Quotes from Charles Alexander Eastman

Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone.

Is there not something worthy of perpetuation in our Indian spirit of democracy, where Earth, our mother, was free to all, and no one sought to impoverish or enslave his neighbor?

The Indian was a religious man from his mother's womb.

There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature.

He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's.

In the life of the Indian there is only one inevitable duty-the duty of prayer-the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal. Our daily devotions were more necessary to us than daily food.

The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.

Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.

The red man divided mind into two parts, - the spiritual mind and the physical mind.

The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character.

Our people, though capable of strong and durable feeling, were not demonstrative in their affection at any time, least of all in the presence of guests or strangers.

The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.

The hospitality of the wigwam is only limited by the institution of war.

Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking. But to have a friend and to be true under any and all trials is the mark of a man!

But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!

There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in itself mysterious and holy.

The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

The wise man believes profoundly in silence, the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool - his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

One of the things that makes you feel good is to get out into nature—go walking, go hiking, go swimming in the ocean, or wherever you live, in a river or a lake, experience the beauty of America, experience how America is such a sacred place. Everywhere you go in this land, our people have been there and they have said, "This place is sacred.

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.

Clear your mind of all dread and suspicion; this is the first step in the wilderness life. Think not the water will drown you, or that anything in the water or on land will bite or poison you. Have confidence in nature and yourself. Perhaps three-fourths of your physical failures are due to lack of nerve and will-power. It

I have not cared to pile up more dry bones, but to clothe them with flesh and blood.

The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand. First,