Introduction

The material in this book was extracted from Little Crow's weekly messages to the Gathering over a two-year period beginning in 1990. The four chapters in the book refer to the four aspects of the hoop, the four attributes which each individual attempts to incorporate into his or her life; woksape wisdom, wowacintanka - fortitude, woohitika - bravery, and wacantognaka generosity. Although the quotations are grouped into categories, in reality they all refer to the same thing, only in a different form - - and that is that "everything is connected, everything is sacred and you make a difference." The reader needs to understand that this book is a verbatim transcript of material given orally, without thought of it being written down. I have tried, through the use of flexible punctuation, to retain the oral flavor and original meaning as much as possible. However, the only way to truly understand the message as it was intended is to hear it. For all my relations, Mitakuye Oyasin. Editor

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Contents
I. Wisdom................................................. 1 Balance ....................................... 3 Connectedness ............................ 7 Education ...................................15 Oral Tradition.............................19 The Pipe.....................................23 Spirituality ................................ 29 Women ......................................37 II. Fortitude...............................................41 Ceremonies................................43 Duality .......................................49 Faith ...........................................53 Healing.......................................61 Indians .......................................65 The Red Road............................73 Thanksgiving.............................77 III. Bravery ................................................81 Change .......................................83 Dreams.......................................91 Fear ............................................95 Power.........................................99 Responsibility ..........................103 Sacrifice ...................................111 Truth ........................................115 IV. Generosity..........................................119 Children....................................121 Creation....................................129 Equality....................................133 The Gathering ..........................139 Love.........................................145 Prayer .......................................151 Transition.................................157

Wisdom

Balance Connectedness Education Oral Tradition The Pipe Spirituality Women

Balance

We can really be out of balance looking for balance. 8/26/90

Balance

We can want peace, but unless we are spiritually at peace ourselves, we don't mean it. It is our thoughts which keep that part of the universe where each of us stand out of or in balance. 7/8/90

Balance

Somebody tried to tell me that my sacred hoop was just like a cross. I told them that the cross was just like my sacred hoop... You just extended one of the directions, that's all, then you put it out of balance... At least my hoop is in balance. 3/3/91

Connectedness

We are linked. We are the universe in itself. What we do as individuals affects the entire universe. 1/4/90

Connectedness

Every thought you have, every thing you do, every breath you take affects the universe. It goes out into the universe and each and every thing is touched by it and affected by it... Isn't that an amazement! I am affecting the universe with my mere breath. With just my breath I am affecting the universe. 6/23/91

Connectedness

For me to say to someone "you have made me angry" simply says to me I have made myself angry. To say to someone that "you have hurt me" simply means that I have hurt myself. If I hurt you, then I hurt me. Your pain can be shared by the universe and is shared, only in a different form. There is none of us here whose suffering is not felt by the entire universe, by every animal, by every creature, by every tree, rock, grain of sand, morsel of air, all feel your suffering and your pain. It also feels your joy. You are never alone. You are not created to be alone because you are part of the total. 2/3/91

Connectedness

... Everything is connected and we 're all related and there is no energy that can be separated from anything. When people start talking about "I'm putting you out of my life" I laugh, because there is no way you can do that... Energy is energy and it's always connected and it's always related and it will always be what it is energy. It will always be from the same place that it has always come from, the Mother-Father Creator. It will always be that it is the Mother-Father Creator. It is the Mother-Father Creator in just another form. 7/8/90

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Connectedness

We have no privacy, brothers and sisters. The Mother-Father Creator dwells within us and is connected and is all things, and that privacy then becomes part of the same privacy that I have within my mind, my heart and my being. We are all connected and what is experienced by one is experienced by all. 6/30/91

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Connectedness

The earth and I are one, you and the earth are one, you and I are one, we are not separated by anything only our own thinking, our own fears, our own prejudices, our own biases and our own agendas. We are related. 8/19/90

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Connectedness

Remember the relationship we share with all things and with all people. No one is separated from us because of what they might be feeling or what they might be experiencing. They are continually connected to us and relative to us and we cannot shun them or put them aside or out of our minds... We are all connected and we should be capable somehow of dropping the labels that have separated us for so long. 7/1/90

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Education

We are trained to be selective, isolated, prejudicial, bigoted, hateful and dishonest. We are trained and conditioned by qualities of life to be competitive, to be ethnically selective. We are conditioned and trained and educated to treat people differently because they do not believe what we believe, think or feel how we feel; and so they are different and relegated to a position below us or somewhere off in space where there is no real contact. 6/30/91

15

Education

As I have said to you many times, the education of Indians and Indian education are two distinctly different vehicles. 7/1/90

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Education

There is no learning, there is just remembering. We finally just always remember what it is we knew in the first place. 11/25/90

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Oral Tradition

The Oral Tradition says get out of your own way. Believe. Just have faith. There are things that you don't understand. There are things that you're not ready to understand yet because the time isn't right. But just go on and do what you need to do. 5/19/90

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Oral Tradition

The courage that we talk about in the Oral Tradition is the courage to be yourself individually and yet to be part of the community, toyespia. To do for the community, the family, the band, the tribe, the world and the universe that which you know to be correct instinctively within your heart. Tunkashila has given you this gift No one can take it from you. 6/24/90

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Oral Tradition

Salvation that's another word that wasn t in our Oral Tradition, salvation. Redemption to me is something I can do when I take my aluminum cans over to the machine. 4/14/91

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The Pipe

This Pipe is the thing that takes me out of doubt. It keeps me symbolically focused and centered to remember the connection to all things that I am not worse or better than anything or anyone and that I can find the stability that I as an individual need by looking at and reflecting on the lessons of the Pipe and the Seven Sacred Rites given to the Lakota-Dakota people Seven Sacred Rites which said do these sacred rites in the timely manner when they are to be done and all that you ask will be provided. It is faith that is older than dirt. It is the ceremonies and rituals which have been built upon from history and the beginning of our creation from the centers of the world, wherever we may find them. And it is not for sale!!! 6/30/91

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The Pipe

As long as that Pipe is connected, everything we think, say or do... goes through that Pipe and out into the universe... and it affects everything else in the universe. That's what the Pipe means, that's what it is about. It is paying homage and respect to our creation... 2/2/92

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The Pipe

The rock is Inyan. Inyan for me is God, the Creator, Umdogee, Wakan Tanka. And as I see that rock, I remember the gifts that have been given so that all things might exist and I cannot forget that. The Pipe bowl carved out of red stone is symbolic of the blood of my people... It comes from a land of neutrality and it is not for sale. It is a gift that is to be acquired and to be used in a spiritual way. 6/30/91

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The Pipe

The Chanunpa is my connection to the Creator. The Sacred Pipe... it's a symbol for me and it keeps me mindful. But if the Pipe isn 't where I can see it or where I can think on it, the next, the very next thing that connects me to God, to the Christ principle or the Christ concept or however you want to say it, is when I look in the mirror. 6/12/91

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The Pipe

... I don't care who made them what, or said they could do it, no one has that authority no one has that authority to make you a Pipe Carrier. That's a conferment from the people based on these principles generosity, fortitude, wisdom and bravery and it is not something to be bandied about and to be shown off... 2/2/91

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Spirituality

People want to make spirituality and sacredness more than it is. It's a part of life and it comes with each and every breath. 2/2/92

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Spirituality

We have a responsibility to ourselves which the Creator gave to us at creation and said, "You are as spiritual as you are going to get because you are of me. Because you are of me, you are as spiritual as you are going to get." Simply take that knowledge and utilize it to its maximum and in that, find the peace and balance as it can be applied to your decisions. Find the peace and balance within yourself. Don't look to others to lead you. 2/3/91

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Spirituality

You really don't need to have somebody teach you how to be what you already are. You don 1 need somebody to show you spirituality because you are spiritual by the essence of your birth. 6/24/90

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Spirituality

Being spiritual means you do everything for everyone else and not yourself. 5/19/90

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Spirituality

Part of the message that I'm continually attempting to share with people is that I can't show you any spiritual path to follow. Damn it, you're on one, you have your own. Take responsibility for it and live it the best way you can. 8/26/90

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Spirituality

Again we are distracted and we're out there running around selling Pipes and sacred objects and sweat lodges and ceremonies and teaching people to dance and sing and we're not doing anything about what we should be doing and that's getting our spirituality back. 7/1/90

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Spirituality

We can pay lip service to our spirituality, but unless we enforce it through our actions and behavior, we simply pay lip service. 6/30/91

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Women

We have to get into this realization that what we are talking about is changing our minds, our mindset as to how we are related to the earth. For men, one of the biggest things that we are struggling with is that the earth is feminine and that means we have to change our mindset of how we deal with women. 8/19/90

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Women

The women already know what the Pipe is about, so they don 1 need to fool with it in this lifetime. Did you hear me? Women already know what the Chanunpa is about and so you do not need to fool with it or to use it or to have it in this lifetime. It is for men to learn the way of that Pipe and to attempt to live with it in that way. 2/2/91

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Women

You don't write much about people who already got their shit together. You don't have to write something about people who know who they are and where they're going and what their responsibilities are. You have to write about the dummies who don't know. That's why everything is about men, because women know who they are and what it's about. 12/9/90

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Fortitude

Ceremonies Duality Faith Healing Indians The Red Road Thanksgiving

Ceremonies

We have no secrets. There are no secrets in the Indian world. What we have are ceremonies and rituals and they are simply to remind us who we are. They simply are the things which give us what we refer to as a mindfulness. That mindfulness opens us up then to remember so many other things. 6/24/90

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Ceremonies

Learning the sweat lodge and the dances and the languages and all that isn't going to change you.... It isn't going to change the legislation or the lives of the children who are coming after us. That's what I care about. 1/26/92

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Ceremonies

... We have helped create this world and now we have to help straighten it out for those who come after us. That's the simplicity. That's what our dancing is about, that's what our sweat lodges are about, that's what our shield making is about, that's what mask making is about. 4/14/91

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Ceremonies

Ceremonies were meant to be reminders. They were meant to be used as reminders. The symbolism and the materials that were used with them were simply meant to reinforce a mind set, a way of thinking. 5/19/90

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Ceremonies

... A little different, I guess, than most of the people who go around talking about Indian things, because I don't take you on sweat lodges and I don t take you on vision quests and I don't make you a shaman or shamaness or I don't make you a healer and I don't make you something you already are. 6/24/90

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Duality

That world of dualityyou have good, you have its opposite or opposing side. That holds true for everything in creation. Why would it not? Why would it be different? It is the same for all creation. For everything that is in its positive state, it has its negative state which exists with the same freedom and abundance as its other side. So there is no one place holier or less holy than where you now sit. 11/18/90

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Duality

Error is a part of life. If our lives were error free, we would have nothing to do. What would be the purpose in living? 7/14/91

50

Duality

Duality. Duality exists and I have to apply it to everything in my life and so sometimes I might seem kind of confusing when I say, "I'm getting dressed" and I'm taking my clothes off. Depending on where you are and what you're doing, some people would say that's contrary, but it is not contrary. It is simply someone who has a different way of seeing things and we all do. 2/2/92

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Faith

There is no way that we ever separate from each other. We cannot separate from ourselves. We are one. Umdogee, Tunkashila, God is one. Everything is one. Everything is sacred. Everything is related. Everything is connected. No mystery there. And all that it takes is faith. All that it requires is faith. 11/25/90

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Faith

Our impatience is brought about by our lack of faith.

4/14/91

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Faith

I can't help but keep reflecting upon the faith that is required, that is spoken of in my Oral Tradition. It says,"If you do things in the way in which you are directed and in the way in which you are asked to do them, then those things that you need, those things that you ask for, shall come to pass. "I can't help but try to live it that way with faith. 2/2/92

55

Faith

Have faith. Have faith. Have faith. You're on the spiritual path. You're on the road. You are the spiritual sanctuary. You are that strength and you're not going to be punished for believing that God lives inside you. That isnt a punishment, that's a joy. 8/26/90

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Faith

.... The answer is there and what we need to do is to have faith in what we believe. If you believe that there is a God and that there is heaven, then believe that and believe it with all of your heart and all of your being and act accordingly to it. Act accordingly to it. Behave as if you do believe that. That's all. 8/26/90

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Faith

The Oral Tradition finally gets to a point of saying faith. Faith, discipline and patience. If you 've got faith, discipline and patience, what you have then is your spiritual formation, your spiritual strength. 5/19/90

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Faith

It always comes back to the faith of the individual. You have to have faith in what you believe whether it is the dogma of something that nobody else believes in, if you have the faith in it, that's what is required for it to work for you. It always comes down to the individual taking responsibility for their life. 8/26/90

Healing

We have within us all things which we attribute to God... We have the capacity to remain ill or to be healed. To be healed does not mean to be well. God never said to be healed meant being well. That's an interpretation given to us by man to incite people to ferocious prayer in their own behalf. Being healed means you simply have faith faith to face whatever it is. 6/30/91

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Healing

We are all healers... your touch, your words, can make a person feel so good. All you have to do is smile at somebody and they feel so much better than if they looked at you and you turned away from them as you're walking down the street. 7/8/90

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Healing

When I'm sick I'm out of harmony and out of balance. My sickness is a symptom. It is a representational symptom of my out of balanceness. 2/3/91

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Indians

We understand what it is to be imprisoned. We understand what it is to be locked away and to be pushed aside and to have no voice in those things which are meant to be for your benefit. We have seen that in the paternalism that has fostered us since the inception of the reservation policy and systems, the land allotment acts, the dismantling of our religions and letters, languages, and our education. 7/1/90

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Indians

We are in a life or death struggle. We fight every damn day to hold onto what land we have, what resources we have our own spirits and souls. 2/2/92

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Indians

We have been exterminated, terminated and every other kind of nated and we are still in existence but only a million of us or so. A million, that's nothing. When you think of the great melting pot of this here United States, a million people is nothing. So what effect do we have in the political arena? Absolutely none. So what do we need? We need everybody to speak to those issues that concern us so that we might somehow maintain our identity. 1/26/92

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Indians

I can see why learning to dance, paint shields, make Totems, Pipes or things like that would be of interest because it doesn 't take as long. But being Indian takes all your life. 2/2/92

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Indians

Being a member of or belonging to a group, it was a matter of choice where you decided to live and how you decided to behave. Membership in your nation was determined by residency and behavior. That is what connected you. That is what made you related. That is what made you part of that family. Not your blood or your color, but where you chose to live or live among and how you chose to behave. 12/9/90

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Indians

There are more blacks in this country than there are Indians, but if we throw in our brothers to the South and North of us and all those of Cherokee persuasion, we would more than double the number... 7/1/90

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Indians

One of the things that was the most confusing and misunderstood and not comprehended was the diversity of all of our different peoples. All of the different tribes which lived upon this land were as different in their activities and their culture and the things which they did as the stars in the sky seem to be as numerous and as different in size and brightness. It was not recognized that each tribe had different values, structured upon their myths and the ways of their creation in which they were given. Failure to recognize that has been what has circumvented all attempts at total assimilation of Indigenous people. 11/14/90

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Red Road

Being on the Red Road takes all your life. It isn 't something that you need to be Indian to do. Being on a spiritual path takes all your life. It isn't something you do Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Thursday; it's something you do every breath you take. Being on the Red Road means every time you breath, you 're praying... 2/2/92

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Red Road

On the Red Road, we seek to find balance. 2/2/92

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Red Road

I look at my Oral Tradition and it says the Red Road and the Black Road. The Black Road is the road of materialism and it's easy to walk, it's easy to get onto. Life in itself is easy. The Red Road is the spiritual road and it's a road that is difficult because it is a road that says you redistribute, you redistribute your wealth. You see the sacredness of your creation and the sacredness of all things. You respect all people, you respect all things within life as you know it and life as you don't know it. The Red Road, the spiritual road, the spiritual path. 11/25/90

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Thanksgiving

I'm asked every year, "What did Indians do for Thanksgiving?" and I say, "struggle for a living". 11/1/90

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Thanksgiving

A miracle happens every second. Every time you breath a miracle occurs. 1/26/92

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Thanksgiving

A long time ago, we used to believe that every day was Thanksgiving. Every breath was a prayer and it just wasn't one day of the year. Our world view, which encompassed what people call religion, was a thing which occurred every breath. Every second of your life you were aware of that responsibility. 11/1/90

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Bravery

Change Dreams Fear Power Responsibility Sacrifice Truth

Change

Every breath has unlimited possibilities of a new life, of new challenges, of new completions, of creation. Every breath you take offers you an opportunity to do things you never thought you could do. Why not change 2/3/91

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Change

It is so fearful to believe that we do and can have control in our lives. That we, as individuals, can have such an impact that every breath affects the whole globe, the whole universe... That we are not powerless to effect change, we are not powerless to bring things to be, to pass. All that we need is the simplicity and the comprehension of our connection. 11/4/90

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Change

Attitude prevails and in order to change what is prevalent around us, we have to be willing to change the attitude within ourselves. Nothing begins if it doesn't begin right here with you, with me. Nothing happens unless it happens with me. 6/21/91

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Change

Life is too short to get hung up in nonchange. If you want to see what life is about on the other side of the hoop, then change. Make a change in your life. Give yourself a break... You take a risk, you take a dare and you do it. You just do it 9/2/90

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Change

We must make changes because changes are inevitable and the first change we have to make is in ourselves, as to how we see the world and how we are able to deal with life. That change comes about by releasing the past, releasing the blame, the anger, and frustration for what you feel has been done to you, and to get on with your life. 9/2/90

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Change

If we live our lives in that historical past of how it used to be, then we invite disaster because we offer no flexibility. 6/30/91

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Change

The struggle within us is to not let it go, to not want the change to happen, to hold on somehow, to keep putting on bandaids somehow, to stem the flow of change, to stem that flow of this civilization ending as it should end, dying as it should die, going its own way and going back into the process of regeneration and rebirth re-emergence. We are fighting it tooth and nail. We are fighting it, hanging on and scraping our nails against the chalkboard, and they are dragging us, kicking and screaming, into the vortex of change. 8/5/90

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Dreams

Your vision quest is every morning when you open your eyes and get the guts to climb out of bed. That's your vision quest. Get out there and do what should be done.... Let your dream be your vision quest and get out and live your dream. 4/14/91

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Dreams

There is going to be no supreme race, no supreme people, no supreme beings. Everybody is going to have to take the responsibility... and seven generations from now we'll say to God, Tunkashila, Umdogee, Wakan Tanka, "Here's what you dreamt of. This is a dream you gave us as human beings when you created us in this universe. Here it is, right here where you put us to fulfill it. Here's our dream to you. Happy Birthday. "And he'll say, "And why did you do all of this?" And we'll say, "For all our relations." 4/14/91

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Dreams

... Have the bravery and courage to dream your dream in the midst of non-dreamers. Have the courage and conviction to state your principles in the midst of those who have no ears. Have the courage and conviction to draw or to paint and to create for those who have no eyes. Because unless you are doing what you want to do, you are a captive. 4/14/91

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Fear

Alleviate the fear within yourself. Know that you are infinite. Know that you are infinity in this form and that though you make transition, this energy will return again and again and again and again because life itself is unending. Energy is unending. Let go of the fear of materialism, let go of the fear of non-materialism. Let go of the fear of dying, let go of the fear of living. Let go of the fear of breathing, looking, smelling, tasting, feeling let go of the fear and just be. Be who you are, for it is in that wisdom that you then demonstrate the wisdom of the Creator, the Mother-Father Creator, the MotherFather God. 6/24/91

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Fear

Life is not easy and yet it is not a tragedy. It is a continual renewance. It's a continual emergence. An emergence and renewal. We have the strength and the courage and the wisdom to prevail. All that it takes is faith in ourselves and the willingness to risk. Just risk. 6/21/91

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Fear

We haven't changed much in the world today. We are still dissatisfied and fractionalized and non-unified. We lack that unification because, for some reason, we are fearful of our own capacity to be heros, to be leaders, to be spokespersons, to be examples of what it is that we would like life to be in itself what we would really like it to be for ourselves. We somehow are afraid to risk whatever it might take. 11/4/90

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Power

We are many, many people and yet we are one. What we do today with our thinking, what we do tomorrow with our thoughts, what we do with our actions and our interactions with people determines the course of the universe itself. You are not powerless. You are not without power. 2/3/91

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Power

Powerempowerment is a buzzword now. A lot of people are using this idea of being empowered. You're gonna get empowered... You empower yourself by opening your eyes every morning and closing them every night. 5/19/90

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Power

You are capable of doing something that's never been done before and that is to make the world, the universe, a better place than it's been. That isn't going against the laws of nature, that's saying you have the power within you. You don't have to be a goddess to have it, or a shaman to have it, or a holy man, or a holy woman, or a medicine man, or a medicine woman. You've got it right there, just as you sit. You're it. 3/3/91

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Responsibility

Within us lives what it is we seek. If it is peace and harmony and balance among yourselves, with yourself, then accept that it's there. Accept the possibility that it dwells within you, because there isn't anybody on earth who can give it to you. You have to take that responsibility for yourself. 2/3/91

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Responsibility

As absurd as it might sound, rinding my identity is to remember who I was. Remembering who I was simply means taking responsibility for who I am. 2/3/91

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Responsibility

....It is where we have emerged. We have come to the top of the earth. We are to be here. We are to remember our responsibility. We are to take care of it in such a way that it will not be necessary for us to go back through the hole to escape the destruction which we allow to happen if we do not speak on behalf of those who shall come after us, if we do not act on behalf of those who shall come after us. If we do not do something to change the course of history, first within ourselves, we will then note the change of history outside of ourselves. For it is the seventh direction, the direction within ourselves, which must be mastered. 11/25/90

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Responsibility

People are too lazy, wanting somebody to help them see the light. Get off your dead ass and look for the light yourself. Find the switch, turn it on. 1/5/92

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Responsibility

This responsibility isn't outside of yourself for somebody else to do. It's within you and it's for you to do in every moment of your life the best you can. Not perfect. Not perfect, but the best you can. Say you don't get it done the best you can this time. What happens? You come back and you do it again, the best you can. That's all. 7/8/90

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Responsibility

This responsibility that we want God to have is the same responsibility that we should have... for our lives. Not blaming anyone for whatever comes along that seems to not let us do what we want to do. 7/8/90

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Responsibility

... That is part of the Great Mystery that is left to us as human beings to be able to get off of our ass and to stand up independently in the face of God, Wakan Tanka, and take responsibility for what it is we choose to think and do and say because each thought permeates the universe with our energy and that energy is created from what we think. 2/3/91

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Sacrifice

Sacrifice is something that should become just as commonplace to us as brushing our teeth. 6/17/90
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Sacrifice

We are all sacred and in that sacredness we have an obligation and responsibility to all things to which we are connected. 6/30/91

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Sacrifice

You are the messengers of time. You are the prophets of the time. You carry forth the word through your own behavior. If you are into the world of materialism and that is your message, then that is the world you portray... 11/4/90

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Truth

What we are looking for, we already are. What we are seeking, we already own. What we would like to find out, we already know. 6/17/90

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Truth

All truths are individual and all truths are equal in their priority. 7/21/91

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Truth

Check it out. We all have our own truth, so that means God has multiple truths, does He not? Does It not? Does She not? 8/26/90

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Generosity

Children Creation Equality The Gathering Love Prayer Transition

Children

Our children are the messengers of God. Listen to them, take them to your heart. Do not strike them, hit them and abuse them. Treat them with respect. Serve as a model for them to grow by, if you can, but always talk with them and assure them that you realize your shortcomings and that you are not perfect. That's not an excuse either, that's just the reality. 7/8/90

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Children

Children come here by choice. You were the vehicle for your child. He/she chose you and that's as far as it goes. I mean, it's like you don't keep the cab driver at your house for the rest of your life... 5/19/90

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Children

The children are the total collective consciousness of the universe, of the Mother-Father God. We can't tell them anything they don t already know. Their problem is that they trust it to be safe here and that they trust us to be protecting of them. 6/17/90

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Children

All children are yours. All adults are parents. All kids who are older than others they are around are parents to the brother and sister, or an aunt and an uncle. All fathers are fathers to all children. How can we separate the needs of the child? 6/17/90

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Children

The ones that we need to teach about the sacredness of the environment, the earth, the air and the water are those dummys that run the corporations. It is the adults who screw the world up, not the children. 6/17/90

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Children

Share with the children that hope springs eternal and to love themselves and see themselves as worthy, that they came here by choice, not by accident. They chose their parents and, as a result of that choice, the parents have a responsibility and that responsibility is to set the best example possible. 6/23/91

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Children

Help your children rid themselves of guilt and shame. Continually reinforce their sacredness. Reinforce the wonderfulness of their being, the specialness of their creation, the Godness of their creation and the God energy within them Wakan Tanka, Tunkashila. The energy within them is the same energy which moves the universe. 6/23/91

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Creation

We are all related and our physical identity has nothing to do with our relationship. It's that we are one, we are one under the creation. We are one of the creation. We are a part of the creation and therefore we are related to all things. 12/9/90

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Creation

You are not an accident thought up. You are not an experiment. You are from the universe itself and you are made up of the universe in its entirety. It flows through your veins and you call it blood; it flows through your mind and you call it thought. 6/24/90

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Creation

.... We are from the Creator and the Creator created us and created all things. Does that not make us then God? If we are looking for God and looking for some kind of relationship, let's have one with ourselves first and then have it with other people who are a like creation not a like color, not a like mind, not a like politics, or a like social or economic standing, but of a like creation. We are all created from the Creator, the Mother-Father Creator. 8/26/90

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Equality

Our creation is only a very small fraction of creation itself, for it takes all of us to make the puzzle. It takes all of us to be part of the total creation, no one of us more important or less important than the other. No one of us more intelligent or less intelligent in the ways of the mind and the heart than the other. 11/18/90

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Equality

Wakan everything is sacred and everything has a right to exist and nothing is greater and nothing is lesser. 6/30/91

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Equality

I learned through my Oral Tradition that regardless of whatever it is, it's wakan, it's sacred. From the drunk on the street, to the President in the White House, to the Pope in the Vatican, it is all sacred nothing is more sacred or less it's all sacred. It's all the same white, black, yellow, red, brown, green. 6/23/91

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Equality

... The center, which is that energy of creation, has no form and no shape, has no smell, no color. It has no preference Catholic or Jewish, protestant, sinner or saint. It has no preference of holy man, shaman, shamaness, priestess or goddess. It has no preference for guru. It has no preference. 2/2/92

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Equality

We are not any better than anyone else. We are all just a part of this great creation and our part is to do what the rest of creation does and that is to support each and every other system. We must find ways to do that that circumvent our politics and our preferences towards color, ethnicity and gender. 2/2/92

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The Gathering

We ... wanted to say to Native American people that our world view, our religion, our way of seeing the world, of seeing God dealing with the elements that God has created and the relationship with God is in some way this way. We should be proud of it and not have to hide it and not have to hold it off in back rooms or big large fields on the weekend or three-day intensives. It is something that can occur and go on every day and we can work in the same world outside when there are jobs and we do not have to give up our identity. 2/2/92

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The Gathering

People say, "Why do you want to say things?" I said, "For the same reason people spray paint stuff on the walls to make a statement. I'm alive, I'm a human being, I'm here". This may be the only thing I've got, but I've got it and it's mine and I want you to know. 1/26/92

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The Gathering

... One of the things I wanted to do here was to have a place where people could come, all people would come, and see that you didn't have to learn the songs, the words, the music, the shield painting, the Totem Pole carving and that other kind of stuff. This has never been a place to do that, it never will be a place to do that as long as I live. I don t do sweatlodges, namings and all of those other kinds of things because those are tribal. They're private and they belong to the people to whom they were given. 2/2/92

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The Gathering

The purpose of the church is to protect ceremonies and sacred objects from misuse and abuse by Indian and non-Indian people.... To provide a gathering place for American Indian people to come, to look and to see that what we talked about as being the old, ancient way is still viable and valid ... without proselytizing someone and saying you must change... but to serve as an example to Indian people because, look, that's what I am. 11/4/90

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The Gathering

... We are listed as a church and I have to let them go on and on and on and on and talk and then, finally, they stop and say to me something like, "Oh, by the way, you are Christians, aren't you?" And I go, "No, I'm not." "Oh, well, what are you?" And I go, "I'm a human being. "And I say, "You know, we were all human beings before we decided to take a color. We were all human beings before we divided ourselves up into gangs. We are all human beings." 11/1/90

Love

The Mother-Father Creator is us and we are it. If we do not love ourselves unconditionally, as we would seek to love the Creator, then our disservice is to ourselves. Since ourselves are everything in just another form, we continue to remain imbalanced and in disharmony. 7/1/90

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Love

We are not here to change anybody, we're here to show expressions of love. Looking to the Oral Tradition, all that I see are those expressions of love. The love of faith faith being the love of Umdogee, Tunkashila, the love of God the Creator, the Mother-Father Creator. That love is so explicit. 7/21/91

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Love

Loving the God self fills a hole within us that cannot be filled by another human being, because they're busy filling their hole. But once the hole is filled, then you are complete and there is a completeness that then can be shared. 7/21/91

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Love

Loving myself unconditionally means I love God the Creator, the Mother-Father Energy, unconditionally. I don't put any conditions on the Creator and the Creator doesn 't put any conditions on me. 5/19/90

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Love

Love eliminates a lot of powerlessness. We feel powerless when we don't love ourselves. 7/21/91

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Prayer

...If we can just get a third of the world to think that what we are doing is for those who come after us, next time around it will be two-thirds. If we can just get people to stop praying for their own needs and to pray for the needs of others, they'll get what they need by faith, by acclamation because the person next to you is praying for you and the person next to that person is praying for them. 7/1/90

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Prayer

If you really have a question about it, just be patient and the Mother-Father Creator is going to answer your inquiry. It doesn 't take the question to get the response. It takes your patience, faith and your discipline to wait until you get the sign. You have to be observant along the way and that would mean you have to pay attention to what's going on around you. 6/2/91

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Prayer

I was taught to pray for all people, all of my relations. That doesn 't mean I support what they think or how they act. 2/3/91

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Prayer

There is no Jesus Christ, son of God, in my Oral Tradition. There was no "pale prophet" that came amongst us speaking of that, to tell us that in any way. What there was was a Creator. A Creator of both masculine and feminine energy that said, "when you pray, you pray for all of your relations and for all of creation." Not just Americans, Jews or Palestinians pray for all your relations and that includes those that you are currently engaged in conflict with. 2/3/91

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Prayer

Let your prayers be for everything but yourself. Pray for everyone but yourself. 8/1/90

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Transition

Ain't none of us going to hell, ain't none of us going to heaven. What we are doing is going into the infinity of our being, the infinity of our creation, which is energy energy and that's it. Energy has always existed, always shall exist and always has existed and will continue to exist whether we have that realization or not... 1/5/92

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Transition

In my culture there is no hell, which is a plus. There is no damnation, which is a plus, and there is no salvation only life. You transist and you live it again and you transist and you live it again and you transist and you live it again, until one day you don't have to transist anymore. 5/19/90

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Transition

... "So what's the greatest thing you ever did that you think is a self accomplishment?" I said, "Get out of my own way". .. I died. I got out of my way so I could get on and do what I had to do. 6/21/91

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About the Author

Little Crow is a Dakota/Lakota who was bom on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an ex-Marine, writer, poet, educator, counselor, and co-founder of the American Indian Unity Church, also known as the Gathering.

About the Gathering

The American Indian Unity Church (AIUC), also known as the Gathering, was founded over 13 years ago with the intent of helping Indian people become aware of the intrinsic and infinite values found within their many diverse world views. Its goal is to offer alternate tools by which they can reconnect to their oral traditions, from which many have been separated during the process of assimilation and acculturation. The message of the Gathering is one of the unity and connectedness of all things.