"The Lakota was a true naturist — a lover of nature. He loved the earth and all things of the earth, the attachment growing with age. The old people came literally to love the soil and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. It was good for the skin to touch the earth and the old people liked to remove their moccains and walk with bare feet on the sacred earth. Their tipis were built upon the earth and their altars were made of earth. The birds that flew came to rest upon the earth and it was the final abiding place of all things that lived and grew. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

— Chief Luther Standing Bear, born 1868, in Touch the Earth, compiled by T.C. McLuhan, p6.