The American Fable "The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians, their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." ~ The Northwest Ordinance, 1787 ~
	The Harsh Realities "Whenever the statesmen of the League shall assemble they shall offer thanks to the earth where men dwell, to the streams of waters, the pools and the lakes, to the maize and the fruits." ~ From the Great Law of the Hodenosauee ~ ******
	"The boy cried and cried. The blood came out, and finally he died. With his tears our lakes became. With his blood the red clay became. With his body our mountains became, and that is how Earth became." ~ Taos Elders ~ ******
	"I have lived surrounded by the earth on six sides. It is all around me. It is above my head and beneath my feet. It is in four directions also." ~ Nancy Wood ~ ******
	"When you grow up, you must be a man. Be brave, and face whatever danger may meet you. ... Remember that it is his ambition that makes a man. ... If I should live to see you become a man, I want you to become a great man. ... If I live to see you a man, and go off on the warpath, I would not cry if I were to hear that you had been killed in battle. That is what makes a man, to fight and to be brave." ~ As told to Running Chief a Pawnee, by his mother. ~ ******
	"When the Dine were first created, four mountains and four rivers were pointed out to us, inside which we should live." ~ Barboncito ~ ******
	"The might of our arms will be known and the courage of our brave hearts." ~ Aztec Scribe ~ ******
	"Our land, our religion, and our life are one. It is upon this land that we have hunted deer, elk, antelope, buffalo, rabbit, turkey. It is from this land that we obtained the timbers and the stone for our homes and kivas." ~ Hopi ~ ******
	"The Great Father of Life who made us and gave us this land to live upon, made the buffalo...to afford us sustenance." ~ A warrior of the Northwest Plains ~ ******
	"I love the land and the buffalo, and will not part with it...I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy." ~ White Bear (Satanta) ~ ******
	"That was our hunting ground and you have taken it from us. This is what sits heavy on our hearts and the hearts of all nations." ~ Cornstalk ~ ******
	"When I was a boy the Lakotas owned the world, the sun rose and set on their land." ~ Sitting Bull ~ ******
	"They never made an accumulation of skins of moose, otter, beaver, or others, but only so far as they needed them for personal use." ~ British Trader speaking of Indian Hunters ~ ******
	"If they are to fight, they are too few, if they are to die, they are too many." ~ Chief Hendrick ~ ******
	"War is war. Death is death. A fight is a hard business." ~ Cornplanter ~ ******
	"When we passed through the country between Pittsburgh and our nations, lately Shawnee and Lenape [Delaware] hunting grounds, we found the country thickly inhabited and the people under arms." ~ Cornstalk ~ ******
	"Our lives are in the hands of the Creator. We are determined to defend our lands, and if it be his will we wish to leave our bones upon them." ~ Tecumseh ~ ******
	"Daughter got tired and weak and couldn't keep up with the others or go any farther because of her pregnancy. So we asked the Army to hold up for a while and to let the woman give birth. But the soldiers wouldn't do it. They forced my people to move on, saying they were getting the others behind. Not long after we moved on, we heard a gunshot..." ~ Dine Grandmother's Account of "The Trail of Tears." ~ ******
	"I am a Shawnee. My forefathers were warriors. Their son is a warrior. From them I take only my existence. From my tribe I take nothing. I have made myself what I am." ~ Tecumseh ~ ******
	"I love the land and the buffalo, and will not part with it. I want the children raised as I was. I don't want to settle. I love to roam over the praires. There I feel free and happy, but when we settle down we grow pale and die. A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber, they kill my buffalo, and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting. This is our country. We have always lived in it. We always had plenty to eat because the land was full of buffalo. We were happy. ... Then you came. ... We have to protect ourselves. We have to save our country. We have to fight for what is ours." ~ Satanta, Kiowa Chief ~ ******
	"Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?" ~ Tecumseh ~ ******
	"The following day after my baptism, they took me to work with the other Indians, and they put me to cleaning a milpa [cornfield] of maize." ~ Janitin, A Kamia Indian ~ ******
	"About twenty old people died during the winter from starvation. From severe whipping, four died. A nephew of an Indian lady who was living with Stone was shoot [sic] to death by Stone. When a father or mother of young girl was asked to bring the girl to his house by Stone or Kelsey, if this order was not obeyed, he or her would be whipped or hung by the hands. Many of the old men and women died from fear and starvation." ~ William Benson, a Pomo Chief ~ ******
	"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. "We are Indians and we have no such bank, but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good. Our way of giving is our bank." ~ Chief Maquinna, Nootka ~ ******
	"I wish to know why Commissioners are sent out to us who do nothing but rob us and get the riches of this world away from us." ~ Red Cloud ~ ******
	"There has been too much talking by men who have no right to talk. Too many misrepresentations have been made about the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are brothers. You might as well expect the rivers to run backwards as that any man who was born free should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. 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 religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself - and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty." ~ Chief Joseph ~ ******
	"I do not think you will keep the peace. You tell me we can stay in our mountains and our valleys. That is all we wish, we do not want to fight and kill whites, and we do not want the whites to fight and kill us. We want nothing but to live in peace. But I do not believe you will allow us to remain on the lands we love. I warn you, if you try to move us again, war will start once more, it will be a war without end, a war in which every Apache will fight until he is dead. Prove to me that I am wrong, prove to me that this time I can trust you." ~ Cochise, Apache Chief ~ ******
	"I am very old...my people were once around me like the sands of the shore. They have all passed away. They have died like the grass...they have gone to the mountains. I am all that is left of my people. I am alone." ~ Freed Neophyte From the Delores Mission~ ******
	"We stand young warriors in the circle At dawn all storm clouds disappear The future brings all hope and glory, Ghost dancers rise Five-hundred years." ~ 500 Nations at the Capitol of Washington D.C. ~ ******
An Indian Prayer "Great Spirit! Grant that I may not critize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins."
Before you leave I hope to take a few moments to sign the Guest Book. This will let me know you were here so I can return the favor!! *s*
If you know any sayings of our NA Indian forefathers, please send them to me and I will be happy to add them here. *vbg* Until next we meet, go with the wind at your back and the sun shining down on you!!
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