Luther Standing Bear

"Civilization" has been thrust upon me since the days of the reservations, and it has not added one whit to my sense…

— Luther Standing Bear

Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefathers bones.

— Luther Standing Bear

Civilization has been thrust upon me... and it has not added one whit to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity.

— Luther Standing Bear

The man who sat on the ground in his tipi meditating on life and its meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures…

— Luther Standing Bear

Silence is the Mother of Truth, for the silent man was ever to be trusted, while the man ever ready with speech…

— Luther Standing Bear

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for…

— Luther Standing Bear

Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

— Luther Standing Bear

Certain small ways and observances sometimes have connection with large and more profound ideas.

— Luther Standing Bear

The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being…

— Luther Standing Bear

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard.

— Luther Standing Bear

After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, man is still confronted with the Great Mystery.

— Luther Standing Bear

Training began with children who were taught to sit still and enjoy it. They were taught to use their organs of smell,…

— Luther Standing Bear

It is the mothers not the warriors who create a people and guide their destiny.

— Luther Standing Bear

“There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unkown, secret place.…

— Luther Standing Bear

We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth…

— Luther Standing Bear

For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.

— Luther Standing Bear

Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefather's bones.

— Luther Standing Bear

Today the children of our public schools are taught more of the history, heroes, legends, and sagas of the old world than…

— Luther Standing Bear

Only to the white man was nature a "wilderness" and only to him was the land "infested" with "wild" animals and "savage"…

— Luther Standing Bear

The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being…

— Luther Standing Bear

Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness'.

— Luther Standing Bear

White men seem to have difficulty in realizing that people who live differently from themselves still might be traveling the upward and…

— Luther Standing Bear

“As a child I understood how to give, I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized. -”

— Luther Standing Bear

Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky and water was a real and active principle. In the animal and bird world…

— Luther Standing Bear

“Never rail at the storms, the furious winds, the biting frosts and snows...Bright days and dark days are both expressions of the…

— Luther Standing Bear