The following is the transcript of a Foellinger balcony narrative from April 14, 2000. It is an unedited excerpt from the original Chief dialogue document.

And I would like to talk a little bit about Native American, the indigenous peoples of this land spirituality, the indigenous peoples, the original people of this land had a deep, deep spiritual connection with Mother Earth. There was the power of woman who was made in the likeness of God, the Indian woman was made in the likeness of God. They had the power to recreate herself. They had the power to rule. But in knowing this, she had to humble herself to allow the man who was made from nothing to have a chance to walk close to God. And the man, the only way that he could walk close to God was through a vision. And the vision had to be for the good of the people. And in this way in keeping the scope on his vision through the entirety of his life, then man walked close to God.

And these people, these indigenous people were very, very spiritual. We can't understand how spiritual they were, because they speak this foreign language, I speak this foreign language, this English, and I think in these foreign terms. So I can't even begin to understand how the people a long, long time ago really truly felt. But they had a connection with Mother Earth. They had a connection, they had a love affair with Mother Earth.

And they knew some truths, they knew the truth that there was a Creator and in order to walk with that Creator, they had to live in balance and harmony with all that Mother Earth had to offer, not abuse her or misuse her, not mistreat her, but to walk in balance and harmony. And they knew this as a truth. And their whole lives they were seekers, great, great seekers of knowledge and wisdom. The whole lives were spent seeking out knowledge and wisdom in order to better live in balance and harmony with the Creator and Mother Earth and all that they had to offer.

They were learners. They spent their whole lives learning. And they were also teachers. They were educators. They educated their children to live this life and to understand Mother Nature and all that Mother Earth and all that they had to offer. They were great educators.

And their greatest blessing in life was knowing that they educated their children well to grow up with values and morals, to be virtuous in their hearts to have respect, that's what it was all about was about respect. Respect for Mother Earth, respect for the Creator, respect for one another. And they had no fear of death because they were very spiritual, they had no fear of death, they were brave, strong-hearted people.

What they feared, what they feared most in life was to be shamed, to be shamed. And yet we had one of those indigenous peoples live not so far from this great metropolis of Champaign, right here in this area, we are walking upon the ground of the Illini people, these great, great people who were educators and lovers of Mother Earth. They had a love affair with Mother Earth. And right here today we have one of the great institutions, academic institutions of the United States, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. And they are about teaching for future generations.

But I think they are excluding the Native American people out of this when they can make a mockery out of a great people like the Fighting Illini who were about education themselves. What is going on here? I think it's time that we all grow up and take a look at ourselves because if we can't be at peace within ourselves, we can't be at peace with all that Mother Earth has to offer. Thank you.

See the U.I. Dialogue on Chief Illiniwek page for more transcripts and information.