The Indians think of the earth and the whole universe as a never-ending circle, and in this circle man is just another animal. The buffalo and the coyote are our brothers; the birds, our cousins. Even the tiniest ant, even a louse, even the smallest flower you can find-they are all relatives. We end our prayers with the words mitakuye cousin-‘all my relations’-and that includes everything that grows, crawls, runs, creeps, hops and flies on this continent. White people see man as nature’s master and conqueror, but Indians, who are close to nature, know better.
Jenny Leading Cloud