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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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Black Elk
Age: 86 †
Born: 1863
Born: December 1
Died: 1950
Died: August 19
Heyoka
Medicine Man
Tribal Chief
Earth
Able
Must
Performed
Men
Understood
Think
Told
Thinking
Vision
People
Use
Power

More quotes by Black Elk

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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
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When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
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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.
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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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I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.
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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 when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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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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All things are our relatives what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One.
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Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.
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One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these too may have a valuable lesson to teach us.
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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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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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You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.
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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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A good nation I will make live.This the nation above has said.They have given me the power to make over.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
Black Elk
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Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World.
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