Indian Quotes - Page 27

• 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

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• It's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.

  Joy Harjo

  Beautiful, Meaningful, Art

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• Before AIM, Indians were dispirited, defeated, and culturally dissolving. People were ashamed to be Indian. You didn't see the young people wearing braids or chokers or ribbon shirts in those days. Hell, I didn't wear 'em. People didn't Sun Dance, they didn't Sweat, they were losing their languages. Then there was that spark at Alcatraz, and we took off. Man, we took a ride across this country. We put Indians and Indian rights smack dab in the middle of the public consciousness for the first time since the so-called Indian wars.

  Russell Means

  Country, War, Men

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• The turn of the century was the lowest point for the devastation of Indian culture by disease and persecution, and it's a wonder to me that they survived it and have not only maintained their identity, but are actually growing stronger in some ways. The situation is still very bad, especially in certain geographical areas, but there are more Indians going to school, more Indians becoming professional people, more Indians assuming full responsibility in our society. We have a long way to go, but we're making great strides.

  N. Scott Momaday

  School, Responsibility, Growing Stronger

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• The Indian Bureau system is wrong. The only way to adjust wrong is to abolish it, and the only reform is to let my people go. After freeing the Indian from the shackles of government supervision, what is the Indian going to do: leave that with the Indian, and it is none of your business.

  Carlos Montezuma

  Government, People, Way

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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

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• The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things are the same breath - the animals, the trees, the man.

  Chief Seattle

  Rain, Native American, Men

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• The Lord has never indicated that black skin came because of being less faithful. Now, the Indian; we know why he has changed, don't we? The Book of Mormon tells us that; and he has a dark skin, but he has promise there that through faithfulness, that they all again become a white and delightsome people.

  LeGrand Richards

  Book, Native American, Dark

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• The United States, which would live on Christian principles with all of the peoples of the world, cannot omit a fair deal for its own Indian citizens.

  Harry S. Truman

  Christian, Citizens, World

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• There has been a vigorous acceleration of health, resource and education programs designed to advance the role of the American Indian in our society. Last Fall, for example, 91 percent of the Indian children between the ages of 6 and 18 on reservations were enrolled in school. This is a rise of 12 percent since 1953.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Children, Fall, School

  Eisenhower, Dwight D. (1961). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960-1961”, p.925, Best Books on

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• The American Indian, once proud and free, is torn now between White and tribal values; between the politics and language of the White man and his own historic culture. His problems, sharpened by years of defeat and exploitation, neglect and inadequate effort, will take many years to overcome.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Men, White Man, Years

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1970). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968-1969”, p.336, Best Books on

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• What we have done with the American Indian is its way as bad as what we imposed on the Negroes. We took a proud and independent race and virtually destroyed them. We have to find ways to bring them back into decent lives in this country.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Country, Independent, Race

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• It is the fundamental right of every American, as guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution, to worship as he or she pleases... This legislation sets forth the policy of the United States to protect and preserve the inherent right of American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiian people to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions

  Jimmy Carter

  Believe, Exercise, People

  United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1979). “Jimmy Carter”

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• This government to government relationship is the result of sovereign and independent tribal governments being incorporated into the fabric of our Nation, of Indian tribes becoming what our courts have come to refer to as quasi-sovereign domestic dependent nations. Over the years the relationship has flourished, grown, and evolved into a vibrant partnership in which over 500 tribal governments stand shoulder to shoulder with the other governmental units that form our Republic.

  George H. W. Bush

  Independent, Years, Government

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• Let us rededicate ourselves to the principle that all Americans have the tools to make the most of their God-given potential. For Indian tribes and tribal members, this means that the authority of tribal governments must be accorded the respect and support to which they are entitled under the law. It means that American Indian children and youth must be provided a solid education and the opportunity to go on to college. It means that more must be done to stimulate tribal economies, create jobs, and increase economic opportunities.

  William J. Clinton

  Jobs, Children, Mean

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• The most Indian thing about the Indian is surely not his moccasins or his calumet, his wampum or his stone hatched, but traits of character and sagacity, skill, or passion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Passion, Native American, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Waldo Emerson, Waldo Emerson Forbes (1911). “Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872 [1876] Ed”

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• [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

  Country, Beach, Native American

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• Indian civilisation does not distinguish in terms of religion. We are an impossible achievement in the world and I'm very proud to be an Indian.

  Shahrukh Khan

  Achievement, Doe, World

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• Culture and tradition have to change little by little. So 'new' means a little twist, a marriage of Japanese technique with French ingredients. My technique. Indian food, Korean food; I put Italian mozzarella cheese with sashimi. I don't think 'new new new.' I'm not a genius. A little twist.

  Masaharu Morimoto

  Mean, Italian, Thinking

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• I have no liking for novels or stories - none in the world; and so, whenever I read one - which is not oftener than once in two years, and even in these same cases I seldom read beyond the middle of the book - my distaste for the vehicle always taints my judgment of the literature itself, as a matter of course; and also of course makes my verdict valuless. Are you saying "You have written stories yourself." Quite true: but the fact that an Indian likes to scalp people is no evidence that he likes to be scalped.

  Mark Twain

  Book, Reading, Years

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.57, Chartwell

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• Beyoncé's like, 'Okay. The singing is great. But you're not having any fun.' She's like, 'Remember when we were at Jay's concert and Panjabi MC comes on and you do your crazy Indian dance? Do that. Be you!'

  Gwyneth Paltrow

  Fun, Crazy, Singing

  "The Spellbinder: Gwyneth Paltrow" by Mickey Rapkin, www.elle.com. August 3, 2011.

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• There is an ancient Indian saying: "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children." If we use this ethic as a moral compass, then our rendezvous with reality can also become a rendezvous with opportunity.

  Patricia Schroeder

  Children, Opportunity, Reality

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• Sultan Khan had become champion of India at Indian chess and he learned the rules of our form of chess at a later date. The fact that even under such conditions he succeeded in becoming champion reveals a genius for chess which is nothing short of extraordinary.

  Jose Raul Capablanca

  Champion, India, Genius

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• Non-cooperation is beyond the reach of the bayonet. It has found an abiding place in the Indian heart. Workers like me will go when the hour has struck, but non-cooperation will remain.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Struggle, Heart, Bayonets

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• Reincarnation contains a most comforting explanation of reality by means of which Indian thought surmounts difficulties which baffle the thinkers of Europe.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Mean, Reality, Europe

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