Indigenous Values Quotes

We do not want your civilization. We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them.

We [Native Americans] respect being human beings, but also the natural and spiritual world and I thought that came across wonderfully and I hope a lot of people get a sense of that; not to take away that we also have that warrior spirit.

The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.

It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain.

If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children's mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean.

The most common trait of all primitive peoples is a reverence for the life-giving earth, and the Native American shared this elemental ethic: The land was alive to his loving touch, and he, its son, was brother to all creatures.

I go to an all-Hawaiian school, and we learn everything about being Hawaiian. We have a really deep respect for the water and the land. We say, 'mauka to makai,' mountains to ocean. I believe if you take care of the ocean, the ocean will take care of you in return.

In Iroquois society, leaders are encouraged to remember seven generations in the past and consider seven generations in the future when making decisions that affect the people.

Tradition has to be retaken by the liberal forces, so that they can show their values of tolerance and democracy not as novel western ideas but as ones indigenous to Pakistan, as a part of its very creation.