The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So, he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence.
— Standing Bear, Sioux Chief
We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, the winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild’. Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was it ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people.
To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery. — Standing Bear, Sioux Chief