“In the home there came into being the faith and simplicity that marked the native people.  There took root their virtues and cultural attributes. Forces, sensed but not seen, called good, went into the deep consciousness of these young minds, planted there by the Indian mother who taught her boy honesty, fearlessness, and duty, and her girl industry, loyalty, and fidelity.”                                  

                                           - Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota

 
“It has been said that the position of woman is the test of civilization and that of our women was secure.  In them was vested our standard of morals and the purity of our blood.  The wife did not take the name of the her husband nor enter his clan, and the children belonged to the clan of the mother.”

                                   -  Ohiyesa (Charles Eastman), Wahpeton Dakota

                          -  Che-na-wah Weitch-ah-wah (Lucy Thompson), Yurok

“How often have we heard it reiterated that the destiny of the world depends on woman – that woman is the appointed agent of morality – the inspirer of those feelings and dispositions which form the moral nature of man.”

                                                                             -  Qua -Tsy, Cherokee

“When you grow up and finally have your own home, pity the old men and pity the old women, pity the poor.  If you see an old woman with a ragged dress, give her a blanket.  Make moccasins for those old women.  If you do that the One Above who watches and looks at you doing those things is going to reward you.”

                                                                     -  Anonymous, Gros Ventre

“The woman is the planter, the cultivator, the harvester of the corn, and this [rite] is meant to portray the important part she plays in the drama of life.”

                                                                             - Anonymous, Osage

(Excerpts taken from The Spirit of Indian Women, published in 2005 by World Wisdom, Inc.)