NATIVE PRAYER

~*~May The Great Spirit~*~
~*~Watch Over You Always~*~

Wakan Tankan
Oh Great Spirit
Whose breath gives life to all the world
I come before you, one of your many children
Hear me, I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made, my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise, so that I may know the things you have taught my people,the lesson you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Make me strong not to be superior to my brothers ~ but to fight my greatest enemy~Myself
Make me ever ready to come to You~
With clean hands~
With straight eyes~
So when life fades as a fading sunset
My spirit will come to you~
Without shame~ John Yellow Lark

THE WISDOM OF THE ELDERS

"The story of all life that is holy and good to tell and of us two legged sharing in it with the four leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things, for these are the children of one Mother and their Father is one spirit."
Black Elk

"What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."
Crowfoot's Last Words

"Treat the earth well,it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."
Ancient Indian Proverb

"One does not sell the land the people walk on."
Crazy Horse

"How smooth must be the language of the whites,when they can make right look like wrong and wrong look right"
Black Hawk

. Many proposals have been made to us
to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners
and your customs.We would be better pleased with beholding
the good effects of these doctrines in your
practices, than hearing you talk of them.
Old Tassel
Chief of Tsalagi

EARTH TEACH ME

Earth Teach Me to Remember
Earth teach me stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth Teach me caring
as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage
as the tree which stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation
as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep in the rain.
UTE PRAYER

TIMELESS WISDOM ???????
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great
country away from them.(Indians)
There were great numbers of people who
needed new land, and the Indians were
selfishly trying to keep it for themselves." ~John Wayne~

Page last updated on: 07/31/2003