Let me walk in beauty and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.

Chief Yellow Lark

Walk in Beauty

Topic: Creativity, Culture, & the Arts

O Great Spirit,

whose voice I hear in the winds
and whose breath gives life to all the world,
hear me.
I am small and weak.
I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty
and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
and my ears grow sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things
you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden
in every leaf and rock.
I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister
but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.
Make me always ready
to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes
so when life fades as the fading sunset
my spirit may come to you without shame.

Chief Yellow Lark

Chief Yellow Lark, born sometime in the 1850s, was a revered leader of the Lakota Sioux tribe. The exact date and location of his birth are unknown, however it is known that Yellow Lark was able to translate Lakota prayers into English during a period when few Lakotas were proficient in the English language. This linguistic proficiency, coupled with his evident wisdom, suggests a deep cultural immersion and a keen understanding of both Lakota traditions and the encroaching Western world.

Yellow Lark was a man profoundly touched by the struggles of his people. He witnessed the ongoing disruption of his people's way of life, marked by death, displacement, and the forceful appropriation of the Lakota's ancestral lands. Amidst these challenging times, Yellow Lark nurtured a vision of peace that was deeply rooted in his Lakota heritage. He longed for a world where Native Americans and newcomers alike could coexist harmoniously, honoring their respective cultures and traditions. This vision inspired his interpretation of the Great Spirit Prayer, a spiritual message that embodied the chief's profound wish for unity and peace.

Yellow Lark's interpretation of the Great Spirit Prayer is a testament to his enduring hope, a beacon of light amidst the tumultuous times of his era. His life's work serves as a poignant reminder of our shared humanity and the universal longing for peace and love. As we recount Yellow Lark's life, we are reminded of the profound wisdom present in the traditions of the Lakota Sioux and all indigenous cultures, wisdom that continues to guide us towards peace, understanding, and mutual respect.

(c. 1850-c.1915) Native American Religions
Let Me Walk in Beauty

Yellow Lark,Chief [Easwaran, Eknath. God Makes the Rivers to Flow: an Anthology of the World's Sacred Poetry & Prose. Nilgiri Press, 2009, p. 188 (Chief Yellow Lark, Let Me Walk in Beauty)].

Chief Yellow Lark

Theme: Beauty

About This Quotation From the Great Spirit prayer [Commentary]

Widely presented as translated by Lakota Sioux Chief Yellow Lark in 1887, this prayer begins in humility before the “Great Spirit,” whose “voice” is heard “in the winds” and whose “breath gives life to all the world.” Chief Yellow Lark’s words begin with need: “I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom.” From there, “Let me walk in beauty” becomes a prayer to live rightly within creation, with eyes open to “the red and purple sunset,” hands that “respect the things you have made,” and ears made “sharp to hear your voice.”

The prayer then moves from seeing to learning. Chief Yellow Lark asks, “Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.” This wisdom is close to the earth, hidden “in every leaf and rock,” and received through attention, respect, and humility. Beauty here is not decoration; it is a way of recognizing the sacred life within creation and learning from what the Great Spirit has made.

The closing lines turn inward: “I seek strength not to be greater than my brother or sister but to fight my greatest enemy, myself.” Reverence for the world is joined to self-examination and integrity. To come before the Great Spirit with “clean hands and straight eyes” is to live without deception, domination, or shame. When “life fades as the fading sunset,” Chief Yellow Lark’s prayer asks that the spirit may return in peace, having walked with respect, wisdom, and a clear heart.

About Beauty and the Lakota

For Lakota people, beauty is not only seen; it is lived through relationship—with the “Great Spirit,” the winds, the breath that “gives life to all the world,” and the earth’s visible teachers. The prayer asks for eyes that “ever behold the red and purple sunset,” hands that “respect the things you have made,” and ears made “sharp to hear your voice.” In this lived spirituality, creation is not silent matter. The natural world carries instruction, presence, and responsibility. To “walk in beauty” is to move through the world with reverence, seeing the sacred not apart from life, but within “every leaf and rock.” Lakota traditions often speak of Wakan Tanka as the Great Spirit or Great Mystery, the sacred presence related to all life.

This way of beauty also includes humility and self-mastery. Chief Yellow Lark’s prayer does not ask for strength “to be greater than my brother or sister,” but “to fight my greatest enemy, myself.” The beauty being sought is therefore moral and spiritual as well as visible: “clean hands and straight eyes,” a life of respect, restraint, and honesty before the Great Spirit. When “life fades as the fading sunset,” the prayer asks that the spirit may come without shame. In these words, beauty is joined to wisdom, kinship, and accountability—a way of seeing and living that honors the world as sacred and the human heart as responsible within it.

Walk in Beauty

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