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Let every step you take upon the earth be as a prayer.

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
Step
Steps
Prayer
Upon
Earth
Take
Every

More quotes by Black Elk

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Behold this day. It is yours to make.
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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 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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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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May you always walk in Beauty.
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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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And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.
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It is in the darkness of their eyes that men lose their way.
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.
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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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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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Now suddenly there was nothing but a world of cloud, and we three were there alone in the middle of a great white plain with snowy hills and mountains staring at us and it was very still but there were whispers.
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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When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything.
Black Elk
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When I got back to my father and mother and was sitting up there in our tepee, my face was still all puffed and my legs and arms were badly swollen but I felt good all over and wanted to get right up and run around.
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
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It may be that some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it then, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds.
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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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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It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death. He who is well prepared is he who knows that he is nothing compared with Wakan-Tanka, who is everything then he knows that world which is real.
Black Elk