Famous Quotes & Sayings

Dave Barry

Thus the white men and Native Americans were able, through the spirit of goodwill and compromise, to reach the first in what would become a long series of mutually beneficial, breached agreements that enabled the two cultures to coexist peacefully for stretches of twenty and sometimes even thirty days, after which it was usually necessary to negotiate new agreements that would be even more mutual and beneficial, until eventually the Native Americans were able to perceive the vast mutual benefits of living in rock-strewn sectors of South Dakota.

Eddie Izzard

So the American government lied to the Native Americans for many, many years, and then President Clinton lied about a relationship, and everyone was surprised! A little naive, I feel!

Beau Bridges

Second, this epic tale allows the audience to actually listen to the Native Americans and receive their wisdom. Spielberg conveys the respect for Native Americans that is normally lacking in Western films.

Dennis Banks

What we did in the 1960s and early 1970s was raise the consciousness of white America that this government has a responsibility to Indian people. That there are treaties; that textbooks in every school in America have a responsibility to tell the truth. An awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong. And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing. From that, our own people began to sense the pride.

Carlos Mencia

Do you think we care about the feelings of Native Americans when we celebrate Columbus Day? That's the day that the white man discovered a land where Indians had been living for a few thousand years.

Black Elk

I saw more than I can tell / And I understood more than I saw.

Black Elk

The power of the world always works in circles.

Black Elk

Everything the Power of the World does is done in a circle.

Black Elk

Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

Black Elk

And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle.

Black Elk

If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish.

Black Elk

Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

Black Elk

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

Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.

Black Elk

But if the Vision was true and mighty, as I know, it is true and mighty yet;for such things are of Spirit, and it is in the darkness of their eyes that men get lost.

Chaske Spencer

I think people should look at learning about Native American history the same as visiting Washington, D.C., and seeing the monuments there. It's all part of the package.

Elizabeth Warren

Being Native American has been part of my story I guess since the day I was born,

Elizabeth Warren

I'm proud of my Native American heritage,

Jared Diamond

It invites a search for ultimate causes: why were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?

Jared Diamond

It's striking that Native Americans evolved no devastating epidemic diseases to give to Europeans, in return for the many devastating epidemic diseases that Indians received from the Old World.

I didn't know much about my Native American ancestry, but as I got older I became more interested in it.

Anne Sullivan

My role is to get native students through the school system as successfully as possible, ... Whatever that means, anything and everything.

Robert Patterson

Here, we tell the story: why the people came here, what they did when they got here, going back to the Native Americans and coming all the way forward.

Eduardo Galeano

In 1492, the natives discovered they were Indians; they discovered they lived in America.

Vandana Shiva

The occupation of America (and Columbus's arrival quite clearly was an occupation, no one can deny that) meant that the entire history of the Native Americans was rendered invisible. The land could only be occupied if it was first defined as empty. So it was defined as a wilderness, even though it had been used by native people for millennia.

Vandana Shiva

When the wilderness movement emerged, it emerged separate from the issue of social inequality and the economic problems of survival. It was a preservationist ecology movement created by an occupying culture. Clearly, a wilderness movement started by Native Americans would not have had the same roots.

I didn't want to do something on Native Americans or Rosa Parks and this seemed interesting.

Chief Seattle

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people.

Chief Seattle

Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts. 8. We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.

Chief Seattle

All things are bound together. All things connect.

Chief Seattle

We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us?

Chief Seattle

The whites, too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you might suffocate in your own waste.

Chief Seattle

Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only change of worlds.