You have noticed that everything an Indian does in a circle,and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles,and everything and everything tries to be round.In the old days all our power came to us from the sacred hoopof the nation and so long as the hoop was unbroken the peopleflourished. The flowering tree was the living center of the hoop,and the circle of the four quarters nourished it. The east gave peaceand light, the south gave warmth, the west gave rain and the northwith its cold and mighty wind gave strength and endurance. Thisknowledge came to us from the outer world with our religion.Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle.The sky is round and I have heard that the earth is round like a balland so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moondoes the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a greatcircle in their changing and always come back again to where they were.The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it isin everything where power moves. Our teepees were round like thenests of birds, and these were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop,a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.- Black Elk, Holy Man of the Oglala Lakota 1863-1950
