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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“I am not sure that energy company executives who say they want to understand the concerns of Indigenous people can actually do so unless they can grasp the emotional weight and social obligations carried by people who balance on the knife-edge of permanent cultural loss.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“The good news is that colonialism is powerful but incomplete.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“No one knew the way to placate the enemy's power. In times of tribulation they used to visit the dark caves, laden with gifts. They used to chew bitter leaves before saying their prayers; and once when they had grown desperate they chose the best among them and crucified him. Because the white men keep their God thus, nailed hand and foot to stop his anger from being unleashed. But the Indians had watched it rot, that martyred body they had tried to set up as a safeguard against misfortune.”
― Rosario Castellanos, Balún Canán

“Your teacher's no good. He doesn't know how to teach."

César bit his lower lip to hide a smile. He mustn't provoke them. But they looked pretty silly taking seriously their role of savages wanting to be civilized.”
― Rosario Castellanos, Balún Canán

“You should not take more than you need”
― Sami Saying

“If a Lumbee worldview exists, it radiates from Robeson.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“These are the ancestral lands of. . . .' The phrase carries both truth and trauma that can slip past uneducated ears. Indigenous homelands on the Coastal Plain are places of deep connection and remembrance, but they are also places where horrific colonial experiences befell our ancestors. The trauma of those experiences still flows through our communities today. The pain of racial oppression and cultural loss combines with the radical transformation of our homelands, and it haunts us from generation to generation.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice