Although I don't "look like it", I am Cherokee. I am a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

As part of my exploration of my Cherokee heritage I am particularly interested in quotes by Native Americans.

Quotations by Native Americans

The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives.
         — Native American Proverb

I think over again my small adventures
My fears, those small ones that seemed so big
For all the vital things I had to get and reach
And yet there is only one great thing
The only thing
To live to see the great day that dawns
And the light that fills the world.
         — unknown Inuit

Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I'll understand.
         — Native American Proverb

When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home. 
         — Chief Aupumut (1725), Mohican.

The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies.
         — Mary Brave Bird

We learned to be patient observers like the owl. We learned cleverness from the crow, and courage from the jay, who will attack an owl ten times its size to drive it off its territory. But above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit.
         — Tom Brown, Jr., The Tracker

I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I can go everywhere with a good feeling.
         — Geronimo (1829 – 1909 ), Apache

I love the land of winding waters more then all the rest of the world. A man who would not love his father's grave is worse then a wild animal.
         — Chief Joseph (1840 – 1904), Nez Pierce Chief

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 Joseph (1840 – 1904), Nez Pierce Chief

I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.
         — Lone Man (Isna-la-wica), Teton Sioux

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.
         — Chief Maquinna, Nootka

We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, animals, fish and trees. 
         — Qwatsinas (Hereditary Chief Edward Moody), Nuxalk Nation

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.
         — Red Cloud

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

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.
         — Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Sioux

Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?
         — Sogoyewapha, "Red Jacket", Senaca

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.  
         — John Wooden Legs, Cheyenne

Quotation Pages On
James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door

This page created:
before
Wed, 16.Aug.2000

Last updated:
19:49, Tue, 19.Aug.2008