Native American life

Explore 5 quotes about Native American life

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

On Arizona.

More information about this quote

Topic

Home Native American life

Speaker

Geronimo

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Geronimo. Speech from Fort Sill. 1877, Fort Sill, OK, USA.

Current Citation

Geronimo. Quoted in Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place, written by Angie Debo. University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.

If you tie up a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me.

Chief Joseph

More information about this quote

Topic

Native American life US and Native American relations

Speaker

Chief Joseph

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1879 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Chief Joseph. Speech in Lincoln Hall. 14 Jan. 1879, Lincoln Hall, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Chief Joseph. "An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs." Great Speeches by Native Americans, edited by Bob Blaisdell. Dover Publications, 2012.

The Indian...stands free and unconstrained in Nature, is her inhabitant and not her guest, and wears her easily and gracefully. But the civilized man has the habits of the house. His house is a prison.

Henry David Thoreau

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Topic

Native American life

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Journals of Henry David Thoreau

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1841 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. Journal entry. 26 Apr. 1841.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "April 26 [1841]." I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer. Yale University Press, 2007.

The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is as good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion.

Sitting Bull

More information about this quote

Topic

Modern life Native American life Simple living Freedom

Speaker

Sitting Bull

Source

On the Great Highway: The Wanderings and Adventures of a Special Correspondent

Medium

Interview

Language

Lakota

Time

19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sitting Bull. Statement to journalist James Creel. 1882.

Current Citation

Sitting Bull. Quoted in Great Speeches by Native Americans, edited by Bob Blaisdell. Dover Publications, 2012.

Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all.

Geronimo

Quoted in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, by Dee Brown

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More information about this quote

Topic

US and Native American relations Native American life American West

Speaker

Geronimo

Author

Dee Brown

Source

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1886 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Geronimo. Surrending to General Crook. 27 Mar. 1886, Canon de los Embudos (Canyon of the Funnels), Mexico.

Current Citation

Geronimo. Quoted in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, written by Dee Brown. Picador, 2007, ch. 17.