitting on a horse. Seneca Chief John Big Tree was the model for the figure, which symbolizes the fate of the American Indians.

Indian City, USA  -  Anadarko, Ok.  

Indian City is on the site of the massacre of the Tonkawa Indians by a band of Shawnees and other mercenaries during the Civil War. The 200 acre tract, is a small portion of the Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche Reservations established by the Federal Government in Oklahoma.

The village tour features seven authentic villages and lasts about 30 to 45 minutes. (Navajo, Chiricahua Apache, Wichita, Kiowa Winter Camp, Caddo, Pawnee, and Pueblo) Indian guides describe the customs and beliefs of each tribe which is a real treat if you are interested in the way the indians used to live