Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
Praise, flattery, exaggerated manners, and fine, high-sounding
words were no part of Lakota politeness. Excessive manners were
put down as insincere, and the constant talker was considered rude
and thoughtless. Conversation was never begun at once, or in a hurried
manner.
No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and
no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought
was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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Silence was meaningful
with the Lakota, and his granting a space of silence before talking
was done in the practice of true politeness and regardful of the
rule that "though comes before speech."
And in the midst of sorrow, sickness, death or misfortune of any
kind, and in the presence of the notable and great, silence was
the mark of respect. More powerful than words was silence with the
Lakota.
His strict observance of this tenet of good behavior was the reason,
no doubt, for his being given the false characterization by the
white man of being a stoic. He has been judged to be dumb, stupid,
indifferent, and unfeeling.
As a matter of truth, he was the most sympathetic of men, but his
emotions of depth and sincerity were tempered with control. Silence
meant to the Lakota what it meant to Disraeli, when he said "Silence
is the mother of truth," for the silent man was ever to be
trusted, while the man ever ready with speech was never taken seriously.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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The character of the Indian's emotion
left little room in his heart for antagonism toward his fellow creatures
.... For the Lakota (one of the three branches of the Sioux Nation),
mountains, lakes, rivers, springs, valleys, and the woods were all
in finished beauty. Winds, rain, snow, sunshine, day, night, and
change of seasons were endlessly fascinating. Birds, insects, and
animals filled the world with knowledge that defied the comprehension
of man.
The Lakota was a true naturalist - a lover of Nature. He loved
the earth and all things of the earth, and the attachment grew with
age. The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat
or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering
power.
It was good for the skin to touch the earth, and the old people
liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred
earth.
Their tipis were built upon the earth and their alters were made
of earth. The birds that flew in the air came to rest upon the earth,
and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and
grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing, and healing.
This is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of
propping himself up and away from its live giving forces. For him,
to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply
and to feel more keenly; he can see more clearly into the mysteries
of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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Children were taught that true politeness
was to be defined in actions rather than in words. They were never
allowed to pass between the fire and the older person or a visitor,
to speak while others were speaking, or to make fun of a crippled
or disfigured person. If a child thoughtlessly tried to do so, a
parent, in a quiet voice, immediately set him right.
Expressions such as "excuse me," "pardon me,"
and "so sorry" now so often lightly and unnecessarily
used, are not in the Lakota language. If one chanced to injure or
cause inconvenience to another wanunhecun, or "mistake,"
was spoken. This was sufficient to indicate that no discourtesy
was intended and that what happened was accidental.
Our young people, raised under old rules of courtesy, never indulged
in the present habit of talking incessantly and all at the same
time. To do so would have been not only impolite, but foolish; for
poise, so much admired as a social grace, could not be accompanied
by restlessness. Pauses were acknowledged gracefully and did not
cause lack of ease or embarrassment.
In talking to children, the old Lakota would place a hand on the
ground and explain: "We sit in the lap of our Mother. From
her we, and all other living things, come. We shall soon pass, but
the place where we now rest will last forever." So we, too,
learned to sit or lie on the ground and become conscious of life
about us in its multitude of forms.
Sometimes we boys would sit motionless
and watch the swallows, the tiny ants, or perhaps some small animal
at its work and ponder its industry and ingenuity; or we lay on
our backs and looked long at the sky, and when the stars came out
made shapes from the various groups.
Everything was possessed of personality, only differing from us
in form. Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library
and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks, and the birds
and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings
of earth. We learned to do what only the student of nature learns,
and that was to feel beauty. We never railed at the storms, the
furious winds, and the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensified
human futility, so whatever came we adjusted ourselves, by more
effort and energy if necessary, but without complaint.
Even the lightning did us no harm, for whenever it came too close,
mothers and grandmothers in every tipi put cedar leaves on the coals
and their magic kept danger away. Bright days and dark days were
both expressions of the Great Mystery, and the Indian reveled in
being close to the Great Holiness.
Observation was certain to have its rewards.
Interest, wonder, admiration grew, and the fact was appreciated
that life was more than mere human manifestation; it was expressed
in a multitude of forms.
This appreciation enriched Lakota existence. Life was vivid and
pulsing; nothing was casual and commonplace. The Indian lived -
lived in every sense of the word - from his first to his last breath.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit,
there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through
all things - the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees,
birds, animals - and was the same force that had been breathed into
the first man. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together
by the same Great Mystery.
Kinship with all creatures of the earth, sky, and water was a real
and active principle. In the animal and bird world there existed
a brotherly feeling that kept the Lakota safe among them. And so
close did some of the Lakotas come to their feathered and furred
friends that in true brotherhood they spoke a common tongue.
The animals had rights - the right
of a man's protection, the right to live, the right to multiply,
the right to freedom, and the right to man's indebtedness - and
in recognition of these rights the Lakota never enslaved an animal,
and spared all life that was not needed for food and clothing.
This concept of life and its relations with humanizing, and gave
to the Lakota an abiding love. It filled his being with joy and
mystery of living; it gave him reverence for all life; it made a
place for all things in the scheme of existence with equal importance
to all.
The Lakota could not despise no creature, for all were of one blood,
made by the same hand, and filled with the essence of the Great
Mystery. In spirit, the Lakota were humble and meek. "Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" - this was
true for the Lakota, and from the earth they inherited secrets long
since forgotten. Their religion was sane, natural, and human.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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Nothing the Great Mystery placed in
the land of the Indian pleased the white man, and nothing escaped
his transforming hand. Wherever forests have not been mowed down,
wherever the animal is recessed in their quiet protection, wherever
the earth is not bereft of four-footed life - that to him is an
"unbroken wilderness"
But, because for the Lakota there was no wilderness, because nature
was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly, Lakota
philosophy was healthy - free from fear and dogmatism. And here
I find the great distinction between the faith of the Indian and
the white man. Indian faith sought the harmony of man with his surroundings;
the other sought the dominance of surroundings.
In sharing, in loving all and everything, one people naturally
found a due portion of the thing they sought, while, in fearing,
the other found the need of conquest.
For one man the world was full of beauty, for the other it was
a place of sin and ugliness to be endured until he went to another
world, there to become a creature of wings, half-man and half-bird.
Forever one man directed his Mystery
to change the world. He had made; forever this man pleaded with
Him to chastise his wicked ones; and forever he implored his God
to send His light to earth. Small wonder this man could not understand
the other.
But the old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart, away from
nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing,
living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he
kept his children close to nature's softening influence.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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The attempted transformation
of the Indian by the white man and the chaos that has resulted are
but the fruits of the white man's disobedience of a fundamental
and spiritual law.
"Civilization" has been thrust upon me since the days
of the reservations, and it has not added one whit to my sense of
justice, to my reverence for the rights of life, to my love for
truth, honesty, and generosity, or to my faith in Wakan Tanka, God
of the Lakotas.
For after all the great religions have been preached and expounded,
or have been revealed by brilliant scholars, or have been written
in fine books and embellished in fine language with finer covers,
man, - all man - is still confronted by the Great Mystery.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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The white
man does not understand America. He is far removed from its formative
processes. The roots of the tree of his life have not yet grasped
the rock and the soil.
The white man is still troubled by primitive fears; he still has
in his consciousness the perils of this frontier continent, some
of it not yet having yielded to his questing footsteps and inquiring
eyes.
He shudders still with the memory of the loss of his forefathers
upon its scorching deserts and forbidding mountaintops. The man
from Europe is still a foreigner and an alien. And he still hates
the man who questioned his path across the continent.
But in the Indian the spirit of the land is still vested; it will
be a long time until other men are able to divine and meet its rhythm.
Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed
of the dust of their forefathers' bones.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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The American Indian is of the
soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas.
He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent
also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally
as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged....
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom,
an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a
Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity,
and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.
Chief Luther Standing Bear - Oglala Sioux
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Native American Legends A-B