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But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.

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
Good
Dies
Men
Though
Think
Beautiful
Pitiful
Thinking
May
Sooner
Done
Save
Right
Meaning
Even
Wise
Way
Vision

More quotes by Black Elk

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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.
Black Elk
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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.
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.
Black Elk
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It's in the darkness of men's eyes that they get lost.
Black Elk
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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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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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So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.
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 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.
Black Elk
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Also, as I lay there thinking of my vision, I could see it all again and feel the meaning with a part of me like a strange power glowing in my body but when the part of me that talks would try to make words for the meaning, it would be like fog and get away from me.
Black Elk
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Know the Power that is Peace.
Black Elk
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The power of the world always works in circles.
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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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
Black Elk
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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.
Black Elk
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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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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.
Black Elk
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Any man who is attached to things of this world is one who lives in ignorance and is being consumed by the snakes of his own passions
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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As you walk upon the sacred earth, treat each step as a prayer.
Black Elk