Men: I love a people that have always made me welcome to the very best that they had.
Women: I love a people who are honest without laws, and who have no jails and no poorhouses.
Men: I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read or heard them preached from the pulpit.
Women: I love a people who never swear or take the name of God in vain.
Men: I love a people “who love their neighbors as they love themselves.”
Women: I love a people who worship God without a Bible, for I believe that God loves them also.
Men: I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.
Women: I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, when there was no law to punish either.
Men: I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for they are his children.
Women: I love the people who have never fought a battle with the white man, except on their own ground.
Men: I love a people who live and keep what is their own without lock and keys.
Women: I love a people who do the best they can. And oh how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money.
All the quotes of Native American elders are from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown.
Catlin’s Creed is by George Catlin, a well-known artist who traveled to the American West five times during the1830’s. He lived among 48 tribes of the Great Plains, and depicted them in their native territory. The creed is printed in On This Spirit Walk by Dr. Henrietta Mann and Rev. Anita Phillips.
