The great wisdom of the world comes from the very old.
Anybody who had come up with a new concept would have been under suspicion for being out of step with the tradition or out of step with the teachings of the church.
If the legends fall silent, who will teach the children of our ways?
In this land of the Ganga (Varanasi), there was education of culture. But, more importantly, there was a culture of education.
Hold on to the ancient Way to master the present, and to learn the distant beginning.
When I was sixteen I started acting, and I also started to embrace my tradition and culture. I had a young medicine man interpret for me what it is to be an Indian. He really caught me at a good time because I was really vulnerable after the loss of my parents with all of the feelings of abandonment.
Growing up, in church we had the homily; at home it's what I call the 'momily' - the inspirational and instructive mom-isms that every family has.
Apothegms are the wisdom of the past condensed for the instruction and guidance of the present.
The economic piece is still missing, since it's so hard to attract industry to reservations, but spiritually and educationally, they're doing just fine. Each tribe has a community college now, and they teach the language, they teach the traditions.
