good chief gives he does not take

In Native spiritual beliefs, the Eagle represents spiritual protection, carries prayers, and brings strength, courage, wisdom, illumination of spirit, healing, creation, and a knowledge of magic. The eagle has an ability to see hidden spiritual truths, rising above the material to see the spiritual. The eagle has an ability to see the overall pattern, and the connection to spirit guides and teachers. The eagle represents great power and balance, dignity with grace, a connection with higher truths, intuition and a creative spirit grace achieved through knowledge and hard work.

In sacred symbolism the eagle stands for that power of rising above the earth, above the physical and the literal, into the heavens of rarefied faith, a mystic intuition, and a penetrating spiritual intuition.

The Eagle has long been the symbol of honor, bravery, love, friendship and mystical powers for the Native Nations. The Eagle gives visible form to Wakinyan (He who speaks Mystery), the Being who moves between man and Wakantanka. Wakinyan shows up in endless variations of eagle-likeness in Indian design from the southern tip of South America to the North Pole area. Each Tribal group has its own stories and legends concerning the Eagle and Wakinyan (Thunderer, Thunderbird). It has to be more than mere coincidence that many of these stories are identical in tribes widely separated in both Americas.