Top 10 Most Famous Native American Proverbs
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.
— Tribe Unknown

Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.
— Tribe Unknown

No river can return to its source, yet all rivers must have a beginning.
— Tribe Unknown

Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.
— Tribe Unknown

The soul would have no rainbow if the eye had no tears.
— Tribe Unknown

Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past, Wisdom is of the future.
— Lumbee

Regard Heaven as your father, Earth as your Mother and all things as your Brothers and Sisters.
— Tribe Unknown

We always return to our first loves.
— Tribe Unknown

It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.
— Tribe Unknown

A brave man dies but once, a coward many times.
— Tribe Unknown

8 Native American Proverbs (Hopi)
Wisdom comes only when you stop looking for it and start living the life the Creator intended for you.
— Hopi

The rainbow is a sign from Him who is in all things.
— Hopi

Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.
— Hopi

All dreams spin out from the same web.
— Hopi

The one who tells the stories rules the world.
— Hopi

The rain falls on the just and the unjust.
— Hopi

In age, talk; in childhood, tears.
— Hopi

One finger cannot lift a pebble.
— Hopi

6 Native American Proverbs (Arapaho)
When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us.
— Arapaho

Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it.
— Arapaho

Before eating, always take time to thank the food.
— Arapaho

If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come.
— Arapaho

All plants are our brothers and sisters. They talk to us and if we listen, we can hear them.
— Arapaho.

Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
— Arapaho

2 Native American Proverbs (Duwamish)
Day and night cannot dwell together.
— Duwamish

There is no death, only a change of worlds.
— Duwamish

2 Native American Proverbs (Shenandoah)
We are made from Mother Earth and we go back to Mother Earth.
— Shenandoah

It is no longer good enough to cry peace, we must act peace, live peace and live in peace.
— Shenandoah

2 Native American Proverbs (Mohawk)
Remember that your children are not your own, but are lent to you by the Creator.
— Mohawk

A good chief gives, he does not take.
— Mohawk

3 Native American Proverbs (OMAHA)
It is easy to be brave from a distance.
— Omaha

Ask questions from your heart and you will be answered from the heart.
— Omaha

The bird who has eaten cannot fly with the bird that is hungry.
— Omaha

4 Native American Proverbs (Cherokee)
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
— Cherokee

The weakness of the enemy makes our strength.
— Cherokee

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.
— Cherokee

When the white man discovered this country, Indians were running it. No taxes, no debt, women did all the work. White man thought he could improve on a system like this.
— Cherokee

6 Native American Proverbs (Cheyenne)
A good soldier is a poor scout.
— Cheyenne

Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark.
— Cheyenne

Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins.
— Cheyenne

Our first teacher is our own heart.
— Cheyenne

If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can afford to be as harmless as a dove.
— Cheyenne

A danger foreseen is half-avoided.
— Cheyenne

5 Native American Proverbs (Sioux)
There are many good moccasin tracks along the trail of a straight arrow.
— Sioux

Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man.
— Sioux

A people without a history is like the wind over buffalo grass.
— Sioux

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.
— Sioux

With all things and in all things, we are relatives.
— Sioux

3 Native American Proverbs (Blackfoot)
What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
— Niitsitapi
Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
— Niitsitapi

Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way.
— Niitsitapi

You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
— Navajo

There is nothing as eloquent as a rattlesnakes tail.
— Navajo

A rocky vineyard does not need a prayer, but a pick ax.
— Navajo

Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry.
— Navajo

4 Native American Proverbs (Lakota)
When a man moves away from nature his heart becomes hard.
— Lakota

Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance.
— Lakota

Many have fallen with the bottle in their hand.
— Lakota

Everything the power does, it does in a circle.
— Lakota

3 Native American Proverbs (Oklahoma)
When a fox walks lame, the old rabbit jumps.
— Oklahoma

A starving man will eat with the wolf.
— Oklahoma

The coward shoots with shut eyes.
— Oklahoma

3 Native American Proverbs (Tuscarora)
They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind.
— Tuscarora.

Those who have one foot in the canoe, and one foot in the boat, are going to fall into the river.
— Tuscarora

Man has responsibility, not power.
— Tuscarora

More Famous Native American Proverbs and Sayings
It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.
— Apache.

Most of us do not look as handsome to others as we do to ourselves.
— Assiniboine

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
— Dakota

Everyone who is successful must have dreamed of something.
— Maricopa

All who have died are equal.
— Comanche

One rain does not make a crop.
— Creole

Man’s law changes with his understanding of man. Only the laws of the spirit remain always the same.
— Crow

What the people believe is true.
— Anishinabe

You already possess everything necessary to become great.
— Crow

Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people want it.
— Crow

It is less of a problem to be poor than to be dishonest.
— Anishinabe

Even a small mouse has anger.
— Tribe Unknown

Walk lightly in the spring; Mother Earth is pregnant.
— Kiowa

A man or woman with many children has many homes.
— Lakota Sioux

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
— Minquass

Listening to a liar is like drinking warm water.
— Tribe Unknown

Every animal knows more than you do.
— Nez Perce

To touch the earth is to have harmony with nature.
— Oglala Sioux

A hungry stomach makes a short prayer.
— Paiute

Do not wrong or hate your neighbor for it is not he that you wrong but yourself.
— Pima

Make my enemy brave and strong, so that if defeated, I will not be ashamed.
— Plains

Cherish youth, but trust old age.
— Pueblo

Sharing and giving are the ways of God.
— Sauk

We are all one child spinning through Mother Sky.
— Shawnee

Each person is his own judge.
— Shawnee

The moon is not shamed by the barking of dogs.
— Southwest

White men have too many chiefs.
— Nez Perce

If a man is to do something more than human, he must have more than human powers.
— Tribe Unknown

Not every sweet root gives birth to sweet grass.
— Tribe Unknown

Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.
— Tribe Unknown

The way of the troublemaker is thorny.
— Umpqua

God gives us each a song.
— Ute

A man must make his own arrows.
— Winnebago

After dark all cats are leopards.
— Zuni

When you die, you will be spoken of as those in the sky, like the stars.
— Yurok
