Conservation
Teacher Page Links Wisdom Links
"The Native was a natural conservationist. He destroyed nothing, great or small. Destruction was not a part of Native thought and action; if it had been, and had the man been the ruthless savage he is accredited to be, he would have long ago preceded the European in the labor of destroying the natural life of this continent. The Indian was frugal in the midst of plenty. When the buffalo roamed the plains in multitudes he slaughtered only what he could eat and these he used to the hair and bones.
I know of no species of plant, bird or animal that were exterminated until the coming of the white man."
-Chief Luther Standing Bear, Oglala (Teton) Sioux
The
Circle
"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The Wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles. . . .the sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The Moon does the same, and both are round. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood and so it is in everything where power moves."
-
Hehaka Sapa (Black Elk),Oglala Teton) Dakota ElderThe world is not
linear.
Life is not linear.
Our understanding is
limited when it is linear.
Journal #448 from sdc 7.8.05