Only when the last tree has died
And the last river been poisoned
And the last fish caught
Will we realize that we cannot eat money."
     ~ Cree proverb

"Follow the example of the wolf. Even when he is surprised and runs for his life he will pause to take one more look at you before he enters his final retreat. So you must take a second look at everything you see."
     ~ Ohiyesa

"They act like they want another Wounded Knee!"
     ~Roberta Blackgoat

"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul."
     ~ Edward Abbey

"Benedicto : May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering though pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poet's towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and pinnacles and grottoes of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautifuland more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you beyond that next turning of the canyon walls."
     ~ Edward Abbey (Desert Solitaire)

"to deny one's genealogy with the earth is to commit treason against one's soul."
     ~ Terry Tempest Williams

"The most violent element in society is ignorance."
     ~ Emma Goldman

"Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons of the Earth.
Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web
we do to each other.
All things are bound together.
All things Connect."
     ~ Chief Seattle

"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools."
     ~ John Muir

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."
     ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the measure of our bodies are the same..."
     ~ Hinmaton Yalatkit, Nez Perce chief

"If you talk to the animals
they will talk with you
and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them
you will not know them,
and what you do not know
you will fear.
What one fears one destroys."
     ~ Chief Dan George

"People and nations who understand the Natural Law are self-governing, following the principles of love and respect that insure freedom and peace."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, NAVAJO-HOPI Joint Use Area

"Sell a country? Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?"
     ~ Tecumseh, Shawnee

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
     ~ Teddy Roosevelt

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That , in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling power."
     ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."
     ~ Martin Niemoeller

"We need language to tell us who we are, how we feel, what we're capable of � to explain the pains and glory of our existence."
     ~ Maya Angelou

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
     ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

"There will come a time when the Earth grows sick and when it does a tribe will gather from all the cultures of the World who believe in deed and not words. They will work to heal it... they will be known as the 'Warriors of the Rainbow.'"
     ~ Cree proverb

"They are the Spirit that is in all of us for the strength of the Pack is in the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack."
     ~ R. Kipling

"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
     ~ Albert Einstein

"My father told me.that Hopi earth does contain my roots and I am, indeed, from that land. Because my roots are there, I will find them."
     ~ Wendy Rose, Hopi/Miwok

"Sacred sites and areas are protection for all people �the four colors for man�and these sites are in all areas of the earth in the four directions."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, Northern Cheyenne

"There are many things to be shared with the four colors of man in our common destiny as one family upon our Mother the Earth."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, Northern Cheyenne

"Telling our lives is important for those who come after as, for those who will see our experience as part of their own historical struggle."
     ~ Linda Hogan, Chickasaw

"It is a paradox in the contemporary world that in our desire for peace we must willingly give ourselves to struggle."
     ~ Linda Hogan, Chickasaw

"In the open space of democracy, we are listening - ears alert - we are watching - eyes open - registering the patterns and possibilities for engagement. Some acts are private; some are public. Our oscillations between local, national, and global gestures map the full range of our movement. Our strength lies in our imagination, and paying attention to what sustains life, rather than what destroys it."
     ~ Terry Tempest Williams, The Open Space of Democracy

"We are a people addicted to speed and superficiality, a nation that prides itself on moral superiority. But our folly lies in not seeing what we based our superiority on. Wealth and freedom? What is wealth if we cannot share it? What is freedom if we cannot offer it as a vision of compassion and restraint, rather than force and aggression? Without a deepening of our thought processes as to what constitutes a living democracy, without acknowledgment of complexity in a society of sound bites, we will not find the true source of our anger or an authentic passion that will propel us forward to the place of personal engagement. Perhaps this is what we have been longing for all along - to wrap ourselves in life."
     ~ Terry Tempest Williams, The Open Space of Democracy

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country agsint his government."
     ~ Edward Abbey

"To me, the wisdom the Elders have to manifest is in teaching people how to live in harmony and balance with each other and the Earth."
     ~ Sun Bear, Chippewa

"The old people must start talking and the young people must start listening."
     ~ Thomas Banyacya, Hopi

"Knowledge is a beautiful thing, but the using of knowledge in a good way is what makes for wisdom. Learning how to use knowledge in a sacred manner, that's wisdom to me. And to me, that's what a true Elder is."
     ~ Sun Bear, Chippewa

"People and nations who understand the Natural Law are self-governing, following the principles of love and respect that insure freedom and peace."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, Navajo-Hopi Joint Use Area

"Listen to the howl of our spiritual brother, the wolf, for how it goes with him, so it goes for the natural world."
     ~ Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders

"The Natural Law will prevail regardless of man-made laws, tribunals and governments."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, NAVAJO-HOPI Joint Use Area

   "Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience; to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder upon it, to dwell upon it.
   He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. He ought to recollect the glare of the moon and the colors of the dawn and dusk."
     ~ N. Scott Momaday

   "In the end, it is not the culture from which we came but the one each of us is helping to create that will matter. It is our common fate rather than our disparate pasts that will ultimately describe, redeem, or destroy us."
     ~ Sam Smith

"We are one people. We cannot separate ourselves now. There are many good things to be done for our people and for the world. It is important to let things be good. And it is important to teach the younger generation so that things are not lost."
     ~ Corbin Harney, Newe, 7/10/07

"If we keep everything in balance, we are in harmony with ourselves and are at peace."
     ~ Fools Crow, Lakota

"Sacred sites and areas are protection for all people—the four colors for man—and these sites are in all areas of the earth in the four directions."
     ~ Traditional Circle of Elders, Northern Cheyenne