American Indian Quotes

• Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.

  Henry Ford

  Men, Thinking, Looks

  72 Copy quote

• It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return. I want to spend my last days there, and be buried among those mountains. If this could be I might die in peace, feeling that my people, placed in their native homes, would increase in numbers, rather than diminish as at present, and that our name would not become extinct.

  Geronimo

  Father, Home, Land

  Geronimo, S. M. Barrett (2016). “Geronimo's Story of His Life: As Told to S. M. Barrett”, p.105, Open Road Media

  147 Copy quote

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• We were told that they wished merely to pass through our country. . . to seek for gold in the far west . . . Yet before the ashes of the council are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. . . . His presence here is . . . an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be allowed for corn?

  Red Cloud

  Country, Giving Up, Father

  101 Copy quote

• The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all will smile upon this land... and this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.

  Chief Joseph

  Native American, Race, Land

  26 Copy quote

• REPARTEE, n. Prudent insult in retort. Practiced by gentlemen with a constitutional aversion to violence, but a strong disposition to offend. In a war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Strong, War, Gentleman

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.197, University of Georgia Press

  16 Copy quote

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• We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets; that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same.

  Chief Joseph

  Believe, Home, Native American

  102 Copy quote

• I am tired of talk that comes to nothing It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by men who had no right to talk. It does not require many words to speak the truth.

  Chief Joseph

  Tired, Native American, Heart

  178 Copy quote

• For a subject worked and reworked so often in novels, motion pictures, and television, American Indians remain probably the least understood and most misunderstood Americans of us all.

  John F. Kennedy

  Presidential, Misunderstood, Television

  17 Copy quote

• It's impossible to write about Native life without humor-that's how people maintain sanity.

  Louise Erdrich

  Writing, People, Impossible

  16 Copy quote

• [last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.

  Crowfoot

  Sunset, Native American, Firefly

  "Aging in the Modern World: Selections from the Literature of Aging for Pleasure and Instruction". Book by ‎Clark Tibbitts, p. 222, 1957.

  16 Copy quote

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• Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.

  Tecumseh

  Inspirational, Appreciation, Fear

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

  17 Copy quote

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• Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it.

  David Gemmell

  Native American, People, Age

  57 Copy quote

• Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.

  Chief Joseph

  Travel, Native American, Men

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

  16 Copy quote

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• Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there.

  William Commanda

  Native American, Technology, Two

  49 Copy quote

• Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

  Chief Joseph

  Tired, Native American, Heart

  Speech in surrendering to General Nelson Appleton Miles, October 05, 1877.

  95 Copy quote

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• The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Wise, Native American, Heart

  Luther Standing Bear (1978). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.197, U of Nebraska Press

  115 Copy quote

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• I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

  Black Elk

  Native American, Circles, Shapes

  Black Elk (2000). “Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux”, Bison Books

  24 Copy quote

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• Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.

  Terri Farley

  Native American, Tongue, Deaf

  17 Copy quote

• The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it.

  Chief Joseph

  Country, Native American, Men

  38 Copy quote

• Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone.

  Charles Alexander Eastman

  Inspirational, Sweet, Morning

  Charles Alexander Eastman (2003). “The Soul of the Indian”, p.12, Courier Corporation

  37 Copy quote

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• All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

  Chief Joseph

  Mother, Running, Brother

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

  130 Copy quote

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• Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them." I say to him, "No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them." Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him, "Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell." My neighbor answers, "Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses." The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them." If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.

  Chief Joseph

  I Like You, Horse, Native American

  Arguing against the right of the US Government to force his people to leave their lands, 1876.

  188 Copy quote

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• All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the children of the Earth.

  Chief Seattle

  Children, Native American, Web Of Life

  Chief Seattle, “This we know”

  48 Copy quote

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• Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow before a summer sun. Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, 'Never! Never!'

  Tecumseh

  Summer, Country, Giving Up

  48 Copy quote

• 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. The soil was soothing, strengthening, cleansing and healing.

  Luther Standing Bear

  Healing, Native American, People

  Luther Standing Bear (2006). “Land of the Spotted Eagle”, p.192, U of Nebraska Press

  38 Copy quote

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