US and Native American relations

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This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

Vine Deloria, Jr.

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Read this article at the New York Times website

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Deloria, Vine, Jr. "This Country Was a Lot Better Off When the Indians Were Running It." The New York Times, 8 Mar. 1970.

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These lands are ours. No one has a right to remove us, because we were the first owners. The Great Spirit above has appointed this place for us, on which to light our fires, and here we will remain. As to boundaries, the Great Spirit knows no boundaries, nor will his red children acknowledge any.

Tecumseh

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Tecumseh. To Joseph Barron. c. 1810.

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What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one. What treaty that the whites ever made with us red men have they kept? Not one. When I was a boy the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set in their lands. They sent 10,000 horsemen to battle. Where are the warriors to-day? Who slew them? Where are our lands ? Who owns them ? What white man can say I ever stole his lands or a penny of his money? Yet they say I am a thief. What white woman, however lonely, was ever when a captive insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian. What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and gone unfed ? Who has ever seen me beat my wives or abuse my children ? What law have I broken ? Is it wrong for me to love my own ? Is it wicked in me because my skin is red ; because I am a Sioux ; because I was born where my fathers lived ; because I would die for my people and my country ?

Sitting Bull

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Sitting Bull. Quoted in Life of Sitting Bull and History of the Indian War of 1890-'91, written by W. Fletcher Johnson. Edgewood Publishing Co., 1891.

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When the white men came we gave them lands, and did not wish to hurt them. But the white man drove us back and took our lands. Then the Great Father made us many promises, but they are not kept. He promised to give us large presents, and when they came to us they were small; they seemed to be lost on the way.

Red Cloud

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On promises made and broken by the American government.

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Red Cloud. Speech at Council of Peace. 15 June 1870, New York City, NY, USA.

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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

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

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

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From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

Chief Joseph

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

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Chief Joseph. Surrender message to General Howard. 4 Oct. 1877.

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I am tired of fighting... I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Chief Joseph

Speech of surrender at end of the Nez Perce War, October 5th, 1877.

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Chief Joseph. "I Will No Longer Fight Forever More." 5 Oct. 1877, Blaine County, Montana Territory, USA.

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Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun.

Tecumseh

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

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Original Citation

Tecumseh. 1799. Tribal councils with White Men. Urbana, Ohio, USA.

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Current Citation

Tecumseh. Quoted in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, written by Dee Brown. Picador, 2007, ch. 1.

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When the white man had warmed himself before the Indians' fire and filled himself with their hominy, he became very large. With a step he bestrode the mountains, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hands grasped the eastern and the western sea, and his head rested on the moon.

Speckled Snake

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Speckled Snake. Speech delivered at a council of Indian chiefs. 20 June 1829, USA.

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Speckled Snake. Quoted in A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present, written by Howard Zinn. Routledge, 2015, ch. 7.

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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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Original Citation

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

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Current Citation

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

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The Cherokee nation...is a distinct community, occupying its own territory...which the citizens of Georgia have no right to enter but with the assent of the Cherokees themselves, or in conformity with treaties and with the acts of Congress.

John Marshall

Worcester v. Georgia

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Read this opinion at supreme.justia.com.

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Marshall, John. United States, Supreme Court. Worcester v. Georgia. United States Reports, vol. 31, 3 Mar. 1832, pp. 515-597. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/31/515/.

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