"Humankind has not woven the
web of life. We are but one
thread within it. Whatever
we do to the web, we do to
ourselves. All things are
bound together. All things
connected."
Chief Seattle
"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,
recalling 1778 adoption
of Daniel Boone into
the tribe
"Sell a country! Why not sell the air,
as well as the earth? Did not the
Great Spirit make them all for the
use of his children?"
Tecumseh, Shawnee
"You have taken me prisoner with all
my warriors. I am much grieved...
I expected to hold out much longer
and give you more trouble before I
surrendered.
Black Hawk is now a prisoner of the
white man. But he can stand torture,
and he is not afraid of death. He is
no coward. Black Hawk is an indian."
Black Hawk, Sauk
"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 scared. Yesterday and
tomorrow exist eternally upon this
continent. We natives are guardians
of this scared place."
Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk
"Today is a good day to fight-
today is a good day to die."
Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux
"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."
