For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that 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.

Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness'.

Training began with children who were taught to sit still and enjoy it. They were taught to use their organs of smell, to look where there was apparently nothing to see, and to listen intently when all seemingly was quiet. A child who cannot sit still is a half-developed child.

After all the great religions have been preached and expounded, man is still confronted with the Great Mystery.

For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly.

"Civilization" has been thrust upon me since the days of the reservations, and it has not added one whit to my sense of justice, to my reverence for the rights of life, to my love for truth, honesty, and generosity, or to my faith in Wakan Tanka, God of the Lakotas.