NATIVE AMERICAN QUOTES
“Optimistic, hopeful people view barriers and obstacles as problems to be solved
and not as the reason to give up or turn back. Positive people never, ever give
up.”
Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee
“The happiest people I've ever met, regardless of their profession, their social
standing, or their economic status, are people that are fully engaged in the
world around them. The most fulfilled people are those who get up every morning
and stand for something larger than themselves. They are people who care about
others, people who will extend a helping hand to someone in need or will speak
up about an injustice when they see it.”
Wilma Mankiller, Cherokee
"The stereotypes have grown worse and worse. The way people are raised and
taught is coming out in a younger generation. We’re blind to (native] culture.
It’s not something that should be kept from us.”
Christopher Gardipee, 18, non-native.
“America is not made of just white people. We all bring a certain quality to
America.”
Briana Welsh
“Nobody really knows who we are. It’s not in the history books.”
Billy Franks Jr, Nisqually
“People only think of Native Americans as ‘back in the day. Every other culture
is in the present.”
Shakohwin Black Cloud, Lakota Muscokgee
"Your work is a reflection on you, and if you don't do a good job, what does
that say about you?"
Lee Sakiestewa
"It's the third largest constellation in the sky, and they saw it every single
night for tens of thousands of years. It was like the TV being stuck on the same
channel playing the same show nonstop."
Rex Saint Onge about Ursa Major and its importance to the Chumash people
“We know we are related physically and mentally, but we also have to be related
spiritually. We have to reconnect spiritually to come back together and
work to be a family again.”
Ernie LaPointe, Sioux
"We have much to gain from reaching out to share our cultures.”
Lynette Allston. Nottaway
"Some people say that Indians can survive without recognition, but in this day
and age, they can’t.”
Robert “Two Eagles” Green, Patawomeck
"The old people say, 'Learn from your mistakes'. So I try to accept everything
for what it is and to make the best of each situation one day at a time."
Dr. A.C.Ross (Ehanamani), LAKOTA
"When you begin a great work you can't expect to finish it all at once."
Teedyuscung, Delaware
"Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had
no criminals. You can't have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys,
and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or
blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much
value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give
them away. We had no money, and therefore a man's worth could not be measured by
it. We had no written law, no attorneys or politicians, therefore we couldn't
cheat. We really were in a bad way before the white man came, and I don't know
how we manage to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are
absolutely necessary to make a civilized society. But now visible progress is
everywhere - we have jails all over the place and men in neck-ties who lie and
cheat."
Lame Deer - Ikce Wicasa
"Our language is what holds us. It is a part of who we are. This is what my
father told me."
Dakota Littlecrow, Salish
"Balance is implicit in the Red Road. When you're on the Red Road, you are in
the center. Yet, you do not go to either extreme, and you allow both sides to
exist. This is accomplished by continually postponing surrendering to
temptation, whatever it may be. It is saying `later' instead of `no.'"
Dr. A.C. Ross (Ehanamani), LAKOTA
"You have the values that come with the language. Never trade off for something
that is foreign. Your legacy should be good enough."
Rhonda Hopkins, Chippewa
“[The stories] teach us about … a good way to live life, and they help us
understand ourselves. Our world view, our perspective, is in those stories. When
those things may be missing in other parts of your life, you can find them by
listening.”
Bill Howes, College of St Scholastica
“We’re taught not to be better than anyone else; we’re taught to be equals,”
Amik Smallwood, Ojibwe
“We’re not afraid to fail because every failure brings us closer to success.”
Gregory E. Pyle, Choctaw
"Each of us must find out for himself or herself what their gift is, so that
they can use it in their life."
Jimmy Jackson,
OJIBWAY
“"One of the essential
characteristics we need to learn as men was to be gentle, and to be gentle means
to be serene, to enter meditation or a prayerful state in the morning and
evening."
Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA
Words
from the Circle p.
23
Words from the Circle p. 25
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