They talk to us, and if we listen carefully, we can hear them. Every object in the world has a spirit, and that spirit is wakan. This the spirit of the tree or things of that kind are also wakan . . . These wakan beings are greater than mankind in the same way that mankind is greater than animals. They can do many things that mankind cannot do.
Mankind can pray to the wakan beings for help.
When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us. Every part of the soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as they swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust on which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than to yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. We felt that all things were like us people, down to small animals like the mouse, and the things like wood.