The Two Wolves | A Native American Legend

Nathan Mitchell, the co-director of Anasazi Foundation, shares the Legend of the Two Wolves—a Native American Legend about the epic battle that takes place within each of us…

Transcript of The Two Wolves | A Native American Legend:

So, there’s this old legend of a Cherokee grandfather telling his story to his grandson…

And describing to his grandson this great battle that occurs within each one of us. He said: “Inside of each of us there’s this battle between these two wolves. One wolf is faith, and goodness, and openness and the other is fear. The other one is doubt, despair, and all these things are happening within each one of us—this fight between fear and love.

And it’s a great battle. It’s epic in its proportion that we fight this battle within us—all through our lives. And eventually, one will win.”

And then he stopped talking. And his grandson eventually asked him: “Well, Grandfather, which wolf will win?” And he said: “The one that you feed. The wolf that you feed will win.”

So, it’s not enough to simply starve the one wolf and hope the other one will win. We have to find ways—things that you do—that will feed that wolf.

So, that’s a legend that I love to share with Young Walkers, because sometimes we’re just not aware of what wolf we’re feeding. We’re feeding into that wolf that will draw us away from our people. Sometimes, that’s the choices that we make and the things that we watch, or the music that we listen to, the jokes that we tell, the people that we hang out with—are unwittingly feeding this wolf that we hope doesn’t win, but we keep feeding him.