Sayings
A Native American Prayer
"Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds,
and whose breath gives life to all things, hear me.
I come to you as one of your many children.
I am small and weak, I need your strength and your wisdom.
May I walk in beauty. May my eyes ever behold the glorious sunrise,
and may they see as much mystery in your small miracles as in your great ones.
Make my hands respect the things you have created,
and my ears sharp enough to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught your children,
the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Make me strong, not to overcome my brothers,
but to be able to fight my greatest enemy, myself.
Make me ever ready to come to you with pure hands and straight eyes,
so that when my life fades as the fading sunset,
my spirit may come to you and stand before you, without shame."
Author Unknown
An Apache Scout Prayer
"Grandfather of all Scouts...
Teach me to be the eyes of my people.
Teach me to move like the shadow.
Allow me to become the winds, the rocks,
the soils, and the life force in all it's forms.
Allow me to suffer for my people and take away their pain.
Honor me by allowing me to die for my people.
For I love my people beyond myself and I will
sacrifice my all for my people, my earth, and for you.
Test me beyond all hardship and pain.
Create me as you would forge a tool, and
if you find I am worthy, then bless me
as your servant - your Scout."
Shadow Walker
1807, Age 91
Panther Ridge
Black Elk's Great Vision
"Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all,
and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world.
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.
And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops
that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight,
and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter
all the children of one mother and one father.
And I saw that it was holy."
Black Elk, 1931
A Great Truth
"The earth does not belong to man,
man belongs to the Earth.
This we know.
Man did not weave the web of life,
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web,
he does to himself.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth,
befalls the children of the Earth."
Chief Seattle, 1854
More Truth
"No species, no matter how rigorously protected, can survive without adequate habitat."
Warner Shedd
Be sure that you see aright!
"The preservation of the useful and beautiful animal and bird life of the
country depends largely upon creating in the young an interest in the life of
the woods and fields.
If the child mind is fed with stories that are false to nature, the children
will go to the haunts of the animal only to meet disappointment. The result will
be disbelief, and the death of interest. The men who misinterpret nature and
replace fact with fiction, undo the work of those who in the love of nature
interpret it aright."
Theodore Roosevelt
"There is no such thing as a weed, just people's misconception of life creatures and how they fit into society's world."
Tom Brown, Jr.