American Indian Quotes - Page 3

• If we must die, we die defending our rights.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Rights, India

  237 Copy quote

• If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Men, White

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Law, Great American

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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• From where the sun now stands I will fight no more.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Fighting, Sun

  Quoted in Herbert J. Spinden, The Nez Perce Indians (1908)

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• All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.

  Chief Joseph

  Brother, Native American, Reality

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

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  It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Truth, Native American, Reality

  218 Copy quote
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  The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Native American, Rights

  Lincoln Hall Speech in Washington D.C., January 14, 1879.

  136 Copy quote

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• Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White Man

  15 Copy quote

• He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Heart, Wish

  "God Is Red: A Native View of Religion". Book by Vine Deloria, Jr., 1972.

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• I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.

  Sitting Bull

  Native American, Men, White Man

  "God Is Red: A Native View of Religion". Book by Vine Deloria, Jr., 1972.

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• Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

  Sitting Bull

  Fake People, Native American, Men

  163 Copy quote

• Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

  Tecumseh

  Love You, Native American, Perfect

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

  69 Copy quote

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• What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.

  Crowfoot

  Life, Change, Death

  98 Copy quote

• Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.

  Chief Seattle

  Life, Lonely, Nature

  202 Copy quote

• Only to the white man was nature a 'wilderness'.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Native American, Men, White Man

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.38, U of Nebraska Press

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• Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.

  Tecumseh

  Song, Native American, Great Day

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

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• Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

  Sitting Bull

  Country, Father, Native American

  48 Copy quote

• Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nest in circles... The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. The moon does the same and both are round. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were.

  John Neihardt

  Stars, Native American, Moon

  "Black Elk Speaks : being the life story of a holy man of the Ogalala Sioux" by John Neihardt, (Ch. 17), 1961.

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• Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Doe

  "The Sacred Pipe : Black Elk's Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux" recorded and edited by Joseph Epes Brown, (Ch. 17), 1961.

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• Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

  Tecumseh

  Wise, Native American, Abuse

  "A Sourcebook for Earth's Community of Religions". Book by Joel Diederik Beversluis, 1993.

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• Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Knowledge, Library, World

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.194, U of Nebraska Press

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• We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth as wild. Earth was beautiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Beautiful, Native American, Blessing

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “My People the Sioux”, p.17, U of Nebraska Press

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• We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone.

  Canasatego

  Native American, Thinking, Land

  10 Copy quote

• How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right.

  Black Hawk

  Native American, Native Language, Looks

  Black Hawk, John B. Patterson (1836). “Life of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk: With an account of the late war”, p.97

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• The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Nature, Native American, Men

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.247, U of Nebraska Press

  79 Copy quote

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