Indigenous Peoples Quotes

“English is so hierarchical. In Cree, we don't have animate-inanimate comparisons between things. Animals have souls that are equal to ours. Rocks have souls, trees have souls. Trees are 'who,' not 'what.”
― Tomson Highway

“I think that the thing I most want you to remember is that research is a ceremony. And so is life. Everything that we do shares in the ongoing creation of our universe.”
― Shawn Wilson

“The global Indigenous cause reached a major milestone in 2007 when the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only four members of the assembly voted in opposition, all of them Anglo settler-states - the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.”
― Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

“History repeats itself. The first time as tragedy. The second time as farce. The third time as tourist trap.”
― Sarah Vowell

“Adams has shown a nearly inexhaustible desire, leavened with an equal amount of sheer talent- five decades' worth and counting- in an unrelenting effort to stabilize, strengthen, and improve the standing of indigenous peoples, minority groups, and the larger society as well. He is an exemplary Native activist, indeed.”
― David E. Wilkins, The Hank Adams Reader: An Exemplary Native Activist and the Unleashing of Indigenous Sovereignty

“If I stay here, I will be just fine. Before I shut the door, I got a box of crackers from the kitchen, so I will be fine.”
― Kathleen Alcala, The Flower in the Skull

“Los blancos hicieron que estas tierras fueran extranjeras para el indio; hicieron que el indio comprara con su sangre el aire que respira.”
― Ermilo Abreu Gómez, Canek

“The women in my family are medicine. They are backbones and ribcages and hearts. They are whispers in men's ears. They are the guardians that kept us whole.”
― Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch: A Memoir

“Ellos, que no pertenecen ni a mi mundo ni al de los españoles. Ellos, que son la mezcla de todas las sangres--la iberica, la africana, la romana, la goda, la sangre indigena y la sangre del medio oreinte--, ellos que junto con todos los que estan naciendo, son el nuevo recipeinte para que el verdadero pensamiento de Cristo--Quetzalcoatl se instale nuevamente en los corazones y proyecte al mundo su luz, ¡que nunca tengan miedo! ¡que nunca se sientan solos!”
― Laura Esquivel, Malinche

“Ghost Dancers Rise: At the 500th anniversary of Columbus's landing, tribal leaders gathered in Washington, DC, for a ceremony in front of the Capitol. They could have dwelt on the catastrophes that were Columbus's legacy, but instead they closed the ceremony with these words:

We stand young warriors
In the circle
At dawn all storm clouds disappear
The future brings all hope and glory,
Ghost dancers rise
Five-hundred years.”
― Eldon Yellowhorn, Kathy Lowinger

“I would rather not speak with history but history came to me.
It was dark before daybreak when the fire sparked.
The men left on a hunt from the Pequot village here where I stand.
The women and children left behind were set afire.
I do not want to know this, but my gut knows the language of bloodshed.
Over six hundred were killed, to establish a home for God’s people, crowed the Puritan leaders in their Sunday sermons.
And then history was gone in a betrayal of smoke.
There is still burning though we live in a democracy erected over the burial ground.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

“Now many of us celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day
(instead of or along with Thanksgiving, Turkey Day,
Family Feud and/or Family Fun and Games).
I see it as a day to learn more about the people whose land we stole
(yes, even we whose forebearers came more recently,
because we continue to benefit from the theft),
and to sit in the complexity that is the building
and continuation of
our civilization.”
― Shellen Lubin

“We need to learn more.
We need to do better.
We are all woven together
in the fabric of the Earth
and over time
we will all thrive or fail
together.”
― Shellen Lubin

“For many years (even before the MMQs) when this day rolled around,
I discussed the complexities
of celebrating Thanksgiving
as I did about Columbus Day
when the country that was founded by Columbus
(looking for someplace else)
and settled by Pilgrims
destroyed more than one peoples
and was on the backs of more than one other.

Times have changed.
It's been a relief to not have to fight so hard for that questioning anymore.”
― Shellen Lubin

“On an idyllic summer day, we walked through the meadows and hillsides, sitting in circles, laughing and filling sacks of cottongrass, salmonberries, crowberries, cranberries, mountain alder, northern golden rod, and rose hip roots. We collected cloudberry tea and Labrador tea, and wild celery. The Elders walked together, laughing, talking of the old days when they would travel to the Messenger Feasts, across the channel to Siberia, or south to trade in Qikiqtaġruk. We’d mix a dessert of fresh berries and lard, whipping and whipping the lard until fluffy.”
― Lily H. Tuzroyluke, Sivulliq: Ancestor

“Imagine if we natives went to the cemeteries in your cities and dug up your beloved relatives, pulled off rings, watches, and clothes, and called them" artifacts, "then carried the bones over to the university for study so we could understand you. Consider that there are more bones of native people in universities and museums for study, than there are those of us living.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

“Given that the United States purportedly annexed Hawai'i in 1898, before these statements were negotiated, those who cite them apply them retroactively. In this logic Hawai'i is merely occupied by the United States; kingdom nationalists argue that Hawai'i was never colonized: therefore decolonization is an inappropriate political strategy. Because the Hawaiian nation afforded citizenship to people who were not Kanaka Maoli [native people to Hawai'i] - and because of its status as an independent state - kingdom nationalists tend to distance themselves from Indigenous rights discourse as well.”
― J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism

“The status of domestic dependent nation that would be granted Native Hawaiians through a process of federal recognition does not recognize the kingdom's history of sovereign existence or take into account the unjust occupation or overthrow of the monarch inflicted by the U.S. government. At the same time, relying on presently existing international law regarding Indigenous Peoples also has the limitation that in tis present state such law still gives priority to existing nation-states and puts the preexisting rights of Indigenous People as nations on a back burner.”
― J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism

“Secretary Gu said that if we left the mountains with our reindeer, it would also be a way of protecting the forest. Roaming reindeer damaged the vegetation and disturbed the balance of the ecosystem. And anyway, wild animals are protected now so hunting is prohibited.
Only a people that is willing to lay down it's hunting rifles, he added, is a truly civilised people with a promising future.

I really wanted to tell him that our reindeer have always kissed the forest. Compared to the loggers who number in the tens of thousands, we and our animals are just a handful of dragonflies skimming the water's surface. If the river that is this forest has been polluted, how could it be due to the passage of a few dragonflies?

But I didn't say any of that to him.”
― Chi Zijian

“I step out of my shirangju.
The moist air filled with the delicate fragrances of plants makes me sneeze, a refreshing sneeze that sweeps away my fatigue.
The moon has risen, but it is not round... It bends over gently like a fawn lapping water. Beneath it extends the road that leads out of the mountains.”
― Chi Zijian

“When writing on the subject of civilization, one must understand that the ability to read or write a European language does not create a superior civilization. Nor does the ability to point exploding sticks that cause instantaneous death or injury, or to launch missiles that could blow the world apart, provide a moral basis to declare one’s culture more civilized than another. The question to ask when judging the values and merits of a civilization must always be: “How does the civilization respond to the human needs of its population?” By this standard, because they created social and political systems that ensured personal liberty, justice and social responsibility, most Amerindian civilizations must be given very high marks.

When making an unbiased assessment, and comparing the values of early American civilizations with those of European civilizations, one cannot but find that the suppression and wanton destruction of American civilizations by European civilizations was in many ways a case of inferior civilizations overcoming superior ones. This is especially true in the area of respect for human rights. Although they were not as technologically advanced as the Europeans were by 1492, many Amerindian Nations possessed democratic political practices that were light years ahead.”
― Daniel N. Paul, We Were Not the Savages: First Nations History? Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations

“Másaw (Skeleton Man) added. “If the Blue Star dancer removes his mask the Fifth World begins. There is no stopping it.”
― G.G. Collins, Anasazi Medium

“Flashlights there are plenty,
Sun there is but one.
Rushmores there are plenty,
Everest there is but one.

Rushmore leers as a criminal monument,
While Everest stands as a gentle giant.
Arrogance goes together with brutality,
While valor and virtue go hand in hand.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“Four kids in T-shirts and jeans jam on a powwow stage. They’re grinning, bouncing, fully engaged with their music, each other, and the relaxed crowd. I’m splitting fry bread with a cousin as we cheer on the band, and across the tent, a young girl reading a paperback catches my eye.
In that moment, I wish for more characters like those kids in the pages of children’s books.
This anthology is a fulfillment of that wish.”
― Cynthia Leitich Smith, Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids

“There is no star spangled banner, there is only blood stained banner.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“It is believed that the ancestors of the American or Red Indian race began their migration to North America and then from North to South some 25,000 or less years ago. The probable road they took was from Asia across the Bering Isthmus that formerly existed where the present straits are situated. This isthmus became approachable only at the time the glaciers were receding; until that time the entire American continent had been almost unpopulated...”
― Mikhail Nesturkh, Ras-ras Umat Manusia

“We have come a long way, but the amount of wisdom we could learn from the Indigenous people and their ecological practices to create sustainable civilizations is multitudinous.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

“This unfortunate race, whom we had been taking so much pains to save and to civilize, have by their unexpected desertion and ferocious barbarities justified extermination and now await our decision on their fate”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Whatever the intentions behind land acknowledgments, I am intrigued that otherwise well-educated listeners (especially university audiences) require continuous reminders that they occupy stolen land. Settler colonialism not only erases, it feeds on its own forgetfulness.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“That was a perilous area...Graves could be anywhere and undoubtedly are. We walk over history, unaware, every day in all places. We sleep atop it. When we rest our heads at night, we've no way of knowing who may have been laid to rest beneath us.”
― Lisa Wingate, Shelterwood