In the memory of those that has left us.
We must remember our brothers and sisters
that have went on to the other side. They all
will be missed they will always be with us.
Remembering our elders as well and with
honor and pride of our people.
In our hearts we have lost one of our own:
Ken (Old Guy)has passed.
Passed in July of 2009
His work on paintings and PSP tubes are beautiful.
He will be missed, May the Great Spirit be with
his family and loved ones.
Winters, He will be missed by many.
For those of you who do not know about him
Here is link to some of his paintings
https://www.angelfire.com/pa5/winold/
Stop in a see his gifted work
Raymond Paul Lussier "Chief Looking Glass"
Has went to be with the creator on
December 30th. 2007 .
Chief Looking Glass was Abenaki Indian,
He will be missed by many.
Crazy Horse you will be greatly missed.
May you run free in the wind my Native Brother.
SADDEN BY THE LOSS
Walter Watso passed away Sunday "Nov. 25th.2002"
evening at about 8 pm.
Let every one give respects to Walter.
Please let every one know.
Put what you can on the internet about
the passing to the other side of Walter.
The calling hours in Odanak at the funeral
home will be on
Friday from 2 to 4 pm and 7 to 9 pm.
The funeral will b e on Sat at 2 pm
The Watso e-mail: thersawatso@angelfire.com
Luther Standing Bear Oglala Sioux
1868-1937
Shooter Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same
with animals and with human beings. The reason WakanTanka
does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly
alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an independent
individuality and to rely upon itself.
Many Horses
"I will follow the white man's trail. I will make him my friend,
but I will not bend my back to his burdens.
I will be cunning as a coyote.
I will ask him to help me understand his ways,
then I will prepare the way for my children, and their children.
The Great Spirit has shown me - a day will come when they will
outrun the white man in his own shoes."
Chief Maquinna, Nootka
"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house.
They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money
there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest.
"We are Indians and we have no such bank;
but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them
away to other chiefs and people, and by and
by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good.
Our way of giving is our bank."
Santana, Kiowa Chief
"I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it.
I want you to understand well what I say.
Write it on paper...I hear a great deal of good talk from the
gentlemen the Great Father sends us,
but they never do what they say.
I don't want any of the medicine lodges (schools and churches)
within the country. I want the children
raised as I was.
I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation
near the mountains. I don't want to settle.
I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy,
but when we settle down we grow pale and die.
A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers,
but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks.
These soldiers cut down my timber,
they kill my buffalo and when I see that,
my heart feels like bursting."
Metea, a Potowatami chief of the Illinois nation
"My Father: a long time has passed since first we came upon our lands;
and our people have all sunk into their graves.
They had sense. We are all young and foolish, and do
not wish to do anything that they would not approve, were they living.
We are fearful we shall offend their spirits if we sell our
lands; and we are fearful we shall offend you if we do not sell them.
This has caused us great perplexity of thought, because we have
counselled among ourselves, and do not know how we
can part with our lands.
My Father, we have sold you a great tract of land already;
but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit of
your children, to farm and to live upon.
We have now but a little left.
We shall want it all for ourselves.
We know not how long we shall live,
and we wish to leave some lands for our children to hunt upon.
You are gradually taking away our hunting grounds.
Your children are driving us before them.
We are growing uneasy.
What lands you have you may retain.
But we shall sell no more
Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation
"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and
children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those
who can't speak for themselves such as
the birds, animals, fish and trees."
"One does not sell the land people walk on." ...
Crazy Horse, Sept. 23, 1875
Eagle Chief (Letakos-Lesa) Pawnee
In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals,
for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent
certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man
learn.. all things tell of Tirawa.
All things in the world are two. In our minds we are two, good and evil. With
our eyes we see two things, things that are fair and things that are
ugly.... We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and we
have the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead
us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things
two, all two.
Mourning Dove Salish
1888-1936
Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior and orator
"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."
Sent to me in email. Thank You
Big Thunder (Bedagi) Wabanaki Algonquin
The Great Spirit is in all things, he is in the air we breathe.
The Great Spirit is our Father, but the Earth is our Mother.
She nourishes us, that which we put into the ground she returns to us
Tecumseh Shawnee
"Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican,
the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people?
They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression
of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun.
"Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle,
give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit,
the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us?
I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!'"
From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image,
they want us to be what they call "assimilated," bringing the Indians
into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and
our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like
those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy,
which is very different from our way.
We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated.
We don't want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to
raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and
fish and live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be
congressmen, or bankers....we want to be ourselves. We want to have
our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because
we belong here.
The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all.
We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have
been almost exterminated.
We shall not forget this."
From Chief Plenty Coups, Crow
"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground.
It is the blood of our ancestors."
Canassatego
"We know our lands have now become more valuable.
The white people think we do not know their value;
but we know that the land is everlasting,
and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone."
Resolution of the Fifth Annual Meetings of the Traditional Elders
Circle, 1980
"There are many things to be shared with the Four Colors of humanity
in our common destiny as one with our Mother the Earth.
It is this sharing that must be considered with great care by
the Elders and the medicine people who carry the Sacred Trusts,
so that no harm may come to people through ignorance and misuse
of these powerful forces."
Tom Brown, Jr., The Tracker
"If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life,
and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural
way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization,
I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path
of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"
"We learned to be patient observers like the owl.
We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay,
who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory.
But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit."
William Commanda, Mamiwinini, Canada, 1991
"Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads
that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the
road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology....
has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth.
Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction,
and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native
people have traveled and are now seeking again?
The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."
Chief Aupumut, Mohican. 1725
"When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are
filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep
and pray for a little more time to live their lives over
again in a different way. Sing your death song,
and die like a hero going home."
Wintu Woman, 19th Century
"When we Indians kill meat, we eat it all up. When we dig roots,
we make little holes. When we build houses, we make little holes.
When we burn grass for grasshoppers, we don't ruin things.
We shake down acorns and pine nuts.
We don't chop down the trees.
We only use dead wood.
But the white people plow up the ground,
pull down the trees, kill everything. ...
the White people pay no attention.
How can the spirit of the earth like the White man?
everywhere the White man has touched it, it is sore."
From Black Hawk, Sauk
"How smooth must be the language of the whites,
when they can make right look like wrong,
and wrong like right."
Shinguaconse ("Little Pine")
"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children.
If the promises had been made by a person of no standing,
I should not be surprised to see his promises fail.
But you, who are so great in riches and power;
I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled!
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such
promises than that you should have made them and not
performed them. . ."
Black Elk Oglala Sioux Holy Man
1863-1950
Flat-Iron (Maza Blaska Oglala Sioux Chief
From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from
Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal
and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by
Wakan-Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy,
because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka.
Sarah Winnemucca Paiute
(1844-1891)
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son.
The Chief is considered to be the most learned, and the leader of the tribe.
The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration.
He is supposed to be in communion with spirits... He cures the sick by the laying
of hands, and payers and incantations and heavenly songs.
He infuses new life into the patient, and performs most wonderful feats of
skill in his practice.... He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent
animals, such as the fawn, and decorated himself with the plumage of
harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird.
Lone Man (Isna-la-wica) Teton Sioux
I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a
man to depend simply upon himself.
Zitkala-Sa
"A wee child toddling in a wonder world,
I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural
gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit
is heard in the twittering of birds,
the rippling of mighty waters, and
the sweet breathing of flowers.
If this is Paganism, then at present,
at least, I am a Pagan."
From Chief Joseph, Nez Perces'
"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian,
he can live in peace.....Treat all men alike.
Give them all the same law.
Give them all an even chance to live and grow.
All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief.
They are all brothers.
The Earth is the mother of all people, and all
people should have equal rights upon it....
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop,
free to work, free to trade.
where I choose my own teachers, free to follow
the religion of my fathers, free to think
and talk and act for myself, and I will obey
every law, or submit to the penalty."
George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-bowh) Ojibwa Chief
1818-1863
Among the Indians there have been no written laws.
Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws
to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right
did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure
of the Nation.... This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a
mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
Chief Seattle
"When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear,
when that happens, The Warriors
of the Rainbow will come to save them."
Sogoyewapha, "Red Jacket" - Senaca
Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit.
If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so
much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?
Spotted Tail
"This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us
by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land
without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things...
This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land."
Wovoka, Paiute
"You ask me to plow the ground.
Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom?
Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest.
"You ask me to dig for stones!
Shall I dig under her skin for bones?
Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again.
"You ask me to cut grass and make hay and
sell it and be rich like white men,
but how dare I cut my mother's hair?
"I want my people to stay with me here.
All the dead men will come to life again.
Their spirits will come to their bodies again.
We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and
be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother."
Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Sioux
"I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a
white man he would have made me so in the first place.
He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he
put other and different desires. Each man is good in his sight.
It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows.
We are poor but we are free.
No white man controls our footsteps.
If we must die we die defending our rights."
John Wooden Legs, Cheyenne
"Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the
things we remember on our land. We remember that
our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives."
Crazy Horse - 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.
Red Cloud(Makhpiya-luta) , April, 1870
"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."
....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.
Thank You every one for sending me these to add to
web site. If you know of any elders that I have
missed, I am sure there are alot,
Please send to me and I will add them into
this so they can be remembered also.
Wado, Thank You,
Lonewolf
New E-mail: wbkearns@yahoo.com
