We first Americans mingle with our pride an exceptional humility. Spiritual arrogance is foreign to our nature and teaching. We never claimed that the power of articulate speech is proof of superiority over "bomb creation"; on the other hand, it is to us a perilous gift.

     We believe peofoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilbrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit. Those who can preserve their selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existance - not a leaf, as it were, astir on a tree; not a ripple upon the shining pool - those, in the mind of the person of nature, possess the ideal attitude and conduct of life.

     If you ask us, "What is silence?" we will answer, "It is the Great Mystery. The holy silence is God's voice."

     If you ask, "What are the fruits of silence?" we will answer, "They are self-control, true courage or endurence, patience, dignity, and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."

     "Guard your tongue in youth," said the old chief, Wabasha, "and in age you may mature a thought that will be of service to your people."

 

 

 

     Naturally magnanimous and open-minded, we have always prefered to believe that the Spirit of God is not breathed into humans alone, but that the whole created universe shares  in the immortal perfection of its Maker.

     The elements and majestic forces in nature - lightning, wind, water, fire, and frost - are regarded with awe as spiritual powers, but always secondary and intermediate in character. We believe that the spirit pervades all creation and that every creature possess a soul in some degree, though not necessarily a soul conscious of itself. The tree, the waterfall, the grizzly bear, each is an embodied Force, and as such an object of reverence.

     We Indians love to come into sympathy and spiritual communion with our brothers and sisters of the animal kingdom, whose inarticulate souls hold for us something of the sinless purity that we attribute to the innocent and irresponsible child. We have a faith in  their instincts, as a mysterious wisdom given from above; and while we humbly accept the sacrifice of their bodirs to preserve our own, we pay homage to their spirits in prescribed prayers and offerings.