Love for Life

FROM THE GATHERING - THE WISDOM OF LITTLE CROW
From The Gathering - The Wisdom Of Little Crow

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

iv

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

v

Wisdom
Balance
Connectedness
Education
Oral Tradition
The Pipe
Spirituality
Women
Balance
We can really be out of balance looking
for balance.
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3

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.
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4

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.

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5

Connectedness

We are linked. We are the universe in
itself. What we do as individuals affects
the entire universe.

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7

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.

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8

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.

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9

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.

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10

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.

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11

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.

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12

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.

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13

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.

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15

Education

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

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16

Education

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

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17

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.

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19

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.

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20

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.

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21

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!!!

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23

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...

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24

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.

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25

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.

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26

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...

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27

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.

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29

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.

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30

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.

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Spirituality

Being spiritual means you do everything
for everyone else and not yourself.

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32

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.

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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.

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34

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

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35

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.

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37

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.

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38

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.

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39

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.

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43

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.

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44

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.

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45

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.

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46

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.

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47

Duality

That world of duality—you 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.

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49

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?

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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.

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51

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.

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53

Faith

Our impatience is brought about by our
lack of faith.

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54

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.

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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 isn’t a
punishment, that's a joy.

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56

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.

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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.

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58

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.

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59

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.

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61

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.

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62

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.

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63

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.

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65

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.

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66

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.

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67

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.

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68

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.

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69

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...

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70

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.

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71

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...

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73

Red Road

On the Red Road, we seek to find balance.

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74

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.

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75

Thanksgiving

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

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77

Thanksgiving

A miracle happens every second. Every
time you breath a miracle occurs.

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78

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.

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79

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

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83

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.

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84

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.

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85

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

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86

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.

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87

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.

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88

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.

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89

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.

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91

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."

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92

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.

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93

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 Mother-
Father God.

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95

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.

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96

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.

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97

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.

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99

Power

Power—empowerment 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.

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100

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

101

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

103

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

104

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

105

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

106

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

107

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

108

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

109

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is something that should
become just as commonplace to us as
brushing our teeth.

6/17/90

111

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

112

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

113

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

115

Truth

All truths are individual and all truths are
equal in their priority.

7/21/91

116

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

117

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

121

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

122

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

123

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

124

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

125

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

126

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

127

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

129

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

130

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

131

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

133

Equality

Wakan — everything is sacred and
everything has a right to exist and
nothing is greater and nothing is lesser.

6/30/91

134

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

135

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

136

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

137

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

139

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

140

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

141

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

142

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

143

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

145

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

146

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

147

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

148

Love

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

7/21/91

149

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

151

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

152

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

153

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

154

Prayer

Let your prayers be for everything but
yourself. Pray for everyone but yourself.

8/1/90

155

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

157

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

158

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

159

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.

Link to this 133 A4 Page PDF File: http://honesty.org/fry/From%20the%20Gathering%20-%20The%20Wisdom%20of%20Little%20Crow%20(1993).pdf