We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth was beautiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.
Luther Standing BearFor the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.
Luther Standing BearThe old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard.
Luther Standing BearThe old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccasins and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew into the air came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.
Luther Standing Bear