Charles Eastman Quotations

Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking. But to have a friend and to be true under any and all trials is the mark of a man!

The elements and majestic forces in nature, Lightning, Wind, Water, Fire, and Frost, were regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character.

Nearness to nature... keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt and in touch with the unseen powers.

The clan is nothing more than a larger family, with its patriarchal chief as the natural head, and the union of several clans by intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe.

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.

More than this, even in those white men who professed religion we found much inconsistency of conduct. They spoke much of spiritual things, while seeking only the material.

There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature.

The logical man must either deny all miracles or none, and our American Indian myths and hero stories are perhaps, in themselves, quite as credible as those of the Hebrews of old.

Our old age was in some respects the happiest period of life.

But to have a friend, and to be true under any and all trials, is the mark of a man!

The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity.

Among us all men were created sons of God and stood erect, as conscious of their divinity.

The hospitality of the wigwam is only limited by the institution of war.

Indian names were either characteristic nicknames given in a playful spirit, deed names, birth names, or such as have a religious and symbolic meaning.

He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, since to him all days are God's.

There was no religious ceremony connected with marriage among us, while on the other hand the relation between man and woman was regarded as in itself mysterious and holy.

The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.

The religion of the Indian is the last thing about him that the man of another race will ever understand.

At the age of about eight years, if he is a boy, she turns him over to his father for more Spartan training.

Every act of his life is, in a very real sense, a religious act.

In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.

No one who is at all acquainted with the Indian in his home can deny that we are a polite people.

The family was not only the social unit, but also the unit of government.

The Indian was a religious man from his mother's womb.

The red man divided mind into two parts, - the spiritual mind and the physical mind.

It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization, and that of our women was secure. In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood.

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character.

It is noteworthy that the first effect of contact with the whites was an increase of cruelty and barbarity, an intensifying of the dark shadows in the picture!

Our people, though capable of strong and durable feeling, were not demonstrative in their affection at any time, least of all in the presence of guests or strangers.

Yet, if an enemy should honor us with a call, his trust will not be misplaced, and he will go away convinced that he has met with a royal host!

That is, we believed, the supreme duty of the parent, who only was permitted to claim in some degree the priestly office and function, since it is his creative and protecting power which alone approaches the solemn function of Deity.

In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty, - the duty of prayer - the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal.