Quotes About Tradition

What appeals to me? There are things, points of view, uses of the language, habits of dress, ways of thought and believing that came to me from my grandparents and came to them from theirs. Things that are of good use in any situation, no matter what the future may hold.

We're Indian! We have a right to conduct our own religious ceremonies, just like everyone else!

traditional values of his people, which made wealth a symbol for selfishness, and had caused a friend of his to deliberately stop winning rodeo competitions because he was getting unhealthily famous and therefore out of harmony.

In life, ritual dancing for the Zuñi is sort of a perfect expression of . . ." He paused, searching for the word. "Call it ecstasy, or joy, or life, or community unity. So what do you do when you're beyond life, with no labors to perform? You spend your time dancing.

You're not playing the game,' Mary Landon said. 'I told you about me. You're just telling me about your family.' The statement surprised Chee. One defined himself by his family. How else? And then it occurred to him that white people didn't. They identified themselves by what they had done as individuals.

I heard the Watersprinkler playing his flute.

Ernesto Cata was dead but the Little Fire God lived. The Badger Clan had provided another of its sons to personify this eternal spirit.

Until you ask why bury a bucket when there's a million places you could hide it. And hoarding wealth isn't part of the Navajo Way anyway. There're always kinfolks who need it.

this further example of Irma Onesalt in the role of busybody, to use the belagana term for it. His mother would have called her, in Navajo, a "one who tells sheep which weed to eat.

Navajos did not kill with cold-blooded premeditation. Nor did they kill for profit. To do so violated the scale of values of The People. Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one's clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.

Did he expect to be in a hurry coming down? Maybe, Leaphorn thought. Maybe that was it. Time. But Navajos didn't hurry. In fact, there was no word in the Navajo language for time.

I hear you're a medicine man. I heard you are a singer of the Blessing Way. Is that right?" Chee looked slightly stubborn. "Yes sir," he said. "I would like to ask you to sing one for me," Leaphorn said.

Men are clinging to football on a level we aren't even aware of.& For centuries, we ruled everything, and now, in the last ten minutes, there are all these incursions by women. It's our Alamo.

She preferred silence. So I do not know her and yet I know her. She was . . . (He touches the coffin) . . . not a person but a whole kind of person, the ones who crossed the ocean, who brought with us to America the villages of Russia and Lithuania—and how we struggled, and how we fought, for the family, for the Jewish home, so that you would not grow up here, in this strange place, in the melting pot where nothing melted.

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father's guidance. Thereafter, my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs.

Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica, mom sang in English and Italian, and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.

Once she said to me, "One day, young lady, you will give your body and obedience to your husband your soul to God." And I whipped around and said, "And what, pray tell, Grandma, are you saying is left for me?

The Snork Maiden looked around her. Then she leaned forward and whispered in the Fillyjonk's outstretched ear: "First you must turn seven times around yourself, mumbling a little and stamping your feet. Then you go backward to a well, and turn around, and look down in it. And then, down in the water, you'll see the person you're going to marry!" "And how do you get him up from there?" asked the Fillyjonk excitedly.

had thought she and her sisters would celebrate it together at the Whitmans'. Perhaps they might have even heard from their uncle by then. There wouldn't have been gifts to exchange, but they would have

JOHNNA: When a Cheyenne baby is born, their umbilical cord is dried and sewn into this pouch. Turtles for girls, lizards for boys. And we wear it for the rest of our lives. JEAN: Wow. JOHNNA: Because if we lose it, our souls belong nowhere and after we die our souls will walk the Earth looking for where we belong.

Culture shifts, but the Word of God remains.

Daddy, will you take me to the mill, again?

Jay had learned that in Japan, sushi chefs might put a touch of wasabi inside a nigiri, using a larger dab of wasabi with fatty fish, and a smaller one with lean. But they never served extra wasabi on the side. They would serve a pinch on the side with sashimi—plain raw fish, without rice. But diners certainly weren't supposed to mix the wasabi into their soy sauce and apply it indiscriminately.