Native American Quotes - Page 8

• What is this you call property? It cannot be the earth, for the land is our mother, nourishing all her children, beasts, birds, fish and all men. The woods, the streams, everything on it belongs to everybody and is for the use of all. How can one man say it belongs only to him?

  Massasoit

  Mother, Children, Men

  100 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, Heart, Fighting

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

  95 Copy quote

  Show source

• You know that just before that first Thanksgiving dinner there was one wise, old Native American woman saying, Don't feed them. If you feed them, they'll never leave.

  Dylan Brody

  Thanksgiving, Wise, Dinner

  46 Copy quote

• Unless you're one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from someplace else. Somebody brought you.

  Barack Obama

  Firsts, Native

  Remarks by the President on Comprehensive Immigration Reform, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. January 29, 2013.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Chief Joseph

  Law, American Indian, Great American

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

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Chief Joseph

  Men, White, Want

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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The power of the world always works in circles.

  Black Elk

  Circles, World, Cherokee

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

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• In its sacredness, families get together to (unintentionally?) celebrate one genocide (against Native Americans) by committing another (against turkeys).

  Daniel Brook

  Turkeys, Together, Vegetarian

  4 Copy quote

• There is an old and very wise Native American saying: Every time you point a finger in scorn—there are three remaining fingers pointing right back at you.

  Alyson Noel

  Wise, Three, Fingers

  Alyson Noel (2012). “Fated”, p.173, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm not encouraged by the silence. I can think of no benign reason for it. I'm afraid we may expect something closer to Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas than a scene from Close Encounters, and we all know how that turned out for the Native Americans.

  Rick Yancey

  Thinking, Silence, Encounters

  Rick Yancey (2013). “The 5th Wave”, p.36, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Thanksgiving began in 1621 when Native Americans sat down with a bunch of undocumented pilgrims. They had dinner and the pilgrims never left.

  Jay Leno

  Dinner, Bunch, Pilgrim

  7 Copy quote

• Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life-yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammarabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.

  Michael Shermer

  School, Science, Intelligent

  7 Copy quote

• The voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers.

  Zitkala-Sa

  God, Sweet, Nature

  Zitkala-Sa (2014). “American Indian Stories”, p.109, Diderot Publishing

  96 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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, Men

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

  193 Copy quote

  Show source

• Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pcanet, and other powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun.

  Tecumseh

  Summer, Powerful, Men

  Quoted in Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970)

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• The average American is nothing if not patriotic.

  Herbert Croly

  Uplifting, Memorial Day, Patriotic

  Herbert Croly (2005). “The Promise of American Life”, p.1, Cosimo, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do the very best you can.

  Dale Carnegie

  Success, Giving Up, Fear

  Dale Carnegie (2010). “How To Enjoy Your Life And Your Job”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our land is everything to us.... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives.

  John Wooden

  Land, Grandparent, Grandfather

  8 Copy quote

• During 1866 and 1922, Native Americans and black soldiers often intermingled in the American west, on the frontier.

  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

  Basketball, American West, Soldier

  5 Copy quote

• I know Great Spirit is looking down upon me from above, and will hear what I say.

  Sitting Bull

  Spirit, Knows, Looking Down

  Sitting Bull, Mark Diedrich (1998). “Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches”

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.

  Sitting Bull

  Im Sorry, I Am Sorry, Saying Sorry

  40 Copy quote

• You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.

  Sitting Bull

  Stupid, Thinking, Sitting

  22 Copy quote

• I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.

  Sitting Bull

  Country, Sitting, Want

  9 Copy quote

• Environmental policies are driven by a kind of emotional spiritualism that threatens the very foundation of our society. There is increasing evidence of a government-sponsored religion in America. This religion, a cloudy mixture of new-age mysticism, Native American folklore, and primitive Earth worship, is being promoted and enforced by the Clinton administration in violation of our rights and freedoms.

  Helen Chenoweth-Hage

  Emotional, Government, Rights

  7 Copy quote

• An environmental revolution is taking shape in the United States. This revolution has touched communities of color from New York to California and from Florida to Alaska - anywhere where African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans live and comprise a majority of the population. Collectively, these Americans represent the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States. They are also the groups most at risk from environmental problems.

  Robert D Bullard

  New York, Alaska, Florida

  15 Copy quote