Here is an excellent essay on silence:
http://www.thescreamonline.com/epiphanies/3-3epiphanies/silence.html

"Silence is truly the language of the spirit among the Indians who feel that it is only white men who require the turning on of the 'wind-mill machine,' as I have heard them call the long-winded conversations of their pale-faced friends. Consider the awkwardness or even embarrassment which occurs in the non-Indian culture when two or more persons are gathered together and silence falls. Some type of verbal exchange is expected, even though it is completely without value. But the Indians of the old ways, who were in contact with the essentials of creation, could be perfectly at ease together in the silence, using only the waves of thought to contact each other."

From "Tapestries in Sand," by David Villaseņor