Mother Earth and Quotes from my Indian Heritage

"There is no death. Only a change of worlds." ---Seattle (1786 - 1866) Suquamish Chief


My white Rose, after yesterday's hard rain storms, seemed to be weeping raindrops. So beautiful that words almost ruin the picture.


"The old Indian teaching was that it is wrong to tear loose from its place on the earth anything that may be growing there. It may be cut off, but it should not be uprooted. The trees and the grass have spirits. Whenever one of such growths must be destroyed by some good Indian, his act is done in sadness and with a prayer for forgiveness because of his necessities. . ." ---Cheyenne Elder (late 19th Century)


The pink Rose is sharing its first bloom with us today. She posed so beautifully, that I just had to snap her picture.


"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth. We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." ---Seattle (1786 - 1866) Suquamish Chief

"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. . . . The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. . . Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The very life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves." ---Black Elk (1863 - 1950) Oglala Sioux holy man


Yellow butterflies
over the blossoming, virgin corn,
with pollen-spotted faces
chase one another in
brilliant throng.
---Hopi Song


". . . Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence." ---Mourning Dove (1888 - 1936) Salish


". . . I am poor and naked, but I am the Chief of the Nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would 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." ---Red Cloud (late 19th century) Sioux Chief