The idea of full dress for preparation for a battle comes not from a belief that it will add to the fighting ability. The preparation is for death, in case that should be the result of conflict. Every Indian wants to look his best when he goes to meet the great Spirit, so the dressing up is done whether in imminent danger is an oncoming battle or a sickness or injury at times of peace
"Will we let ourselves be destroyed in our turn without a struggle, give up our homes, our country bequeathed to us by the Great Spirit, the graves of our dead and everything that is dear and sacred to us? I know you will cry with me, \Never! Never!\"
"The white people, who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to be what they call "assimilated," bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from our way.
"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."
"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."
When a white army battles Indians and wins, it\r\nis called a great victory, but if they lose it\r\nis called a massacre.
...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.
"I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them. . ."
Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation.... This fear of the Nation\s censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.
We want freedom from the white man rather than to be intergrated. We don\t want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We don\t want power, we don\t want to be congressmen, or bankers....we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong here.
Since the beginning, Native Peoples lived a life of being in harmony with all that surrounds us.
The Great Spirit Chief who rules above all\r\nwill smile upon this land...\r\nand this time the Indian race is waiting and praying.
"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."
When the white man discovered this\r\ncountry Indians were running it.\r\nNo taxes no debt, women did all the work\r\nWhite man thought he could improve on a system like this.
"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors."
We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone.
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