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
