You always work as a group, not somebody singled out. There is no such thing as that with the Apache. We say, "I walk with you," not " I walk before you" or "I walk behind you"....You are not a leader, you are a part. -Philip Cassadore, Apache

I am alone in the world. I want to live in these mountains; I do not want to go to Tularosa. That is a long way off. The bad spirits live there. I have drunk of these waters and they have cooled me. I do not want to leave here. -Cochise, Chiricahua Apache

Speak, Americans...I will not lie to you; do not lie to me. -Cochise, Chiricahua Apache

When Usen created the Apaches, he also gave them their homes in the West. He gave them such grain, fruits, and game as they needed to eat...and all they needed for clothing and shelter was at hand. Thus it was in the beginning; the Apaches and their homes, each created for the other. When they are taken from these homes they sicken and die. -Geronimo, Chiricahua Apache

You came into our country. You were well received. Your lives, your property, your animals were safe. We believed your assurances of friendship, and we trusted them. -Mangas Coloradas, Mimbreno Apache

They had war dances at night before battle...keeping time with the drum, ducking down and moving with their shield...and people would say you could hardly see them because they did it so fast. -Allan Houser, Apache

We had no churches, no religious organizations, no sabbath day, no holidays, and yet we worshiped. Sometimes the whole tribe would assemble to sing or pray; sometimes in a small number, perhaps only two or three. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud. -Geronimo, Apache war chief

The Great Spirit is displeased with you for accepting the ways of the white people. You can see for yourselves-your hunting is gone and you are planting the corn of the white men...You yourselves can see that the white people are entirely different beings from us; we are made from red clay. -Tsali, Cherokee shaman

You say: Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do? May we not ask, why the white people do not hunt and live as we do?
The great God of Nature has given each their lands..he has stocked yours with cows, ours with buffalo; yours with hog, ours with bear; yours with sheep, ours with deer. He has indeed given you an advantage, in that your cattle are tame and domestic while ours are wild and demand not only a larger space for range, but art to hunt and kill them.-Corn Tassel, Cherokee 1785

Where now are our grandfathers, the Delawares? We had hoped the white man would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains; now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled on Cherokee lands....The remnant of the Ani-Yunwiya, the Real People, once so proud and formidable, will be obliged to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. -Dragging Canoe, Cherokee, 1768

I have a little boy....If he is not dead, tell him the last words of his father were that he must never go beyond the Father of Waters, but die in the land of his birth. It is sweet to die in one's native land and be buried by the margin of one's native stream. -Tsali, Cherokee shaman, awaiting execution, 1838

We never had a thought of exchanging our land for any other...fearing the consequences may be similar to transplanting on old tree, which would wither and die away. -Levi Colbert, Chickasaw, 1826

The redwood trees are sacred. They are a special gift from the Great Creator to the human beings....Destroy these trees and you destroy the Creator's love -Minnie Reeves, Chilula

When the Frenchman arrived at these falls, they came and kissed us....They never mocked at our ceremonies, and they never molested the places of our dead. Seven generations of men have passed away, and we have not forgotten it. -Chippewa chief

We are exceedingly tired. We have just heard of the ratification of the Choctaw Treaty. Our doom is sealed. There is no other course for us but to turn our faces to our new homes toward the setting sun. -David Folsom, Choctaw, 1830

The Chumash have a story....It begins with a worm who is eaten by a bird. The bird is eaten by a cat whose self-satisfaction is disrupted by a mean-looking dog. After devouring the cat, the dog is killed by a grizzly bear....About that time comes a man who kills the bear and climbs a mountain to proclaim his superiority. He ran so hard up the mountain that he died at the top. Before long the worm crawled out of his body. -Kote Katah, Chumash

I am in your power. Do with me what you please. I have done the white people all the harm I could; I have fought them, and fought them bravely; if I had an army, I would yet fight...but I have none; my people are all gone. I can no do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation. -Red Eagle, Creek, after the Ft Mims Massacre by A Jackson.

Last night I saw the sun set for the last time, and its light shine upon the treetops and the land and the water that I am never to look upon again. -Menewa, Creek 1836

The Dakota understood the meaning of self-sacrifice, perhaps because their legends taught them that the buffalo, on which their very life depended, gave itself voluntarily that they might live. -Ella C Deloria, Dakota

When the last red man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the white men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe...when your children's children think themselves alone in the field, the store, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. -Chief Seattle, Dwamish, to Isaac Stevens

We perform the Snake Dance for rain to fall to water the earth, that planted things may ripen and grow large; that the male element of the Above, the Yei, may impregnate the female earth virgin, Naasun. -Hopi man, 16th century

There are stories and stories....There are the songs, also, that are taught. Some are whimscal. Some are very intense. Some are documentary....Everything I have known is through teachings, by word of mouth, either by song or by legends. -Terrence Honvantewa, Hopi

A council fire for all the nations shall be kindled. It shall be lighted for the Cherokee and for the Wyandot. We will kindle it also for the seven nations living toward the sunrise, and for the nations that dwell toward the sunset. All shall receive the Great Law and labor together for the welfare of man. -Attributed to Deganawidah, Huron holy man

Think, then, what must be the effect of the sight of you and your people, whom we have at no time seen, astride the fierce brutes, your horses, entering with such speed and fury into my country...things altogether new, as to strike awe and terror into our hearts. -Chief of Ichisi, 1540

Now we will speak again about him, Our Creator. He decided, "Above the world I have created...I will continue to look intently and to listen intently to the earth, when people direct their voices at me."
Let there be gratitude day and night for the happiness he has given us. He loves us, he who in the sky dwells. He gave us the means to set right that which divides us. -From Iroquois Thanksgiving ritual

They will forget their old laws; they will barter their country for baubles. Then will disease eat the life from their blood. -Hanisse'ono, the Evil One, from Iroquois legend

Some of our chiefs make the claim that the land belongs to us. It is not what the Great Spirit told me. He told me that the land belongs to Him, that no people own the land, and that I was not to forget to tell this to the white people. -Kannekuk, Kickapoo prophet

I am very sad. I want peace quick, or else let the soldiers come....Let everything be wiped out, washed out, and let there be no more blood....I have given up now and want no more fuss. I have said yes and thrown away my country. -Kintpuash, Modoc, note to army commander, 1873

The Mohawks have on all occasions shown their zeal and loyalty to the Great King; yet they have been very badly treated by his people. Indeed it is very hard, when we have let the King's subjects have so much of our lands for so little value. We are tired out in making complaints and getting no redress. -Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), Mohawk, 1776

Sir: I send you by one of our runners the child which we will deliver, that you may know what ever others do, I do not make war on women and children. I am sorry to say that I have those engaged with me in the service who are more savage than the savages themselves. - Joseph Brant, Mohawk, a note that referenced the white militamen allied with Brant's Mohawk warriors, 1777

Every man of us thought that, by fighting for the King, we should ensure for ourselves and childern a good inheritance. -Joseph Brant, Mohawk

Will you ever begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet? From a grain of sand to agreat mountain, all is sacred. yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent. We natives are guardians of this sacred place. - Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk

Most of the people got sick and had stomach trouble. The children also had stomach ache. The prisoners begged the Army for some corn, and the leaders also pleaded for it for their people. Finally they were given some-one ear of corn each. -Navajo survivor of Bosque Redondo

My God and my mother live in the west and I will not leave them. I was born there. I shall remain there. I have nothing to lose but my life, and that they can come and take whenever they please. But I will not move. -Manuelito, Navajo

I will not; I do not need your help. We are free now; we can go where we please. Our fathers were born here. Here they lived, here they have died, here are their graves. We will never leave them. -Old Joseph, Nez Perce

These young men have come from White Bird country, bringing horses with them. Horses belonging to a white settler they killed....It will have to be war. -Two Moons, Nez Perce

We traveled through the Bitterroot Valley slowly. No more fighting! We had left General Howard and his war in Idaho. -Yellow Wolf, Nez Perce

I am tired of fighting....The old men are all dead....The little children ae freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are....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, Nez Perce

You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be contented penned up and denied liberty....Let me be a free man-free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade, where I choose...free to think and act and talk for myself. -Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

Words do not pay for my dead people. They do not pay for my country, now overrun by white men. The do not protect my father's grave. -Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

They had done nothing wrong to be so killed. We had only asked to be left in our homes. -White Feather, Nez Perce in reference to those who died in the fighting.

You have told me that Paradise is very beautiful. Is it more beautiful than the land of the musk ox in summer, when sometimes the mist blows over the little lakes in the early morning...and the loons cry very often? Can I see the caribou roam where I look, and can I feel the wind? -Saltatha, Dogrib-North elder

The Beaver does everything perfectly well; itmakes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread; in short, it makes everything well. -Eastern Algonquian North

Trap, fish and dig ground root, and you will never starve. -Kias Peter, Gwich'in-North

When the first ship appeared, the people thought it was the spirit of the Pestilence and, dancing on the shore, they waved their palms toward the newcomers to turn back.
When the whites landed, the people sent down the old men, who had only a few years to live anyhow, expecting them to fall dead. But when the new arrivals began buying their furs, the younger ones went down too, trading for axes and iron the marten and otter skin cloaks they wore. -Haida-North narrative

I recall all the memories from those days...when all meat was juicy and tender, and no game too swift for a hunter. When I was young, every day was a beginning of some new thing, and every evening ended with the glow of the next day's dawn. -Ivaluarjuk, Iglulik-North elder

We will dance when our laws command us to dance, we will feast when our hearts desire to fest. Do we ask the white man, "Do as the Indian does"? No, we do not. Why then do you ask us, "Do as the white man does"? -Kwakiutl-North elder

White people are children of thunder. Everything they do and everything they have is accompanied with noise. -Yupik-North shaman

We felt that all things were like us people, down to small animals like the mouse, and the things like wood. The wood is glad to the person who is using it, and the person is glad to the wood for being there to be used. -Joe Friday, Yupik-North

The sod house is very warm...men and women wear almost nothing. Ladies are topless, but they wear beads around their neck. Most of them have tattoos on face, hands and arms. this makes them look beautiful and ladylike - St. Lawrence Island Yupik-North

In the old days our people had no education. All their wisdom and knowledge came to them from dreams. They tested their dreams and in that way learned their own strength. -Ojibwa elder

There is not a lake or mountain that had not connected with it some story of delight or wonder, and nearly every best and bird is the subject of some storyteller....Night after night for weeks I have sat and eagerly listened. The days following, the characters would haunt me at every step, and every moving leaf would seem to be a voice of a spirit. -George Copway, Ojibwa

These are the words that were given to my great-grandfather by the Master of Life: "At some time there shall come among you a stranger, speaking a language you do not understand. He will try to buy the land from you, but do not sell it; keep it for an inheritance to your children." -Aseenewub, Red Lake Ojibwa

"I am unwilling for you to wander over this land," said the white man.
White Buffalo in the Distance said, "but we have wild animals, which are beyond our dwelling place, though they are on our land."
" Though you say so, the land is mine," said the white man. -Omaha hunter, recalling encounter with Mormon farmers in Iowa.

If you are willing to remain in ignorance and not learn how to do the things a woman should know how to do, you will ask other women to cut your moccasins and fit them for you. You will go from bad to worse; you will leave your people, go into a strange tribe, fall into trouble, and die there friendless. -Omaha elder

You think that the Axe-Makers [Europeans] are the eldest in the country and the greatest in possession. We Human Beings are the first, and we are the eldest and the greatest. These parts and countries were inhabited and trod upon by the Human Beings before there were any Axe-Makers. -Sadekanaktie, Onondaga to Governor of Canada, 1694

We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up in the colleges of the Northern provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors; they were totally good for nothing.
"We are however not the less obliged for your kind offer, though we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, and instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." -Canasatego, Onondaga, on higher education & free tuition offer, 1744

We lived before they came among us, and as well, or better. We had then room enough, and plenty of deer, which was easily caught; and tho' we had not knives, hatchets, or guns, such as we have now, yet we had knives of stone, and bows and arrows, and those served our uses as well then as the English ones do now. -Canasatego, Onondaga

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

Englishman, although you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us. We are not your slaves. These lakes, these woods and mountains were left us by our ancestors. We will part with them to no one. -Pontiac, Ottawa

We do not call him a medicine man because he gives medicine to the sick, as your doctors do. Our medicine man cures the sick by the laying on of hands, and we have doctresses as well as doctors. We believe that our doctors can communicate with holy spirits from heaven. We call heaven the Spirit Land. -Sarah Winnemucca, Northern Paiute

I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago.  God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal, or lie. He gave me this dance to give my people. -Wovoka, Paiute shaman

If the Great Spirit sent the smallpox into our country to destroy us, it was to punish us for listening to the false promises of white men. It is a white man's disease, and no doubt it was sent amongst white people to punish them for their sins. -Neomon-ya, Paxoche

We mined a bag of gold as large as a man's arm but received only a pair of overalls, a hickory shirt, and a red handkerchief for a summer's work. -Augustin, Pomo miner

Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war?
I am not so simple, as not to know it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children; to laugh and be merry with the English; and, being their friend, to have copper, hatchets, and whatever else I want, than to fly from all, to lie cold in the woods, and to be so hunted, that I cannot rest, eat, or sleep. -Wahunsonacock, Powhatan, 1609

We have lived upon this land from days beyond history's records, far past any living memory, deep into the time of legend. The story of my people and the story of this place are one signle story. We are always joined together. - Pueblo elder

What we are told as children is that people when they walk on the land leave their breath wherever they go. So wherever we walk, that particular spot on the earth never forgets us, and when we go back to these places, we know that the people who have lived there are in some way still there, and that we can actually partake of their breath and of their spirit. -Rina Swentzell, Santa Clara Pueblo

The Pueble have no word that translates as "religion." The knowledge of a spiritual life is part of the person 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Religious belief permeates every aspect of life; it determines man's relation with the natural world and with his fellow man. The secret of the Pueblo's success was simple. They came face to face with nature but did not exploit it. -Joe S Sando, Jernez Pueblo

Our art is not a separate entity. It is a universal gesture of prayer....And it harmonizes with the expression of life....Art is always there. There is always something done, something, woven, something painted something sculpted. -Jose Rey Toledo, Jernez Pueblo

You have taken me prisoner with all my warriors. I am much grieved...I expected to hold out much longer and give you more trouble before I surrendered.
Black Hawk is now a prisoner of the white man. But he can stand torture, and he is not afraid of death. He is no coward. Black Hawk is an Indian. -Black Hawk, Sauk, after being betrayed for $100 and 20 horses.

My reason tells me that land cannot be sold-noting can be sold but such things as can be carried away. -Black Hawk, Sauk

They could not capture me except under a white flag. They cannot hold me except with a chain. -Osceola, Seminole, 1838

You have guns, and so have we. You have powder and lead, and so have we. You have men and so have we. Your men will fight and so will ours, till the last drop of the Seminole's blood has moistened the dust of his hunting ground. -Osceola, Seminole, 1836

You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread our blankets. You have got our country now, but you are not satisfied. You want to force your religion upon us.
We are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We will wait a little while, and see what effect your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again what you have said. -Red Jacket, Seneca, to Protestant missionaries

Your forefathers crossed the great water and landed on this island. Their numbers were small. We took pity on them, and they sat down among us. We gave them corn and meat. They gave us poison in return. -Sagoyewatha (Red Jacket), Seneca

Whiskey is a great and monstrous evil and has reared a high mound of bones. So now all must say, "I will use it nevermore."
The married should live together and children should grow fromt hem. Man and wife should rear their children will, love them, and keep them in health.
Love one another and do not strive for anotoher's undoing. Even as you desire good treatment, so render it.-Handsome Lake, Seneca, after his vision of three angels in ancient Iroquois regalia, 1799

Our religion is not one of paint and feathers; it is a thing of the heart. -Follower of Handsome Lake, Seneca

When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre. - Chiksika, Shawnee

The whole white race is a monster who is always hungry, and what he eats is land. -Chiksika, Shawnee

The whites are already nearly a match for us all united, and too strong for any one tribe alone to resist. Unless we support one another with our collective forces, they will soon conquer us, and we will be driven away from our native country and scattered as leaves before the wind. -Tecumseh, Shawnee

Sell, a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? -Tecumseh, Shawnee

When an Indian is killed it is a great loss, which leaves a gap in our people and a sorrow in our heart. -Chisika, Shawnee, elder brother of Tecumseh

My son, you are now flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. By the ceremony performed this day, every drop of white blood was washed from your veins; you were taken into the Shawnee nation...you were adopted into a great family. -Black Fish, Shawnee, recalling 1778 adoption of Daniel Boone into tribe

We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rooling hills and winding streams with tangled growth as "wild." To us it was tame. Earth was bountiful and we were surrounded with the bliessings of the Great mystery. -Luther Standing Bear, Rosebud Sioux

I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be white man he would have made me so in the first place. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights. -Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Sioux

We send our little Indian boys and girls to school, and when the come back talking English, they come back swearing. There is no swear word in the Indian languages, and I haven't yet learned to swear. -Gertrude S Bonnin, Yankton Sioux

They made us many promises, more than I can remember. They never kept but one-they promised to take our land, and they took it. -Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux

I will follow the white man's trail. I will make him my friend, but I will not bend my back to his burdens. I will be cunning as a coyote. I will ask him to help me understand his ways, then I will prepare the way for my children. Maybe they will outrun the white man in his own shoes. -Many Horses, Oglala Sioux

Count your fingers all day long and white men with guns in their hands will come faster than you can count. You will die like the rabbits when the hungry wolves hunt them. But Little Crow is not a coward. He will die with you. -Little Crow, Santee Sioux

Today is a good day to fight-today is a good day to die. -Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux

We did not ask you white men to come here. We do not want your civilization-we would live as our fathers did and their fathers before them -Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux

Black Hills is my land and I love it-And whoever interferes will hear this gun. -Little Big Man, Oglala Sioux

You have split my land and I don't like it. These lands once belonged to the Kiowa and the Crow, but we whipped these nations out of them and in this we did what the white men do when they want the lands of the Indians. -Oglala Sioux delegate

Oh hear me, Grandfather, and help us, that our generation in the future will live and walk the good road with the flowering stick to success. Also, the pipe of peace, we will offer it as we walk the good road to success. Hear me, and hear our plea. -Black Elk, Sioux

Soon there will come from the rising sun a different kind of man from any you have yet seen, who will bring with them a book and will teach you everything. -Spokan Prophet

The difference between us and you Americans is in the clothing; the blood and body are the same. The Indians are proud, they are not poor. If you talk the truth to the Indians to make a peace, the Indians will do the same for you. -Spokan Garry

We had ponies long before we ever saw the white people. The Great spirit gave them to us. Our horses were swifter an dmore enduring, too, before they were mixed with white man's horses. -Smoholla, Wanapam shaman

Since you are here as strangers, you should rather confine yourselves to the customs of our country than impose yours upon us. -Wicomesse leader, 1633

My words are tied in one with the great mountains, with the great rocks, with the great trees, in one with my body and my heart. All of you see me, one with this world. -Yokuts prayer

If we possessed such large canoes, we would follow you to your land and conquer it, for we too are men. -Unknown Native to a Spaniard after De Soto's raids.