At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us.

The boys of my people began very young to learn the ways of men, and no one taught us; we just learned by doing what we saw, and we were warriors at a time when boys now are like girls.

I was four years old then, and I think it must have been the next summer that I first heard the voices.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

So I took the bright red stick and at the center of the nation's hoop I thrust it in the earth.

I looked below and saw my people there, and all were well and happy except one, and he was lying like the dead - and that one was myself.

Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.