Honoring Our Elders


Famous Indian Sayings






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Native American Quotes


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 Medicine Man.

Soon there will come from the rising sun a different kind of man from any you have ever yet seen. -Spokane Prophecy.

Every part of all this soil is sacred to my people. Every hillside, every valley...has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Chief Seattle, Duwamish.

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.

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

When the first white man came over the wide waters, he was but a little man...very little. His legs were cramped by sitting long in his big boat, and he begged for a little land. But when the white man had warmed himself at the Indian's fire, and had filled himself with the Indian's hominy, he became very large... -Speckled Snake, Creek.

Deer, I am sorry to hurt you, but the people are hungry.-Choctaw hunter prayer.

I have long since learned who you Castilians are... To me you are professional vagabonds who wander from place to place, gaining your livelihood by robbing, sacking, and murdering people who have given you no offense. Florida Chief, 1539.



If we possessed such large canoes, we would follow you to your land and conquer it, for we too are men. -Cherokee Chief, 1543.

You sell alcohol to our young men, and give it to them, many times...it rots their guts and causes our men to get very sick, and many of our people have lately died by the effects, and I heartily wish you would do something to prevent your people from daring to sell or give them any of that strong drink. -King Haglar, Catawba.

You say: Why do not the Indians till the ground and live as we do? May we not ask, why do the white people do not hunt and live as we do? The Great God of Heaven has given each their lands... he has stocked 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.

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.

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 now do no more than weep over the misfortunes of my nation.-Lumhe Chati, Creek Chief.

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

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

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.

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 Chief, 1836.

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 margins of one's native stream.- Tsali, Cherokee Medicine Man awating execution, 1838.

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 single 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 whereever 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.

You always work as a group, not somebody just 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. Phillip Cassadore, Apache.

Lightning is good. When lightning strikes a tree, people say that the tree has been blessed and go to gather that wood for special purposes.-Delmar Boni, Apache.

I guess these old people, our great ancestor people, they said that one day you will forget all your religion and your culture and all that...If we forget all about our culture and beliefs, we have nowhere to go, we don't know how to pray, we don't know how to use our corn pollen, corn meal, anything that we pray with, we forget all about that. before that happens, we'd better do something.-Jimmy Toddy, Navajo.

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.

There was a time when our forefathers owned this great island. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for food. He had made the bear and the beaver. Their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered them over the country , and taught us how to take them., he had caused the earth to produce corn for bread.-Red Jacket, Seneca.

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 towards the sunset. All shall receive the Great Law and labor together for the welfare of man. -Deganawidah.

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. -Iroquois Thanksgiving Song.

Brothers, we must be as one as the English are, or we shall all be destroyed. You know our fathers had plenty of deer and skins and our plains were full for game and turkeys, and our coves and rivers were full of fish. But Brothers, since these Englishmen have seized our country, they have cut down the grass with scythes, and the trees with axes. Their cows and horses eat up the grass, and their hogs spoil our bed of clams; and finally we shall starve to death; therefore, I ask you, resolve to act like men. -Miantonomi, Narragansett.

You think that the Axe Makers are the eldest in the country and the greatest in possession. We Human Being are the first, and we are the eldest and the greatest. These parts and countries were inhabited and trod upon by the Human Beigns before there were any Axe Makers. -Sadekanaktie, 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 were receive for it are soon worn out and gone.-Canasatego, Onondaga.

You now have 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.

When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Caunotaucarius, the Town Destroyer; and to this day when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling to the knees of their mothers. Our councilors and warriors are men and cannot be afraid; but their hearts are grieved with the fears of their women and children, and desire that it may be buried so deep as to be heard no more. When you gave us peace, we called you father, because you promised to secure us in possession of our lands. Do this, and so long as the lands shall remain, the beloved name will remain in the heart of every Seneca. Cornplanter, Seneca to George Washington, 1790.

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." -Handsome Lake, Seneca.

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

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.

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.

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 Ojibwe.

When the Frenchmen 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.

Englishmen, 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.

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 to Daniel Boone, 1778.

We have beaten the enemy every time; we cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. In spite of the watchfullness of our braves, we have never been able to surprise him. There is something that whispers to me that it would be prudent to listen to offers of peace. -Little Turtle, Miami.

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.

My reason tells me that land cannot be sold, nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away.-Black Hawk, Sauk.

Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the cornfields; and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young. Sometimes at evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. In the shadows I seem again to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth lodges.-Buffalo Bird Woman, Hidatsa

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.-New-mon-ya, Paxoche.

These stories were the libraries of our people. In each story, there was recorded some event of interest or importance...A people enrich their minds who keep their history on the leaves of memory. -Luther Standing Bear, Lakota.