From Chief Joseph, Nez Perces'

"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace.....Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.......Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade....where I choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty."

Chief Seattle
"When the Earth is sick,
the animals will begin to disappear,
when that happens,
The Warriors of the Rainbow
will come to save them."




oh...btw...

remember the environmental group "Greenpeace"

i worked with them a bit in the late 70's

they had or still have a ship

called "the Rainbow Warrior"

Unknown Speaker addressing
the National Congress of American Indians
in the mid 1960's

"In early days we were close to nature.
We judged time, weather conditions,
and many things by the elements--
the good earth, the blue sky,
the flying of geese, and the changing winds.
We looked to these for guidance and answers.
Our prayers and thanksgiving
were said to the four winds--
to the East, from whence the new day was born;

to the South, which sent the warm breeze
which gave a feeling of comfort;

to the West, which ended the day and brought rest;

and to the North, the Mother of winter whose sharp air
awakened a time of preparation for the long days ahead.

We lived by God's hand through nature and evaluated
the changing winds to tell us or warn us of what was ahead.
Today we are again evaluating the changing winds.

May we be strong in spirit and equal to our Fathers
of another day in reading the signs accurately
and interpreting them wisely. May Wah-Kon-Tah,
the Great Spirit, look down upon us, guide us,
inspire us, and give us courage and wisdom.
Above all, may He look down upon us and be pleased."

Sweetheart, that was a beautiful piece. The native americans were misunderstood and treated wrongly. I believe in the spirits and the peace they provide. Nakoma, Akeema and Takima are my spirits and they guide me. They are a peaceful nation just trying to survive as everyone else is. And I do believe someone was breaking the rules in this here thread and it burned me up to see his negativity. Take care sweetie and keep up the posts.

Bravo

Dear Robert,

Thank you so much ~ Wolfeyes ~ for stopping by

for your loving heart and your words so wise...

Yes, there seems to be always be,

at least one bad apple ~ evidently...



but, "no need to fear...Underdog is here"

remember that cartoon? a memory of yesteryear!

Soo cool...but maybe you were a bit too young

and i am so grateful , so thrilled to be among

my loyal buddies who lovingly back my play

each starry night & every bright & blessed day

i've had to fend for myself for quite some time

I do not tolerate such disrespect along the line

This tigress of righteousness refused the verbal slash

and happily took it out with the evening trash .....

Thank you so much




((((( <<<<< Pam >>>>> )))))

Crazy Horse - Sioux

"I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...in the winter..and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape...but we were so hemmed in we had to fight. After that I lived in peace, but the government would not let me alone. I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting...They tried to confine me..and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.

Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Sioux

"I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in his sight. It is not necessary for Eagles to be Crows. We are poor..but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die...we die defending our rights."

Red Cloud(Makhpiya-luta) , April, 1870

"In 1868, men came out and brought papers. We could not read them and they did not tell us truly what was in them. We thought the treaty was to remove the forts and for us to cease from fighting. But they wanted to send us traders on the Missouri, but we wanted traders where we were. When I reached Washington, the Great Father explained to me that the interpreters had deceived me. All I want is right and just."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

....I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.

we read their amazing, loving words ....

as they poured out their hearts and souls




and yet...there are still those

who call them warlike, savage & backward

I have 3 nieces and 2 nephews that are Sioux, have been to many pow wows and I adhere to the Lakota religion You are born Sioux but anyone can practice the Lakota beliefs and way of Life and love of the earth and nature!!!

yes, yes...dear Mikey...

so very very true...

thank you so much...

John Wooden Legs, Cheyenne

"Our land is everything to us...
I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land.
We remember that our grandfathers paid for it -
with their lives."



no amount of trinkets

or disease- ridden blankets

can even come close

to matching that kind of payment




and some people use that term..."Indian giver" ????

the Indians gave it all

& the white man savagely took it

casting upon the absolute " Innocents "

sickness, death & extinction of their tribes

Wovoka, Paiute

"You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest.
"You ask me to dig for stones! Shall I dig under her skin for bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again.

"You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men, but how dare I cut my mother's hair?

"I want my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again. We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother."

Chief Maquinna, Nootka

"Once I was in Victoria, and I saw a very large house. They told me it was a bank and that the white men place their money there to be taken care of, and that by and by they got it back with interest. "We are Indians and we have no such bank; but when we have plenty of money or blankets, we give them away to other chiefs and people, and by and by they return them with interest, and our hearts feel good.
Our way of giving is our bank."

Many Horses

"I will follow the white man's trail.
I will make him my friend,
but I will not bend my back to his burdens.
I will be cunning as a coyote.
I will ask him to help me understand his ways,
then I will prepare the way for my children,
and their children.

The Great Spirit has shown me -
a day will come
when they will outrun the white man in his own shoes."

Metea, a Potowatami chief of the Illinois nation

"My Father: a long time has passed since first we came upon our lands; and our people have all sunk into their graves. They had sense. We are all young and foolish, and do not wish to do anything that they would not approve, were they living. We are fearful we shall offend their spirits if we sell our lands; and we are fearful we shall offend you if we do not sell them. This has caused us great perplexity of thought, because we have counselled among ourselves, and do not know how we can part with our lands.
My Father, we have sold you a great tract of land already; but it is not enough! We sold it to you for the benefit of your children, to farm and to live upon. We have now but a little left. We shall want it all for ourselves. We know not how long we shall live, and we wish to leave some lands for our children to hunt upon. You are gradually taking away our hunting grounds. Your children are driving us before them.
We are growing uneasy. What lands you have you may retain.
But we shall sell no more

Santana, Kiowa Chief

"I love this land and the buffalo and will not part with it.
I want you to understand well what I say.
Write it on paper...I hear a great deal of good talk
from the gentlemen the Great Father sends us,
but they never do what they say.
I don't want any of the medicine lodges (schools and churches) within the country. I want the children raised as I was.
I have heard you intend to settle us on a reservation
near the mountains. I don't want to settle.
I love to roam over the prairies. There I feel free and happy,
but when we settle down we grow pale and die.

A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers,
but when I go up to the river
I see camps of soldiers on its banks.
These soldiers cut down my timber,
they kill my buffalo and when I see that,
my heart feels like bursting."

These words from our past,
tell us of the pain and loss we,
the children of the Earth,
feel in our hearts and express our concern for,
not only our future but the future of the world
as we watch the land being raped
in the name of progress.


I welcome your thoughts
and if you have a quote you'd like to share,
then send them in and Ill post them here.

Thanks for your input.

http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/quotes.html