The Indian's symbol is the circle, the hoop.
Nature wants things to be round.
The bodies of human beings and animals have no corners.
With us the circle stands for the togetherness
of people who sit with one another
around the campfire,
relatives and friends united in peace
while the Pipe passes from hand to hand.
The camp in which every tipi had its place
was also in a ring.
The tipi was a ring in which people sat in a circle
and all the families in the village
were in turn circles
within a large circle,
part of the larger hoop
which was the seven campfires of the Sioux,
representing one nation.
The nation was only part of the universe,
in itself circular and made of the earth, which is round,
of the sun, which is round,
of the stars, which are round.
The moon, the horizon, the rainbow—
circles within circles,
with no beginning and no end.
—John Lame Deer
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—Medusa, remembering Max Schwartz, who passed away December 10 in New York. See www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyfreeman/obituary.aspx?n=max-schwartz&pid=161653774#fbLoggedOut