American Indian Code of Ethics

I. Rising and Going to Sleep

1) Each morning upon rising, and each evening before sleeping, give thanks

a) for the life within you and for all life;

b) for the good things the Creator has given you; 

c) for the opportunity to grow a little more each day. 

2) Consider your thoughts and actions of the past day and look for the courage and strength to be a better person. 

3) Strive only for the things that will benefit others (everyone).

II. Respect. 

1) Showing respect is a basic law of life.

2) Respect means:

a) To feel or show honor or esteem for someone or something; 

b) To consider the well being of another or others;

c) To treat someone or something with deference or courtesy.

3) Treat all things and all people with Respect:

a) Treat every person from the tiniest child to the oldest elder with respect at all times.

b) Special respect should be given to Elders, Parents, Teachers, and Community Leaders.

c) No person should be made to feel "put down" by you; avoid hurting other hearts as you would avoid a deadly poison.

d) Touch nothing that belongs to someone else (especially Sacred Objects) without permission, or an understanding between you. 

e) Respect the privacy of every person, never intrude on a person's quiet moment or personal space.

f) Never walk between people that are conversing. 

g) Never interrupt people who are conversing.

h) Speak in a soft voice, especially when you are in the presence of Elders, strangers or others to whom special respect is due.

i) Do not speak unless invited to do so at gatherings where Elders are present (except to ask what is expected of you, should you be in doubt). 

j) Never speak about others in a negative way, whether they are present or not. 

k) Treat the earth and all of her aspects as your mother. 

1) Show deep respect for the mineral world

2) Show deep respect for the plant world

3) Show deep respect for the animal world

4) Do nothing to pollute our Mother

5) Rise up with wisdom to defend her. 

l) Show deep respect for the beliefs and religion of others.

m) Listen with courtesy to what others say

1) even if you feel that what they are saying is worthless;

2) listen with your heart.

n) Respect the wisdom of the people in council. 

1) Once you give an idea to a council meeting it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the people. 

2) Respect demands that you listen intently to the ideas of others in council and that you do not insist that your idea prevail. 

3) You should freely support the ideas of others if they are true and good, even if those ideas ideas are quite different from the ones you have contributed. 

4) The clash of ideas brings forth the Spark of Truth.

III. Decisions

1) Once a council has decided something in unity, respect demands that no one speak secretly against what has been decided. 

2) If the council has made an error, that error will become apparent to everyone in its own time.

IV. Honesty

1) Be truthful at all times.

2) Be truthful under all conditions.

V. Guests

1) Always treat your guests with honor and consideration. 

2) Give of your best food, your best blankets, the best part of your house, and your best service to your guests.

VI. Unity

1) The hurt of one is the hurt of all.

2) The honor of one is the honor of all.

VII. Strangers

1) Receive strangers and outsiders with a loving heart;

2) Treat strangers and outsiders as members of your own family.

VIII. Diversity

1) All the races and tribes in the world are like the different colored flowers of one meadow. 

2) All people and customs are beautiful in their own way. 

3) All people, races, and tribes are children of the Creator and must all be respected.

IX. Service

1) Service is to be useful to family, community, nation, and the world. 

2) To serve others is one of the main purposes for which human beings have been created. 

3) Do not fill yourself with your own affairs and forget your most important talks.

4) True happiness comes only to those who dedicate their lives to the service of others.

X. Balance

1) Observe moderation in all things;

2) Always seek balance by avoiding extremes.

XI. Self-Knowledge

1) Know those things that lead to your well-being;

2) Know those things that lead to your destruction.

3) Seek out your well-being and avoid your self-destruction.

XII. Guidance

1) Listen to and follow the guidance given to your heart. 

2) Expect guidance to come in many forms:

a) in prayer 

b) in dreams

c) in times of quiet solitude

d) in the words and deeds of wise Elders 

e) in the words and deeds of friends

f) in the words and deeds of enemies

XIII. Prayer

1) Rise with the sun to pray. 

2) Pray alone. 

3) Pray often. 

4) The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.

 XIV. Tolerance

1) Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. 

2) Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy and greed stem from a lost soul. 

3) Pray that they will find guidance.

XV. Stealing

1)     Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. 

2) If it was not earned or given, it is not yours to take.

XVI. Personal Liberty

1) Honor other people's thoughts, wishes and words. 

2) Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. 

3) Allow each person the right to personal expression.

XVII. Forgiveness

1) All people make mistakes. 

2) All mistakes can be forgiven.

XVIII.  Optimism

1) Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. 

2) Be optimistic.

XIX. Nature

1) Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. 

2) Everything in nature is connected to us and part of our world family.

3) Show everything in nature respect.

XX. Children

1) Children are the seeds of our future. 

2) Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life's lessons. 

3) When they are grown, give them space to grow.

4)   We do not leave the world to our children; We borrow the world from them.

XXI. Personal Responsibility

1) Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. 

2) Be responsible for your own actions.

XXII. Religions

1) Show the deepest respect for the religions of others.

2) When with people of other religions, treat as sacred what they treat as sacred; treat as profane what they treat is profane, unless either will force you to abandon or go against your own religion.

3) When you cannot honor or perform a custom that violates your own religion, then ask for their patience and tolerance and make it clear that you mean no disrespect but state clearly that your own religion forbids this practice and express the hope that they will respect this point as you have respected all other points of their religion.

4) Do not force your religion on anyone

XXIII.  Generosity

1) Be generous with everything you have.

2) Share your good fortune with others

3) Participate in charity

4) Seek out those who do not have enough of what you have in abundance, or what you can spare, and give them what you can.

XXIV.  Destiny

1) seek out your own path, searching out what is right for you, even when it is not right for anyone else.

2) Do not allow others to set a path for you �" it is your road to walk. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

3) Be true to yourself first.

Adapted by Joseph Crow Riley from the adapted and reprinted version of the original version printed in 1982 in the book,"The Sacred Tree" by the Four Worlds Development Project as it was printed in the "Inter-Tribal Times" October 1994.