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The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.

Black Elk

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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Like
Taught
People
Ways
Warriors
Learn
Warrior
Girl
Began
Young
Girls
Way
Saws
Men
Boys
Time
Learned

More quotes by Black Elk

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I had a vision with which I might have saved my people, but I had not the strength to do it.
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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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All things are our relatives what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
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The center of the universe is everywhere.
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Every place is the center of the world.
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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.
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There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which is within the souls of men.
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And if the great fear had not come upon me, as it did, and forced me to do my duty, I might have been less good to the people than some man who had never dreamed at all, even with the memory of so great a vision in me.
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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.
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It's in the darkness of men's eyes that they get lost.
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To use the power of the bison, I had to perform that part of my vision for the people to see.
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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.
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Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.
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After the horse dance was over, it seemed that I was above the ground and did not touch it when I walked.
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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
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I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
Black Elk
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I think I have told you, but if I have not, you must have understood, that a man who has a vision is not able to use the power of it until after he has performed the vision on earth for the people to see.
Black Elk
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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. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.
Black Elk
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And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.
Black Elk