Black Elk Native Quotations

I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

The power of the world always works in circles.

The song and the drumming were like this: Behold, a sacred voice is calling you; All over the sky a sacred voice is calling.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

I cured with the power that came through me.

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.

If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.

The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours...

Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.

Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.

But if the Vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet;for such things are of Spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.