corimagua

The great beautiful thing i learned from the Lakota people is “mitakuye oyasin”: all my relations. When they say that, the way it was explained to me, it’s so beautiful. it’s so immense because it includes everyone who was ever born, or even unborn, in the universe, all the two-legged, the four-legged, birds, animals, rocks, and everyone who’s here today. The trees, plants, mountains, sun, moon, stars, and everyone who ever will be born! How immense can a statement be? All my relations. I marvel at the beauty of that word; it’s so powerful.

-Janet McCloud

Tulalip tribe, Washington State