Native American Beliefs

Native American beliefs are deeply rooted in their culuture. We believe EVERYTHING is sacred from the largest mountain to the smallest plant and animal. A lesson can be found in all things and experiences and everything has a purpose.To sum up Native Spirituality; it is about HONOR, LOVE, and RESPECT. Not only do we love, honor, and respect our Creator and our Mother Earth, but also every living thing. It is about being in touch with ourselves and everything around us. It is about knowing and understanding that we are part of everything, and everything is a part of us. We are all One. We also believe that our Elders hold the answers. Our Elders keep our culture alive. We have much to learn from our Elders, and they deserve and receive our utmost respect. No matter the person nor the tribe it is taken from. you can see a common string that runs through them. I have been asked many times what it is to be Native american.

Here are some thoughts.

•”Native American isnt blood; it is what is in the heart. The love for the land. The respect for it, those who inhabit it; and the respect and acknowledgement of the spirits and the elders. That is what it is to be indian.”

White Feather, Navajo Medicine Man

•Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts. - Hopi

•Day and night cannot dwell together. - Duwamish

•It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. - Apache

•They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind. - Tuscarora

•All plants are our brothers and sisters. They talk to us and if we listen, we can hear them. - Arapaho

•Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand. - Tribe Unknown.

•Before eating, always take time to thank the food. - Arapaho

•When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us. - Arapaho

•If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come. - Arapaho

•Most of us do not look as handsome to others as we do to ourselves. - Assiniboine

•Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. - Blackfoot

•In age, talk; in childhood, tears. - Hopi

•We always return to our first loves. - Tribe Unknown

•What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset. - Blackfoot

•When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. - Cherokee

•Those who have one foot in the canoe, and one foot in the boat, are going to fall into the river. - Tuscarora

•The weakness of the enemy makes our strength. - Cherokee

•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. - Cherokee

•A good soldier is a poor scout. - Cheyenne

•Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man. - Sioux

•We will be known forever by the tracks we leave. - Dakota

•Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. - Cheyenne

•There is nothing as eloquent as a rattlesnakes tail. - Navajo

•Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. - Lakota

•Our first teacher is our own heart. - Cheyenne

•Everyone who is successful must have dreamed of something. - Maricopa

•All who have died are equal. - Comanche

•Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.  - Mohawk

•One rain does not make a crop. - Creole

•Man’s law changes with his understanding of man. Only the laws of the spirit remain always the same. - Crow

•What the people believe is true. - Anishinabe

•You already possess everything necessary to become great. - Crow

•There is no death, only a change of worlds. - Duwamish

•Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way. - Blackfoot

•You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. - Navajo

•It is less of a problem to be poor, than to be dishonest. - Anishinabe

•One finger cannot lift a pebble. - Hopi

•Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark. - Cheyenne

•All dreams spin out from the same web. - Hopi

•He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone. - Seneca

•Even a small mouse has anger. - Tribe Unknown

•If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can afford to be as harmless as a dove. - Cheyenne

•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. - Tribe Unknown

The rainbow is a sign from Him who is in all things. - Hopi