Sacred Land Quotes

“Today, the fight for Native American rights is, above all, a fight for our land and environment. The land is a living part of ourselves. Once it is gone, we are gone.”
― Mary Brave Bird, Ohitika Woman

“Maka ke wakan—the land is sacred. These words are at the core of our being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood.”
― Mary Brave Bird, Ohitika Woman

“The white man can live disembodied within an artificial universe without ties to a particular tract of land. We cannot. We are bound to our Indian country.”
― Mary Brave Bird, Ohitika Woman

“Bear Butte, sacred to the Cheyennes and Lakotas, now has a parking area and a paved road leading to the top from where gawking tourists with binoculars can watch one of our holy men undergo his vision quest. But the land is still there, beautiful, waiting to be redeemed, and so long as there is still a shred of life left in us we will keep on fighting for it. HECHEL LENA OYATE KIN NIPI KTE, so that my people may live.”
― Mary Brave Bird, Ohitika Woman