Native American Wisdom

By Gustav Almlöf

A book in which various well-known and lesser-known Native Americans talk about life from the indigenous perspective, their views on white people, and the problems of not respecting nature and other people in an ever-changing world.

The most essential part of the book is presentations of quotes by Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Chief Joseph, Gertrude S. Bonnin, Tecumseh and many others. The common denominator is a temperate view on life that can inspire people nowadays as the quotes are simply timeless.
Again, the key part of the book is the quotes - or their own words. To make the reading experience more interesting there is also a short introductory essay, maps, biographies and many photographs and images. All this combined probably makes it the most thorough book of its kind.

And finally some food for thought:

"When the last tree is cut,
the last fish is caught,
and the last river is polluted;
when to breathe the air is sickening,
you will realize, too late,
that wealth is not in bank accounts
and that you cannot eat money."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gustav Almlöfs bokförlag zoferos
• Release date: Apr 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9789198785401

Gustav Almlöf

Gustav Almlöf holds an MA from Stockholm University and is mainly active as a musician.

Book preview

My sincerest gratitude to Sara Greensfelder, Marlise Wabun Wind, Niklas Almlöf, Anders Mathlein, Ingela Andersson and John Webb, as well as all those kind and accommodating people on the other side of the globe who have been instrumental with the portraits and some information regarding individuals and quotes. Thank you.

A special thank you to my father for linguistic discussions, guidance concerning images and encouragement.

A few words on the topic

They are timeless, these sapient thoughts from a variety of Native Americans.* A lot of us are in awe of nature and her many wonders, and also show her due respect and a soothing place where we can replenish our energy and strength.

In the following quotes a vast number of Native Americans from different tribes and centuries share their thoughts and reflections regarding their way of life, chilling encounters with the ‘white man’ and ravings for nature and animals.

The quotes can be experienced as slightly rugged, but still they are imbued with a beautiful, poetic and essential simplicity that may inspire even the most conflicted personage.

The selection span from the 17th century up until the 21st century.

G. Almlöf

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* There is disagreement concerning how to denominate the Native Americans in a correct and non-condescending manner.

American Indians? Well…

Many consider ’Native Americans’ or the tribe affiliations to be the safest route, for example, Apache, Cherokee, Mohawk, Sioux, Huron et cetera.

Regarding the denomination ‘Indian Nation’ which is kind of an abstract concept in this case, since to the best of my knowledge, they have never been adjudged self-law or considered independent nations, despite being a people of their own, will pop up here and there in the quotes. ‘Indian Nation’ is something on a larger scale than a ‘tribe’ and not to be mistaken for being the same thing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

The New World –

A short introduction to America in the shaping

The End of the Trail

MAPS

I HAVE SPOKEN

Geronimo

Sitting Bull

Gertrude S. Bonnin

Chief Luther Standing Bear

White Parfleche

Chief Joseph

Chief White Eagle

Tecumseh

Cochise

Vincent LaDuke

Simon Pokagon

Christine Quintasket

Eagle Chief

Chief Dan George

Chased-by-Bears

Joseph Brant

Crazy Horse

Red Jacket

John Fire Lame Deer

Chief Edward Moody

Black Elk

Charles A. Eastman

Curly Chief

Maquinna

Four Guns

Chief Seattle

Jack Wilson

King Powhatan

Red Cloud

Ten Bears

Wooden Leg

Ely S. Parker

Teedyuscung

Lone Man

Peter Jones

Brave Buffalo

Corn Tassel

George Copway

Shingwaukonse

Black Hawk

Sarah Winnemucca

Peter Blue Cloud

Satanta

Canassatego

Sharitahrish

Francis Assikinack

Tomochichi

Chief Plenty Coups

Robert Higheagle

Many Horses

Flat-Iron

Dan Katchongva

Spotted Tail

James Paytiamo

Toohoolhoolzote

Buffalo-Bird-Woman

ANONYMOUS QUOTES, REMINISCENCES AND PROVERBS

GUIDANCE

SPIRITUAL MATTERS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

– Introductory essay

– End of the Trail

– Biographies

– Quotes

– Images

– The Portraits in the Book

GLOSSARY

AH-BADT-DADT-DEAH – THE CROW PEOPLES WORD FOR GOD

HOGAN – A HUT COVERED IN MUD AND DIRT (NAVAJO PEOPLE)

SQUAW – WOMAN

TIPI – TENT

TIRAWA – THE PAWNEE PEOPLES WORD FOR GOD

TOMAHAWK – AXE

USEN – THE APACHE WORD FOR GOD

WAKAN TANKA – THE LAKOTA PEOPLES WORD FOR GOD

WAKANDA – THE PLAINS’ PEOPLES WORD FOR GOD

WASICHUS – WHITE PEOPLE

WIGWAM – HUT

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

The New World

A short introduction to America in the shaping

Before America came to be the United States it was an uncharted continent that first came to be called The New World from circa 1492 and onwards, often North and South America, but also Oceania and Antarctica can be added to the label.* It was not until 1776 with the Declaration of Independence that America started to form into the United States we know today.

The explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) set sail towards India in 1492, but instead ended up in the New World, and today he is attributed with the discovery of this new continent – despite him probably not being the first white man to set foot there. The designation Indian is also inaccurate when in fact Columbus thought he had reached India, but the expression has been with us ever since and many times people talked of ‘American Indians’.

Long before white Europeans began the colonization of the New World there were already natives living there.** At the time of Columbus discovery it is estimated that there were about 10-12 million natives on the continent.

Several European nations hurried to claim land and make war against each other. Great Britain, France and Spain ought to have been the nations with the biggest desire to conquer and grab vast areas of land in their capacity as colonizers.

Now we are moving ahead of the events though, for how did the country look like before 1492?

There seems to be a sort of consensus that a land bridge was formed during the last Ice Age, which connected Northeast Asia with Northwestern America (Siberia and Alaska). This land bridge is known as Beringia or the Bering land bridge, today known as the Bering Strait. People likely walked over this land bridge from Siberia and into America where they settled down.

As the ice cover melted away they scattered in all directions inland. It is said that there have been people in America circa 5-8000 years before the ice melted in Beringia. These people are usually referred to as Paleo-Indians, which are divided into Clovis and Folsom.* It has long been argued that Clovis are the true natives of the continent, but later research during the 1990s has proved that there have been other people in present North America as far back as circa 11.000 B.C, which is 1500 years before Clovis.

The quotes/words of wisdom that are presented in this book come from a time when the white man had already made his spiteful entrance. It is easy to say this was when the problems began for the natives. America was a country and a nation in the making, with all that entails.

In the 16th century, the Spanish colonial power stumbled upon villages surrounded by piles and people of agriculture. It was not until the late 17th century that the nomadic and buffalo-hunting horse cultures came into existence, but it was during the late 18th century that the Sioux for example – the most famous tribe of the prairies – began a nomadic life on the plains. Something that most people ought to associate with the Wild West.

The Native American on horseback was from the French-Indian War between 1754-1763 an impressive sight on the prairie.

There were horses on the continent about 35-56 million years ago and 60 million-year-old fossils from Eohippus (the ancestor of the modern horse), but these became extinct approximately 11.700 years ago during the pleistocene** with extensive Ice Ages. Thru Beringia, the horses could journey over to Asia and then continue westward and in doing so they managed to escape total extinction. With Columbus and the conquistadors Spanish horses*** were re-introduced on the continent in 1492. However, there are people that dispute the correctness in these statements, and instead say that living horses were there long before the arrival of the Spanish.

"[…] the Indigenous horses of the Americas would have certainly had time to notice the impending environmental shifts, migrate, and find appropriate safe havens, or "refugia."¹

It was in close proximity to the place we know today as Mexico City where it took off in 1519. Many horses that were brought in for breeding and which did not make the cut were set free whilst others escaped. These undomesticated herds lived on the prairies and steppes.

It is said that Native Americans at first were scared of them since they had never before seen a horse, but eventually, they learned from the settlers how to handle the horses. Native Americans came to be known as recognized people of horses and excelled when it came to breeding. Different breeds such as the tigrine appaloosa, the paint horse and the Nez Percé horse, can all be said to be products of their industrious work of breeding.

These colorful horses are sometimes referred to as ‘Indian Horses’.

Between the 16th and the 20th century, the various indigenous people were pushed aside, and their numbers were heavily decimated in a horrifying and industrial manner. Severe hardships in the form of disease, war and starvation came to be everyday life for the Native Americans.

Fairly ordinary diseases such as chickenpox, measles, smallpox, cholera, and typhus caused great mortality. The white people also distributed large quantities of liquor to practice unilateral and favorable trade and contract writing. Abuse of alcohol was a fact that came to influence many tribes. Native Americans also started getting used to white peoples’ commodities and got stuck in a dependence that led to a depletion of their traditional ways of living.

President Andrew Jackson’s (1767-1845) Indian Removal Act in 1830 was all about systematically expelling and moving people from their homes to other and specially selected and allotted places called reservations. The barren and malaria-ridden ’Indian Territory’ in Oklahoma is a famous example.

During the latter part of the 19th century the remaining indigenous people were sent away to different reservations and the buffalo – the traditional game of the Native American – was almost completely extinct. By using prohibition they also tried to suppress their language, culture, and religion. In addition, Christianity was forced upon them.

It is by no means wrong to say that these actions against the Native Americans are some of the most insensitive and irrational in the history of the world.

Native Americans could surely be strikingly cruel, taking scalping for example (scalping is to remove a piece of skin with hair from the top of the head using a knife on a fallen enemy, which was considered a kind of trophy) and they also fought amongst themselves – tribe against tribe – because they could not agree, but it is the way in which the white man treated the indigenous people that have made it into the poorest and most marginalized ethnic group in the country today.

This forms the center stage (the age, setting and context) where the following quotes have been formulated.

PAINTING: Frederic Remington

PAINTING: Frederic Remington

Looking through the Telescope

SCULPTURE: James Earle Fraser

SCULPTURE: James Earle Fraser

The End of the Trail

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* Please compare with the Old World, which was constituted by Europe, Africa and Asia.

** For a long time faulty rumours flourished that the first people who lived there were the The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel or refugees from the lost and sunken island of Atlantis.

* Clovis complex was an ancient hunter and gathering culture that have been named after the first archaeological site found in 1929, near Clovis, New Mexico. Folsom complex is said to have originated from the Clovis complex. They are distinguished by using a sort of leaf shaped spearhead, which are called ’Folsom Points’.

** Pleistocene is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2.580.000 to 11.700 years ago. The northern hemisphere had multiple periods of icing that are usually called Ice ages. Many species were extinct, for example the mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger.

*** These Spanish horses originated from the oriental arab and berber hoses.

¹ Collin, Yvette Running Horse, [The Relationship between the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the horse: deconstructing a Eurocentric Myth], (Alaska 2017), p. 100.

THE END OF THE TRAIL

The magnificent and iconic statue in the photograph is James Earle Fraser’s (1876-1953) work End of the Trail from 1915. The statue is exhibited at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The large piece displays a rider weary in body and spirit who along with his horse reaches the coast where the mainland touches the Pacific. The statue is said to have a symbolic value by commenting on the harm which the Euro-American colonizers made to the indigenous people.

Fraser created the first draft back in 1894, as a young boy in Dakota. He is supposed to have heard an old trapper saying:

"[…] The Indians will someday be pushed into the Pacific Ocean."²

Later on, he remarked to himself that: "[…] the idea occured to me of making an Indian which represented his