An Indian is an Indian regardless of the degree of Indian blood or which little government card they do or do not possess. — Wilma Mankiller
The one thing I've always maintained is that I'm an American Indian. I'm not politically correct. — Russell Means
What the American Indian Movement says is that the American Indians are the Palestinians of the United States, and the Palestinians are the American Indians of Europe. — Russell Means
These Indians are fierce, they wear feathers and grunt. Most of us dont fit this idealized figure since we grunt only when overeating — Vine Deloria Jr.
To be an Indian in modern American society is in a very real sense to be unreal and ahistorical. — Vine Deloria Jr.
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
All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian. — Pat Paulsen
When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white men came, an Indian said simply "Ours. — Vine Deloria Jr.
I was bred as an outcast, part Negro and part Seminole, in my early years raised as an Indian. — Willie Stargell
Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian. — Robert Orben
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
Above all, I wanted to be appreciated as a prima ballerina who happened to be a Native American, never as someone who was an American Indian ballerina. — Maria Tallchief
[Seeing an ornately chained Native American for the first time] What Eden have they torn you from? — Cesare Borgia
The difference between a white man and an Indian is this- A white man wants to leave money to his children. An Indian wants to leave forests. — Winona LaDuke
Short American Indian Quotes
The Indian Summer, the dead Summer's soul. — Mary C. Ames
I've run into more discrimination as a woman than as an Indian. — Wilma Mankiller
Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. — Sitting Bull
American Indian Image Quotes
Defiance, not obedience, is the American's answer to overbearing authority.
Native American Indian Quotes
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. — Crazy Horse
I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one. — Crazy Horse
If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys. — Chief Dan George
What if the American people woke up and understood that the official reasons for going to war are almost always based on lies and promoted by war propaganda in order to serve special interests.
I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become One Circle again. — Crazy Horse
We’re not Indians and we’re not Native Americans. We’re older than both concepts. We’re the people, we’re the human beings. — John Trudell
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children — Chief Seattle
Historically speaking, we went from being Indians to pagans to savages to hostiles to militants to activists to Native Americans. Its five hundred years later and they still cant see us. We are still invisible. — John Trudell
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
Wisdom and peace come when you start living the life the creator intended for you. — Geronimo
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. — Crazy Horse
Native American Indian Inspirational Quotes
At the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit. And that center is really everywhere. It is within each of us. — Black Elk
Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony. — Chief Dan George
How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right. — Black Hawk
Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles. — Black Elk
Don't let yesterday use up too much of today. — Will Rogers
The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies. — Mary Brave Bird
If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it. — Sitting Bull
Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people seek it. — David Gemmell
Each soul must meet the morning sun, the new sweet earth and the Great Silence alone. — Charles Alexander Eastman
Like the grasses showing tender faces to each other, thus should we do, for this was the wish of the Grandfathers of the World. — Black Elk
Native American Quotes
If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew. — Pocahontas
Mr. Blair, I look upon secession as anarchy. If I owned the four millions of slaves in the South, I would sacrifice them all to the Union; but how can I draw my sword upon Virginia, my native State? — Robert E. Lee
May the stars carry your sadness away, may the flowers fill your heart with beauty, may hope forever wipe away your tears. And, above all, may silence make you strong. — Chief Dan George
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself — and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty. — Chief Joseph
Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples. — Rigoberta Menchu
There is a direct connection between violence against the Earth and violence against women. — Lee Maracle
Earth does not belong to us; we belong to earth. Take only memories, leave nothing but footprints. — Chief Seattle
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. — Chief Seattle
Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo. — Wilma Mankiller
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that. — Chief Joseph
Indian Tribes Quotes
It is essential to our interest and the security of our colonies that the several nations or tribes of Indians... who live under our protection, should not be molested or disturbed. — George III
"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes," I said. "By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not." — Sherman Alexie
Infectious diseases introduced with Europeans, like smallpox and measles, spread from one Indian tribe to another, far in advance of Europeans themselves, and killed an estimated 95% of the New World's Indian population. — Jared Diamond
Children must early learn the the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving. — Charles Alexander Eastman
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. — Tecumseh
I'm so sick and tired of hearing about slavery. You think slavery didn't exist in Africa? Even Indian tribes. — David Duke
No contact with savage Indian tribes has ever daunted me more than the morning I spent with an old lady swathed in woolies who compared herself to a rotten herring encased in a block of ice. — Claude Levi-Strauss
Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man ... cannot be exempt from the common destiny. — Chief Seattle
From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering on Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very favorable to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to the tribes themselves. — James Monroe
[last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. — Crowfoot
Great Native American Quotes
There is no death, only a change of worlds. — Chief Seattle
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
My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon. So long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have a right to the soil. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away — Black Hawk
I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth. — Red Cloud
This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things... This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land. — Spotted Tail
Brothers, we must be united; we must smoke the same pipe; we must fight each other's battles; and more than all, we must love the Great Spirit. — Tecumseh
My art speaks and will continue to speak, transcending barriers of nationality, language and other forces that may be divisive, fortifying the greatness of the spirit that has always been the foundation of the Ojibwa people. — Norval Morrisseau
Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library. — Luther Standing Bear
When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them. — Chief Seattle
You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. — Wovoka
Indian Reservations Quotes
It's a weird thing. Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die. We were supposed to disappear. But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten the reservations were meant to be death camps. — Sherman Alexie
To me, women's lib was mainly a white, upper-middle class affair of little use to a reservation Indian woman. — Mary Brave Bird
The Indians, however, could not migrate from one part of the United States to another; neither could they obtain employment as readily as white people, either upon or beyond the Indian reservations. — Nelson A. Miles
The Indians had to be either killed, or herded into reservations, which were essentially concentration camps, and forgotten. Their history had to be absolutely obliterated so that we could believe that we were living on virgin soil. — Richard Rodriguez
We Indians are Latin America's moral reserve. We act according to a universal law that consists of three basic principles: do not steal, do not lie and do not be idle. — Evo Morales
Looking at the purpose of our government toward the Indians, we find that after subjugating them it has been our policy to collect the different tribes on reservations and support them at the expense of our people. — Nelson A. Miles
It made me feel good to know that we had such a great country like Canada where even a poor Indian from the Red Pheasant reserve could make it to the top. — Allen Sapp
For some students, school is the only place where they get a hot meal and a warm hug. Teachers are sometimes the only ones who tell our children they can go from an Indian reservation to the Ivy League, from the home of a struggling single mom to the White House. — Denise Juneau
You'd never have a motorcycle policeman out on the Indian reservation. — Alex Cox
Native American Culture Quotes
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
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. — Tecumseh
The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man's heart away from nature becomes hard. — Luther Standing Bear
In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American cultures. — Winona LaDuke
We need only look to our Navajo Code Talkers during World War II to see the value that Native languages bring not only to their culture, but to the security of all Americans. — Rick Renzi
Instead of kids just hearing about beads and baskets and fringe, and about what 'was' and 'were,' we present Native American culture as a living contemporary culture. — Buffy Sainte-Marie
Native Americans are not and must not be props in a sort of theme park of the past, where we go to have a good time and see exotic cultures. “What we have done to the peoples who were living in North America” is, according to anthropologist Sol Tax, “our Original Sin. — James W. Loewen
Native people such as the Cherokees are just as human and complex and real as Americans are, and our nation needs to respect American Indian cultures and traditions. — Joseph Bruchac
In our culture, the Native Americans, when two strangers come together. You know what we do in our culture? We smoke the peace pipe. — Tatanka
Indian Nation Quotes
It is only on the basis of undiluted Nationalism and of perfect justice and impartiality that the Indian Army of Liberation can be built up. — Subhas Chandra Bose
Our nation is like a tree of which the original trunk is swarajya and the branches are swadeshi and boycott. — Bal Gangadhar Tilak
I don't understand these national awards, because half of those who sit in judgement over Indian films do not... possess the competence to evaluate a film correctly. — Satyajit Ray
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. — Henry Ward Beecher
It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. — Martin Van Buren
Thanksgiving is for real Americans not Indians. We founded this Christian nation. Why if it wasn’t for the God-fearing pilgrims, the natives would still be running around in loin cloths shooting at things with their arrows. — Sarah Palin
The fey in this country keep to themselves, and are a separate nation, much like the American Indians, but with even more autonomy. — Laurell K. Hamilton
Everybody should take each other as they are, white, black, Indians, Creole. Then there would be no prejudice, nations would get along. — Langston Hughes
If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions, I should point to India. — Max Muller
Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I'd like to see done to these people — Michael Savage
I'm proud of being part Cherokee, and I think it's time all us Indians felt the same way. — Loretta Lynn
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves. — Black Elk
Help me always to speak the truth quietly, to listen with an open mind when others speak, and to remember the peace that may be found in silence. — Robert Muller
The power of the world always works in circles. — Black Elk
Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. — Black Elk
My mother's mother is Jewish and African, so I guess that would be considered Creole. My mother's father was Cherokee Indian and something else. My dad's mother's Puerto Rican and black, and his father was from Barbados. — Meagan Good
Long accustomed to the use of European manufactures, [the Cherokee Indians] are as incapable of returning to their habits of skinsand furs as we are, and find their wants the less tolerable as they are occasioned by a war [the American Revolution] the event of which is scarcely interesting to them. — Thomas Jefferson
My father was one-eighth Cherokee indian and my mother was quarter-blood Cherokee. I never got far enough in arithmetic to figure out how much injun that made me, but there's nothing of which I am more proud than my Cherokee blood. — Will Rogers
She's Cherokee Indian, which is great 'cause whenever we have sex, it rains. — Jay Mohr
Indian Chief Quotes
I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me. — Chief Joseph
We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not; and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them. — Chief Joseph
This generation of little children is the 7th Generation. Not just Indian children but white, black, yellow and red. Our grandfathers said the 7th generation would provide new spiritual leaders, medicine people, doctors, teachers and our great chiefs. There is a spiritual rebirth going on. — Clyde Bellecourt
The major adventure is to claim your authentic, true being, which is not culturally given to you. The culture will not explain to you how to be a real human being. It will tell you how to be banker, politician, Indian chief, masseuses, actress, whatever, but it will not give you true being. — Terence McKenna
I got a great grandma. Her name is Pearl, and she was at one time married to an Indian chief, who, in a wonderful crossing of cultures, she integrated some of his, and some of hers, and um,
it was a combination of peyote and preserves, and it was this hallucinogenic jam. — Eddie Vedder
Sixty percent of the vegetables you see in the supermarkets came from the American Indians. They also gave us aspirin and quinine. And their model of government parallels our Senate. But their women elected the chiefs, and impeached them. — Harry Dean Stanton
I doubt very much if a man whose main literary interests were in works by Mr. Zane Grey, admirable as they may be, is particularly equipped to be the chief executive of this country, particularly where Indian Affairs are concerned. — Dean Acheson
You cannot have all chiefs; you gotta have Indians too. — Proverbs
You cannot have all chiefs; you gotta have Indians too.
Perfect love cannot be without equality.
A friend to everybody and to nobody is the same thing.
We are all alike, on the inside. — Mark Twain
[The is] a mistaken belief that [the word Indian] refers somehow to the country, India. When Columbus washed up on the beach in the Caribbean, he was not looking for a country called India. Europeans were calling that country Hindustan in 1492.... Columbus called the tribal people he met "Indio," from the Italian in dio, meaning "in God." — Russell Means
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
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
Now, of course, the great thing about the solar system as a frontier is that there are no Indians, so you can have all the glory of the myth of the American westward expansion without any of the guilt. — Sarah Zettel
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
It takes a strong effort on the part of each American Indian not to become Europeanized. The strength for this effort can only come from the traditional ways, the traditional values that our elders retain. — Sayings
Native Americans had only stone and wooden weapons and no animals that could be ridden. Those military advantages repeatedly enabled troops of a few dozen mounted Spaniards to defeat Indian armies numbering in the thousands. — Jared Diamond
Before any final solution to American history can occur, a reconciliation must be effected between the spiritual owner of the land - American Indians - and the political owner of the land - American Whites. Guilt and accusations cannot continue to revolve in a vacuum without some effort at reaching a solution. — Vine Deloria Jr.
If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian! — Tom Brown, Jr.
Nothing gives us greater pride than the importance of India's scientific and engineering colleges, or the army of Indian scientists at organizations such as Microsoft and NASA. Our temples are not the god-encrusted shrines of Varanasi, but Western scientific institutions like Caltech and MIT, and magazines like 'Nature' and 'Scientific American. — Aravind Adiga
Indians and animals know better how to live than white man; nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good water. — Flying Hawk
Then, I realized that there is an indigenous presence in the Solar System. It's us. So, then, I got to wondering what would happen if a more technologically advanced society moved next door to us, the way we moved next door to the American Indians. — Sarah Zettel
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