NATIVE AMERICAN WISDOM

collected by Dee Finney

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John Adams,  American Horse(Joseph Brown Thunder)(Manishne),  Aupumut,  Babtiste Good,  Big Bear,  Big Eagle (Wamditanka),  Bigfoot,  Black Elk,  Black Hawk,  Black Kettle, Big Thunder,   Abel Bosum,  William Bowles,  Joseph Brant,  Canassatego , Choncape, Chou-man-i-case,  Cochise, Corn Planter,  Crazy Horse/ Tashunke Witko,  Commanda,  George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-bowh),  Dave Chief,  Kangi Witka (Crow Feather),  Delshay, Deskaheh, Dragging Canoe,  Dan George,  Dull Knife,  Eagle Chief,  Eskiminzin ,  Flat Iron,  Fool Crow (Shunka Witko),  Gall,  Geronimo/Goyathlay,  Good Eagle,  He-Dog,  Hole-in-the-Day - (Bug-o-nay-ki-shig),  Ishi, ,  Joseph, Dan Katchongva , Keokuk,  Kicking Bird, Kintpuash,  Little Crow-Taoyateduta,  Little Raven,  Little Pine,  Little Turtle,  Little Wolf (Ohcumgache),  Lone Man (Isna-la-wica),  Low-Dog,  Luther Standing Bear,  Many Horses,  Maquinna,  Russell Means,  Menawa,  Montezuma I and II,  Molly Occut,  Ohiyesa/Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman,  Mougo,  Mourning Dove - (Humishuma) (Christine Quintasket),  Navajo,  Osceola,  Ouray, Donehogawa(Ely Parker) Plenty Coups,  Pocohantas,  Powhatan, Pontiac,  Pope, Potelasaro,  Quanah Parker,  Qwatsinas,  Rain-in-the-Face,  Red Cloud,  Red Jacket (Sogoyewapha),  Will Rogers,  Roman Nose,   John Ross, Sacajawea,  Santana,Chief Seattle , Sequoya (George Gist), Shooter Teton,  Sitting Bull,  Spotted Tail,  Squanto (Tisquantum),  Standing Bear,  Surrounded (Jack),  Tonkahaska (Tall Bull),  Tamahay,  Tecumseh,  Mato Noupa (Two Bears),  Two Moons,  Two Strike/Tashunkekokipapi,  Washakie,  Wamditanka (Big Eagle), Waubensee, White Eagle, White Horse, Sarah Winnemucca - (Tocmetone),Wolf Robe, Wovoka"

John Adams - Siletz - (1847-1928)

John Adams

    
American Horse was a Sioux chief during the Lakota Wars of the 1860s and 1870s.
His capture and death was one in a series of defeats for the Sioux after the historic Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876).


American Horse (Joseph Brown Thunder ) (??? - 1876)
Manishnee (Can not walk, or Played out.) Ogallala Born: early nineteenth century
Died: September 7, 1876
Sioux Native American tribal leader and warrior

American Horse

"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, Mohican. 1725

- The white man is in the Black Hills like maggots, and I want you to get them out as quick as you can. The chief of all thieves (General Custer) made a road into the Black Hills last summer, and I want the Great Father to pay the damages for what Custer has done.

Baptiste Good

Big Bear (???- 1888)

Big Bear - Cree   The Story Of Chief Big Bear

- The whites were always trying to make the Indians give up their life and live like the white men - go to farming, work hard and do as they did - and the Indians did not know how to do that, and did not want to anyway….If the Indians had tried to make the whites live like them, the whites would have resisted, and it was the same with many Indians.

Wamditanka (Big Eagle) of the Santee Sioux

Big Foot - Lakota-Miniconjou -Cheyenne (???-1890)

Big Foot    

The Great Spirit is in all things: he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our Father, but the earth is our mother. She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground she returns to us

- Big Thunder (Bedagi) Wabanaki Algonquin

"Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking."

"The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us."

Black Elk - Oglala Sioux

The growing and dying of the moon reminds us of our ignorance which comes and goes- but when the moon is full it is as if the Great Spirit were upon the whole world.

-Black Elk, Oglala Sioux

"May you always walk in Beauty."

Ancient Prayer

Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

All of this Creation is Sacred

And so do not forget.Every Dawn as it comes is a holy event and everyday is holy, for the light comes from "WAKAN-TANKA" And Also you Must remeber that the Two-leggeds and All other peoples who Stand upon this Earth are Sacred and Should be Treated as Such

                  "White Buffalo Woman" Sioux Sacred Woman, quoted by Black Elk , (Oglala Sioux)1947.

The life of an Indian is like the wings of the air. That is why you notice the hawk knows how to get his prey. The Indian is like that. The hawk swoops down on its prey; so does the Indian. In his lament he is like an animal. For instance, the coyote is sly; so is the Indian. The eagle is the same. That is why the Indian is always feathered up: he is a relative to the wings of the air.

- Black Elk, Oglala

I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heapen and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young.And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. . . the nations hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

           -Black Elk, Lakota

You have noticed that everything as Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round..... The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as   ours... Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

-             Black Elk, Oglala

"I cured with the power that came through me. Of course, it was not I who cured, it was the power from the Outer World, the visions and the ceremonies had only made me like a hole through which the power could come to the two-leggeds."

Black Elk, Oglala

"If I thought that I was doing it myself, the hole would close up and no power could come through. Then everything I could do would be foolish."

Black Elk, Oglala

              "If there is a shadow of a doubt someplace, that will cause a weakness."


               --Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA

"How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right."

-Black Hawk, Sauk-(1767-1838)Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak

Motavato (Black Kettle) to the Indians at Medicine Creek Lodge - We were once friends with the whites, but you nudged us out of the way by your intrigues, and now when we are in council, you keep nudging (to fight) each other. Why don't you talk and go straight, and let all be well?

Motavato (Black Kettle) of the Southern Cheyennes (???-1868)

- Although wrongs have been done to me, I live in hopes. I have not got two hearts….Now we are together again to make peace. My shame is as big as the earth, although I will do what my friends have advised me to do. I once thought that I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man, but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses and everything else, it is hard for me to believe the white men any more.

Black Kettle - Cheyenne (???-1868)

Chief Abel Bosum - Ouje-Bougoumou Cree Nation

Chief Abel Bosum - Speech to the U.N. 1994

William Augustus Bowles (???- 1756)

"Our wise men are called Fathers, and they truly sustain that character. Do you call yourselves Christians? Does the religion of Him who you call your Savior inspire your spirit, and guide your practices? Surely not. It is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke. Cease then to call yourselves Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy. Cease too to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than they. No person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthwhile action, but the consciousness of having served his nation. I bow to no man for I am considered a prince among my own people. But I will gladly shake your hand."

Joseph Brant to King George III

Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea), Mohawk - 1742-1807

Joseph Brant Biography   Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea)   Joseph Brant

"We know our lands have now become more valuable. The white people think we do not know their value; but we know that the land is everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone."

Canassatego - Mingo - Six Nations Chief (1700's)

Canassatego History

The Wise Man believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astire on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool - his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Wahpeton Santee Sioux

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one's spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Wahpeton Santee Sioux

If a child is inclined to be grasping, or to cling to any of his or her little possessions, legends are related about the contempt and disgrace falling upon the ungenerous and mean person....

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Wahpeton Santee Sioux

The Wise Man believes profoundly in silence - the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence - not a leaf, as it were, astire on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shinning pool - his, in the mind of the unlettered sage, is the ideal attitude and conduct of life. Silence is the cornerstone of character.

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Santee Sioux

The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have--to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return.

Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) - Wahpeton Santee Sioux - 1858-1939

The Soul of the Indian
Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) Biography

Choncape

Chou-man-i-case

When I was young I walked all over this country, east and west, and saw no other people than the Apaches. After many summers I walked again and found another race of people had come to take it. How is it? Why is it the Apaches wait to die- that they carry their lives on their fingernails? They roam over the hills and the plains and want the heavens to fall on them. The apaches were once a great nation; they are now but few, because of this they want to die and so carry their nails on their fingernails.

-Cochise, Chiricahua Apache

"You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight into our hearts. Speak Americans.. I will not lie to you; do not lie to me."

Cochise, (Hardwood) Chiracahua Apache (1812-1874)

"Traditional people of Indian nations have interpreted the two roads that face the light-skinned race as the road to technology and the road to spirituality. We feel that the road to technology.... has led modern society to a damaged and seared earth. Could it be that the road to technology represents a rush to destruction, and that the  road to spirituality represents the slower path that the traditional native people have traveled and are now seeking again? The earth is not scorched on this trail. The grass is still growing there."

William Commanda, Mamiwinini, Canada, 1991

Among the Indians there have been no written laws. Customs handed down from generation to generation have been the only laws to guide them. Every one might act different from what was considered right did he choose to do so, but such acts would bring upon him the censure of the Nation.... This fear of the Nation's censure acted as a mighty band, binding all in one social, honorable compact.

George Copway (Kah-ge-ga-bowh) Ojibwa Chief - 1818-1863

Corn Planter - (1736-1836) Seneca - Iriquois

Corn Planter History   Corn Planter  

~ It is my wish and the wishes of my people to live peaceably and quietly with you. ~

CORNPLANTER - SENECA CHIEF

(Tashunka Witco, Tashunca-Uitco, "his horse is crazy").

These are the words of a great Indian hero. Crazy Horse was born in 1844 as an Oglala Sioux. He was the son of an Oglala medicine man of the same name and his Brule wife, the sister of Spotted Tail. His first name was Curly, after his father, but after his first war-deed at a young age gave him the name Crazy Horse. He had light skin and hair with a very quiet manner. He was not half white as some say, nor was he a captured white boy as others say, many Indians of his tribe were just like him. He also had unusual spiritual powers which others called him "Strange One". Crazy Horse's real heroism came in 1876, when he led the Sioux to the Battle of the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn. On June 17, they conquered General Crook and his men. Then eight days later along with 2500 other Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Big Horn. Some say it lasted only ten minutes as Crazy Horse wiped out General Custer and his men. Crazy Horse finally, voluntarily surrendered in 1877 and was killed by a soldier as he was forced into a jail cell on September 5 of that year. 

A gigantic figure if Crazy horse is being sculptured out of mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Destroying a great piece of nature is the way of a Native American. Read what he says below:

"We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here; you are taking my land from me; you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live. Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them." . . . .

Crazy Horse Tashunca-uitco (1849-1877)(1845?-1877)

We lived a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. "I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting. 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.

-Tashanka Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala

"One does not sell the land upon which people walk."

-Tashanka Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala

Crazy Horse	The Crazy Horse Page	Crazy Horse Memorial
Crazy Horse	Crazy Horse

- My friends, for many years we have been in this country; we never go to the Great Father's country and bother him about anything. It is his people who come to our country and bother us, do many bad things and teach our people to be bad….Before you people ever crossed the ocean to come to this country, and from that time to this, you have never proposed to buy a country that was equal to this in riches. My friends, this country that you have come to is the best country that we have….this country is mine, and I was raised in it; my forefathers lived and died in it; and I wish to remain in it.

Kangi Witka (Crow Feather)

"Respect means listening until everyone has been heard and understood, only then is there a possibility of "Balance and Harmony" the goal of Indian Spirituality."

- Dave Chief, Grandfather of Red Dog

"Whole Indian Nations have melted away like snowballs in the sun before the white man's advance. They leave scarcely a name of our people except those wrongly recorded by their destroyers. Where are the Delewares? They have been reduced to a mere shadow of their former greatness. We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Tsalagi (Cherokee) land. They wish to have that usurpation sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Tsalagi (Cherokees). New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Tsalagi (Cherokees) and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of the Ani Yvwiya, The Real People, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host. Not being able to point out any further retreat for the miserable Tsalagi (Cherokees), the extinction of the whole race will be proclaimed. Should we not therefore run all risks, and incur all consequences, rather than to submit to further loss of our country? Such treaties may be alright for men who are too old to hunt or fight. As for me, I have my young warriors about me. We will hold our land."

-Dragging Canoe, Chickamauga Tsalagi

Dragging Canoe - Little Cedar Mountain - TVA

Dragging Canoe (Tsiyu-gunsi-ni) Cherokee/Chickamauga Chief

In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals, for Tirawa, the One Above, did not speak directly to man. He sent certain animals to tell men that he showed himself through the beast, and that from them, and from the stars and the sun and moon should man learn.. all things tell of Tirawa. All things in the world are two. In our mind we are two -- good and evil. With our eyes we see two things -- things that are fair and things that are ugly ... We have the right hand that strikes and makes for evil, and the left hand full of kindness, near the heart. One foot may lead us to an evil way, the other foot may lead us to a good. So are all things two, all two.

- Eagle Chief (Letakots-Lesa) Pawnee

"From Wakan-Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan-Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan-Tanka; therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan-Tanka."

- Flat-Iron (Maza Blaska) Oglala Sioux Chief

Tunkasila, le miyelo. Wotehikeca, le ca mauwelo.

Tunkasila, le miyelo. Wotehikca, le ca mauwelo.

 Tunkasila, le miyelo. Wotehikeca, lena cicu welo.

            Tunkasila, le miyelo. Wotehikeca, lena cicu welo.

Fools Crow

Fool Crow -Ceremonial Chief - Teton Sioux
Fools Crow

Gall Hunkpapa

Gall Hunkpapa   Gall  Gall-Matohinshda, or Bear-Shedding-His-Hair -Sioux

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you
and you will know each other.  If you do not talk to them
you will not know them, and what you do not know
you will fear.  What one fears one destroys.

Chief Dan George

The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle. But he will not make friends with any of these creatures and when his heart aches with longing he will curse me. Have I done all to keep the air fresh? Have I cared enough about the water? Have I left the eagle to soar in freedom? Have I done everything I could to earn my grandchild's fondness?

-Chief Dan George-(1899 - 1981)

Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony.

-Chief Dan George

"We have taken so much from your culture, I wish you had taken something from ours...For there were some beautiful and good things within it.  Perhaps now that the time has come, We are fearful that what you take will be lost....

I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success: His education, his skills, and society.

Chief Dan George - (1899-1981)

- I don't want to run over the mountains anymore; I want to make a big treaty….I will keep my words until the stones melt….God made the white man and God made the Apache, and the Apache has just as much right to the country as the white man. I want to make a treaty that will last, so that both can travel over the country and have no trouble.

Delshay of the Tonto Apaches

Deskaheh -Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Statesman and Patriot

Dull Knife - Cheyenne

Dull Knife Biography Cheyenne

- If it had not been for the massacre, there would have been a great many more people here now; but after the massacre, who could have stood it? When I made peace with Lieutenant Whitman my heart was very big and happy. The people of Tucson and San Xavier must be crazy. They acted as though they had neither heads nor hearts….they must have a thirst for our blood….These Tucson people write for the papers and tell their own story. The Apaches have no one to tell their story.

Eskiminzin of the Aravaipa Apaches

- The Great Father told the commissioners that all the Indians had rights to the Black Hills, and that whatever conclusion the Indians themselves would come to would be respected….I am an Indian and am looked on by the whites as a foolish man; but it must be because I follow the advice of the white man

Shunka Witko (Fool Dog)

MAKA' SITO'MANIYAN

Maka' sito'maniyan uki'ye,
Oya'te uki'ye,
oya'te uki'ye,
Wan'bali oya'te wan hoshi'hi-ye lo,
Ate heye lo, ate heye lo,
Maka o'wancha'ya uki'ye,
Pte kin ukiye, pte kin ukiye,
Kanghi oya'te wan hoshi'hi-ye lo,
A'te he'ye lo, a'te he'ye lo.

Translation

The whole world is coming,
A nation is coming, a nation is coming,
The Eagle has brought the message to the tribe.
The father says so, the father says so.
Over the whole earth they are coming.
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming,
The Crow has brought the message to the tribe,
The father says so, the father says so.

-The Ghost Dance

We had no churches, no religious organization, no sabbath days, no holidays, and yet we worshiped. Sometimes the whole tribe would assemble and sing and pray: some times a smaller number, perhaps only two or three. The songs had a few words, but were not formal. The singer would occasionally put in such words as he wished instead of the usual tone sound. Sometimes we prayed in silence; sometimes each prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all  of us. At other times one would rise and speak to us of our duties to each other and to Usen. Our services were short.

- Geronimo (Goyathlay) Chiricahua -("one who yawns") (1829-1909)

"..... sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each prayed aloud, sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us. At other times one would rise and speak to us of our duties to each other and to Usen. Our services were short. "

- Geronimo (Goyathlay) Chiricahua Apache Chief

Geronimo Biography	Geronimo (Goyathlay)	Transfer interrupted! eronimo - Goyathlay ("one who yawns")
Geronimo	Geronimo: His own story	Geronimo: Chiricahua Apache. (1829-1909)
Geronimo	Geronimo (Goyathlay)	Geronimo

"O ye people, be ye healed;
Life anew I bring unto ye.
O ye people, be ye healed;
Life anew I bring unto ye.
Through the Father over all
Do I thus.
Life anew I bring unto ye."

- Good Eagle (Wanbli-Waste) Dakota Sioux Holy Man

He Dog - Oglala

He-Dog Interview - 1930

Hole-in-the-Day - (Bug-o-nay-ki-shig)Ojibway

Hole-in-the-Day Biography      

The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. . . . The Country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no mans business to divide it. . . . I see the white all over the country gaining wealth and see their desire to give us lands which are worthless. . . .The earth and my self are of one mind. The measure of land and the measure of our bodies are the same. Say it us if you can say it, that you were sent by Creative Power to talk to us. Perhaps you think the creator sent you here to destroy us as you see fit. If I thought you were sent by the creator I might be I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me. Do not misunderstand me, but understand me fully with reference to my affection to the land. I never said the land was mine do do with as I chose. The one who has a right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilage to live on yours.

-Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

The earth is our mother. She should not be disturbed by hoe or plough. We want only to subsist on what she freely gives us. Our fathers gave us many laws, which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good. I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I realized then that we could not hold our own with the white men. We were like deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not, and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.

"We are taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets: that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts.... This I believe, and all my people belive the same."

- Chief Joseph (Hinmaton, Yalatkit) Nez Perce-(Nimiputimt) (???-1905)

(Nee-Mee-Poo/hinmatowyalßhtqit) (Thunder coming up over the land from the water)

With a prayer in my mouth I dashed unarmed through a line of soldiers my clothes were cut to piece my horse was wounded but I was not hurt, as I reached the door of my lodge my wife handed me my rifle saying "here's your gun...fight"

-Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

I have carried a heavy load on my back ever since I was a boy. I realized then that we could not hold our own with the white men. We were like deer. They were like grizzly bears. We had small country. Their country was large. We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not, and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.  I am tired of fighting, our chiefs are all killed, the old men are all dead, the little children are freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children see how many of them I can find, maybe I shall find them amoung the dead. Hear me my chiefs, I am tired my heart is sick 'nd sad from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

-Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

"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."

-Heinmot Tooyalaket (Chief Joseph), Nez Perce

Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses. I want to buy them. I say to him, No, my horses suit me; I will not sell them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says, Pay me money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they bought them.

Chief Joseph

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

Chief Joseph

"We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft clods of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now...but it will grow again....like the trees. May serenity circle on silent wings and catch the whisper of the winds."

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce- "In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat" (Thunder coming up over the land from the water)"

Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph, Nez Perce	Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt)
Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph-History	Chief Joseph (Hinmaton-Yalaktit)
Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce	Chief Joseph Nez Perce (Nimiputimt)
Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph
Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph Remembered	Selected Speeches
Chief Joseph	Chief Joseph	Suggested Readings about Chief Joseph

When I am dead, cry for me a little. Think of me sometimes, but not too much. It is not good for you or your wife or your husband or your children  to allow your thoughts to dwell too long on the dead. Think of me now and again as I was in life, at some moment which is pleasant to recall, but not for long.  Leave me in peace as I shall leave you, too, in peace. While you live, let your thoughts be with the living.

Ishi - Yahi of California - (1862- 1916)

Ishi	Ishi: The Last Yahi	Ishi Was Not Necessarily the Last Full-Blooded Yahi:
	Ishi: The Last Yahi	The Legacy of Ishi

Dan Katchongva (1865-1972), Hopi

Dan Katchongva Prophecy

Keokuk -Sac Indian chief. (1788-1848)

Keokuk

Chief Keokuk

Keokuk and Native Americans in the Kickapoo Valley

Kicking Bird (Tene-angop'te)Miniconjou Lakota

Kicking Bird

Kicking Bird

Kicking Bird (Tene-angop'te)

- I am but one man. I am the voice of my people. Whatever their hearts are, that I talk. I want no more war. I want to be a man. You deny me the right of a white man. My skin is red; my heart is a white man's heart; but I am a Modoc. I am not afraid to die. I will not fall on the rocks. When I die, my enemies will be under me. Your soldiers began (fighting) me when I was asleep on Lost River. They drove us on these rocks like a wounded deer. I have always told the white man heretofore to come and settle in my country; that it was his country and Captain Jack's country. That they could come and live there with me and that I was not mad with them. I never received anything from anybody, only what I bought and paid for myself. I have always lived like a white man, and wanted to live so. I have always tried to live peaceably and never asked any man for anything. I have always lived on what I could kill and shoot with my gun, and catch in my trap.

Kintpuash (Captain Jack) of the Modocs

Little Crow-Taoyateduta- Sioux called Kaposia (Light Weight

Little Crow

Little Crow Biography

Little Crow (Tahetan Wakawa Mini)

"My father, you have made promises to me and to my children. If the promises had been made by a person of no standing, I should not be surprised to see his promises fail. But you, who are so great in riches and power; I am astonished that I do not see your promises fulfilled! "I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them. . ."

Shinguaconse ("Little Pine")

Little Raven - Cheyenne

Little Turtle - Me-Shin-Go-Me-Sia (1782-1812) - Miami

Little Turtle	Chief Little Turtle	Michikinikwa (Little Turtle)
Little Turtle	Little Turtle Biography	Meshekinoquah aka Little Turtle

- We have been south and suffered a great deal down there. Many have died of diseases which we have no name for. Our hearts looked and longed for this country where we were born. There are only a few of us left, and we only wanted a little ground, where we could live. We left our lodges standing, and ran away into the night. The troops followed us. I rode out and told the troops that we did not want to fight; we only wanted to go north, and if they left us alone we would kill no one. The only reply we got was a volley. After that we had to fight our way, but we killed none that did not fire at us first. My brother, Dull Knife, took one half of the band and surrendered near Fort Robinson….They gave up their guns, and the whites killed them all.

Ohcumgache (Little Wolf) of the Northern Cheyennes

Little Wolf  

... 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

Low Dog

We cannot all sit on the same side of the Fire. A Council Fire forms a   circle, not a line or a square. When we move to the side, we still sit at the Fire with our Brothers and Sisters, but as we move away from one we move toward another. The circle, like the Dream Hoop, brings us ever back to where we start. Any time words of respect and love are spoken, they will return as given. A harsh word runs forever in the circle, eventually vanishing from the wear against itself. Love settles within the Circle, embracing it and thereby lasting forever, turning within itself. The Medicine Wheel is the circle of life (sometimes referred to as the Scared Hoop) Starting with birth and continuing through out our lifes until death, when we have gone full circle. The Medicine wheel has four Direction, each direction offering it's own lessons, color, and animal guide. There are to paths shown which cross in the center, at which point for me is the heart. (for when you work from your heart, you can reach all directions.) The path from East to West is the path of spirits, (the Blue Road) the path from South to North is our   physical Walk (the Red Road ).

East - beginnings, purity, family, innocence, amazement of Life
South - youth - passions of life, friendships, self-control
West - Adulthood - solitude, stillness, going inside oneself, reflection
North - Place of the Ancient Ones who have gone over - place of wisdom
Above - Freedom of mind, body, spirit below - Nuturing, Mother, life

- Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Sioux 1868-1937

"The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of the forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged..."

- Luther Standing Bear, Oglala

"Out of the Indian approach to life there comes a great freedom - an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations."

-Luther Standing Bear, Oglala

Praise, flattery, exaggerated manners and find high-sounding words were not part of Lakota politeness. Excessive manners were put down as insincere, and the constant talker was considered rude and thoughtless. Conversation was never begun at once, or in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an   answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation.

--Chief Luther Standing Bear (Ota Kte, Mochunozhin) , 1868-1939

"There is a road in the hearts of all of us, hidden and seldom traveled, which leads to an unkown, secret place. The old people came literally to love the soil, and they sat or reclined on the ground with a feeling of being close to a mothering power. Their teepees were built upon the earth and their alters were made of earth. The soul was soothing, strengthening, cleasnsing and healing. That is why the old Indian still sits upon the earth instead of propping himself up and away from its life giving forces. For him, to sit or lie upon the ground is to be able to think more deeply and to feel more keenly. He can see more clearly into the mysteries of life and come closer in kinship to other lives about him."

- Chief Luther Standing Bear

The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.

-Standing Bear, Oglala

"Knowledge was inherent in all things. The world was a library and its books were the stones, leaves, grass, brooks and the birds and animals that shared, alike with us, the storms and blessings of the earth. We learn to do what only the student of nature ever learns, and that is to feel beauty. We never rail at the storms, the furious winds, the biting frosts and snows. To do so intensifies human futility, so whatever comes we should adjust ourselves by more effort and energy if necessary, but without complaint. Bright days and dark days are both expressions of the Great Mystery, and the Indian reveled in being close the the Great Holiness."

-Chief Luther Standing Bear

As a child I understood how to give, I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized.

-Luther Standing Bear, Oglala

Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom -- an intense and absorbing love for nature; a respect for life; enriching faith in a Supreme Power; and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations.

- Luther Standing Bear, Oglala

The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, or mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the buffalo belonged....

-Luther Standing Bear, Oglala

Luther Standing Bear

- When our father heard that the Americans were coming across the Great River westward…We heard of guns and powder and lead - first flintlocks, then percussion caps, and now repeating rifles. We first saw the Americans at Cottonwood Wash. We had wars with the Mexicans and the Pueblos. We captured mules from the Mexicans, and had many mules. The Americans came to trade with us. When the Americans first came we had a big dance, and they danced with our women. We also traded.

Manuelito of the Navahos

"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."

Many Horses

"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

Menawa - Hothlepoya, Upper Towns Creek. (1780s-???) "Crazy War Hunter"

Menawa History    Menawa

"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

Metea, a Potowatami chief of the Illinois nation

Montezuma I and II

Moctezuma	Moctezuma Ilhuicamina I	Motecuhzoma II Xocoyotzin
Montezuma II	Montezuma II	Montezuma's II's Capture

Mougo

...... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

Mourning Dove - (Humishuma) (Christine Quintasket)- Okanogan - Salish 1888-1936

Children were encouraged to develop strict discipline and a high regard for sha>

Transfer interrupted!

rries and dug her first roots, they were given away to an elder so she would share her future success. When a child carried water for the home, an elder would give compliments, pretending to taste meat in water carried by a boy or berries in that of a girl. The child was encouraged not to be lazy and to grow straight like a sapling.

Mourning Dove - Okanogan - Salish 1888-1936

Mourning Dove (Christine Quintasket)

I have been to the end of the earth.
I have been to the end of the waters.
I have been to the end of the sky.
I have been to the end of the mountains.
I have found none that are not my friends.

-Navajo proverb

I told the officer that this was very bad business; that it was very bad for the commissioner to give such an order. I said it was very bad; that we ought not fight, because we were brothers, and the officer said that didn’t make any difference; that Americans would fight even though they were born of the same mother.

-Nicaagat (Jack), White River Utes

Osceola - (Black Drink) Seminole - (1800-1838)

Osceola	Osceola ("Black Drink")	Osceola, the Man and the Myths
Osceola and Abiaka	Osceola - A Seminole Warrior

Samson Occom

Molly Ockett

Molly Ockett

"Abenaki Healing Woman"

- The Army can destroy the Sioux. You can order them around. But we Utes have never disturbed you whites. So you must wait until we come to your way of doing things.

Ouray the Arrow, Chief of the Utes

Arthur Parker

Arthur Parker (Gawasowaneh)

- Although this country was once wholly inhabited by Indians, the tribes, and many of them once powerful, who occupied the countries now constituting the states east of the Mississippi, have, one by one, been exterminated in their abortive attempts to stem the westward march of civilization….If any tribe remonstrated against the violation of their natural and treaty rights, members of the tribe were inhumanly shot down and treated as mere dogs….It is resumed that humanity dictated the original policy of the removal and concentration of the Indians in the West to save them from threatened extinction. But today, by reason of the immense augmentation of the American population, and the extension of their settlements throughout the entire West, covering both slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the Indian races are more seriously threatened with a speedy extermination than ever before in the history of the country

Donehogawa (Ely Parker), 1828-95), a Seneca -the first Indian Commissiorer of Indian Affairs

Ely Samuel Parker     Iroquois Chief and Union Officer Ely Parker
General Ely S. Parker

Our dust and bones.
Ashes cold and white.
I see no longer the curling smoke rising.
I hear no longer the songs of women.
Only the wail of the coyote is heard.

-Plenty Coups

"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors."

-Plenty Coups, Crow

Pocohantas - Matoaka -daughter of Powhantas - 1595 - 1617

The Pocahontas Myth	Pocahontas	Do you know the true story of Rebecca Rolfe (also known as Pocahontas)?
Pocahontas	Pocahontas	Pocahontas and Her Jewelry
Pocahontas: A Legend	Pocahontas	Powhatan’s Little Princess
		The Myth of Pocahontas

Powhatan -Wahunsanocook - (??? - 1618) (father of Pocahontas)

Powhatan     Powhatan

"The Tonkawa killed him - it make my heart hot. I want my people follow after white way. Some white people do that, too."

Quanah Parker 1854-1911 - Comanche

Quanah Parker   Quanah Parker   Quanah Parker

Pontiac - Ottawa

Pontiac: Ottawa Chief

Pope {poh-pay'}(Tewa medicine man) (1630-1690)(1692?), a celebrated medicine man of the Tewa PUEBLO

Pope

Pope (Tewa) Biography

Po'pay: A Leader among Leaders (Pope)

Potalesharo

"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

Rain-in-the-Face - Sioux (???-1905)

Rain-in-the Face Biography

Whose voice was first sounded on this land? The voice of the red people who had but bows and arrows . . . What has been done in my country I did not want, did not ask for it; white people going through my country. . . . When the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him. . . I have two mountains in that country- The Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountain. I want the great father to make no roads through them. I have told these things three times; now I have come here to tell them the fourth time.

(Red Cloud), Oglala Lakota Makhpiya-Luta (1822-1909)

... I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth: and that our Heavenly Father will look upon our children as His children, that all the tribes may be His children, and as we shake hands to-day upon this broad plain, we may forever live in peace.

- Red Cloud (Marpiya-Luta) Oglala

"I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of a 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 (Makhipiya-luta) Sioux Chief

They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take out land, and the did.

-Mahpiua Luta (Red Cloud), Oglala Lakota

"- The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there. Since they crossed the sea, I have given them room. There are now white people all about me. I have but a small spot of land left. The Great Spirit told me to keep it."

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."

-Mahpiua Luta (Red Cloud), Oglala Lakota

- There was no hope on earth, and God seemed to have forgotten us. Some said they saw the Son of God; others did not see him. If He had come, He would do some great things as He had done before. We doubted it because we had seen neither Him nor His works. The people did not know; they did not care. They snatched at the hope. They screamed like crazy men to Him for mercy. They caught at the promise they heard He had made. The white men were frightened and called for soldiers. We had begged for life, and the white men thought we wanted theirs. We heard that the soldiers were coming. We did not fear. We hoped that we could tell them our troubles and get help. A white man saifd the soldiers meant to kill us. We did not believe it, but some were frightened and ran away to the Badlands.

Mahpiua Luta (Red Cloud) of the Oglala Sioux

Red Cloud	Red Cloud Biography	Red Cloud's Farewell Address
Red Cloud	Red Cloud's Treaty Pipe	Red Cloud (Makhpiya-Luta)
Red Cloud Biography	Red Cloud Biography	Red Cloud - Warrier Chief

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), Seneca 1752-1830

"We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. It teaches us to be thankful, to be united, and to love one another! We never quarrel about religion."

Sogoyewapha, (Red Jacket), Seneca 1752-1830

"We first knew you a feeble plant which wanted a little earth whereon to grow. We gave it to you; and afterward, when we could have trod you under our feet, we watered and protected you; and now you have grown to be a mighty tree, whose top reaches the clouds, and whose branches overspread the whole land, whilst we, who were the tall pines of the forest, have become a feeble plant and need your protection."

Sogoywapha (Red Jacket)  Red Jacket

Will Rogers - Cherokee (1879 - 1935)

Will Rogers Memorial & Birthplace    Will Rogers Home Page

Woquini (Roman Nose) to General Winfield Scott Hancock - Are not women and children more timid than men? The Cheyenne warriors are not afraid, but have you never heard of Sand Creek? Your soldiers look just like the soldiers that butchered women and children there.

Roman Nose - Cheyenne (???-1868)

Roman Nose Biography

"By peace our condition has been improved in the pursuit of civilized life."

John Ross - Cherokee - (1790- 1866)

John Ross

About John Ross

Cheokee Chief John Ross

John Ross, leader of the Cherokee

Sakajawea (Boat Launcher)or Sacagawea (Bird Woman)(1787?-1812 or 1884), Shoshone

Sacajawea	Sacagawea	Woman Spirit - Sacajawea
Sacajawea	Sakajawea	Sacajawea

"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 likebursting."

Santana - Kiowa

Satanta

Santana

Santana's Shield

Santana's Descendants

"Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.". . . .
Chief Seattle

"Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth. "This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. "One thing we know: our god is also your god. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Chief Seattle

"... all things share the same breath - the beast, the tree, the man ... the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports."

-Chief Seattle, Dwamish - 1786-1866

When the last red man has become a myth among the white men, when your childrens children think them selves alone in the field, upon the highway or in the silence paths of the woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets ofyour cities are silent, and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still love this beautiful land.

-Chief Seattle, Dwamish

It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. The Indian's night promises to be dark. Not a single star of hope hovers above his horizon. Sad-voiced winds moan in the distance. Grim fate seems to be on the Red Man's trail, and wherever he will hear the approaching footsteps of his fell destroyer and prepare stolidly to meet his doom, as does the wounded doe that hears the approaching footsteps of the hunter. A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see.

Chief Seattle

The wind that gave our grandfathers his first breath also receives his last sigh and the wind must also give our children the spirit of life.

-Chief Seattle, Dwamish

"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, Dwamish

Chief Seattle Speech	Chief Seattle Biography	Chief Seattle's 1854 Oration
Chief Seattle	Chief Seattle: Realist	Seattle: Suqwamish and Duwamish (1786-1866)
Chief Seattle Speech	Chief Seattle's Letter To All	Noah Sealth, aka Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle Speech	About the Chief Seattle Speech	The Alternative "Chief Seattle Statement"
Chief Seattle on Internet	Chief Seattle Bibliography	A few references to Chief Seattle
	chief seattle environment speech	Did Chief Seattle Really Say, 'The Earth Does Not Belong To Man; Man Belongs To The Earth'

Sequoya (George Guess) (1770-1843)

Sequoya	A Gift of Talking Leaves	The Cherokee Alphabet by Sequoya
Sequoyah	Sequoya Biography	Sequoyah (aka George Gist)
Sequoyah	Sequoya Biography	Sequoyah's Home
Sequoyah	Sequoyah's Talking Leaves	Sequoyah Birthplace Museum
Sequoyah	Sequoyah and His Syllabary	Sequoyah, Inventor of the Cherokee Syllabary
Sequoyah	Sequoyah's Cabin	Sequoyah, Great Teacher
Sequoyah	Sequoyah	Sequoyah--Indian Leaders

All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with  animals and with human beings. The reason WakanTanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by WakanTanka to be an  independent individuality and to rely upon itself.

Shooter Teton Sioux

We want no white person or persons here. The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight. "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, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows."

-Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux (1831-1890)

"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."

Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Sioux

- If a man loses anything and goes back and lokos carefully for it, he will find it, and that is what the Indians are doing now when they ask you to give them the things that were promised them in the past; and I do not consider that they should be treated like beasts, and that is the reason I have grown up with the feelings I have….I feel that my country has gotten a bad name, and I want it to have a good name; it used to have a good name; and I sit sometimes and wonder who it is that has given it a bad name.

Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull)

Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbours, even our animal neighbours, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land. Yet hear me, my people, we have now to deal with another race - small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possessions is a disease with them . . . They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own, and fence their neighbours away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. They threaten to take [the land] away from us. My brothers, shall we submit, or shall we say to them: "First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland."

Sitting Bulls Speech at the Powder River Council, 1877.

"Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country? God made me an Indian."

Chief Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull

Tatanka Yotanka (Sitting Bull)

"This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to take our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things... This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land. The Great Father and his children are to blame for this trouble….It has been our wish to live here in our country peacefully, and do such things as may be for the welfare and good of our people, but the Great Father has filled it with soldiers who think only of our death. Some of our people who have gone from here in order that they should have a change, and others who have gone north to hunt, have been attacked by soldiers from this direction, and when they have gone north have been attacked by soldiers from the other side, and now when they are willing to come back the soldiers stand between them in order to keep them from coming home. It seems to me that there is a better way than this, When people come to trouble, it is better for both parties to come together without arms and talk it over and find some peaceable way to settle it.

Sinte-Galeshka (Spotted Tail) of the Brule Sioux -

Spotted Tail Biography     Spotted Tail

When the prairie is on fire you see animals surrounded by the fire; you see them run and try to hide them selves so that they will not burn. That is the way we are here.

-Najinyanupi (Surrounded), Lakota

....to General Winfield Scott Hancock - We never did the white man any harm; we don't intend to…We are willing to be friends with the white man….The buffalo are diminishing fast. The antelope, that were plenty a few years ago, they are now thin. When they shall all die, we shall be hungry; we shall want something to eat, and we will be compelled to come into the fort. Your young men must not fire at us; whenever they see us they fire, and we fire on them.

Tonkahaska (Tall Bull)

Squanto - (Tisquantum) -Wampanoag - (??? - 1622)

Squanto

The History of Tisquantum (Squanto)

Squanto--God's Special Indian, a Thanksgiving Story

- You have driven me from the East to this place, and I have been here two thousand years or more….My friends, if you took me away from this land it would be very hard for me. I wish to die in this land. I wish to be an old man here….I have not wished to give even a part of it to the Great Father. Though he would give me a million dollars or more I would not give to him this land….When people want to slaughter cattle they drive them along until they get them to a corral, and then they slaughter them. So it was with us….My children have been exterminated; my brother has been killed.

Standing Bear of the Poncas

Standing Bear of the Ponca Indians

"The 'Great Mystery' has decreed that I must be disgraced. There will be no pleasure for me now, and I shall be ridiculed even by my enemies. It will be well for me to enter soon into Paradise, for I shall be happy in spending my youth there. But I will sell my life dearly. Hereafter my name shall be spoken in the traditions of our race."

Tamahay - Sioux (???-1864)

Tamahay Biography

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and Its purpose in the service of your people.  Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts Are filled with fear of death, so that 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."

Tecumseh - Shawnee-(1768-1813)

"No tribe has the right to sell, even to each other, much less to strangers.... Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the great sea, as well as the earth? Didn't the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? The way, the only way to stop this evil is for the red man to unite in claiming a common and equal right in the land, as it was first, and should be now, for it was never divided."  We gave them forest-clad mountains and valleys full of game, and in return what did they give our warriors and our women? Rum, trinkets, and a grave.

Tecumseh - Shawnee

Brothers -- My people wish for peace; the red men all wish for peace; but where the white people are, there is no peace for them, except it be on the bosom of our mother. Where today are the Pequot? Where today are the Narrangansett, the Mohican, the Pakanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and the oppression of the White Man, as snow befor a summer sun."

Tecumseh - Shawnee

Tecumseh History	Tecumseh Speech	Tecumseh History Page
Tecumseh	Tecumseh	The Teachings of Tecumseh
Tecumseh	Tecumseh	Tecumthe: His Role in the Cause and Conduct of the War of 1812

- The Great Father's young men are going to carry gold away from the hills. I expect they will fill a number of houses with it. In consideration for this, I want my people to be provided for as long as they live.

Mato Noupa (Two Bears)

Two Moons - Cheyenne

Two Moon

Two Strike - Tashunkekokipapi - Sioux (1832-???)
Two Strike    Two Strike/Tashunkekokipapi (Sioux)

"The white man, who possesses this whole vast country from sea to sea, who roams over it at pleasure and lives where he likes, cannot know the cramp we feel in this little spot, with the underlying remembrance of the fact, which you know as well as we, that every foot of what you proudly call America not very long ago belonged to the red man. The Great Spirit gave it to us. There was room for all His many tribes, and all were happy in their freedom."

Washakie - Shoshone - 1804-1900

Washaki Biography  

Wabaunsee (c. 1780-c. 1840) - Potawatami

Wabaunsee History

"Grandfather, Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you -- the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live.

"You have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road and road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things."

Oh, Great Spirit, in my dream I heard the thunder of buffalo and saw a great cloud of dust rise in the East and cover the sun. I heard a bull call my name - White Bear, come dance with me. As we danced I looked into his angry eye and saw the empty cooking pots of my people. Today I meet the buffalo once  again in the dance of death. I ask you to make my chest as strong as a hundred buffalo. Make my heart as brave as the bear who lent me his name. Bless this lance with your magic. May it find the heart of the buffalo and be greeted like a lover returned from a long journey.

White Bear

White Bears song rises like an arrow through the trees searching out the ear of the Great Spirit. Soon the age-old dance of life and death will begin on the prairie. The plains will resound with the war whoops of Indian braves and the angry bellows of charging buffalo. But now, amid the peace of this sacred place, the Sioux warrior lifts his voice and his arms to heaven, and feels his soul lighten and his prayer answered.

... White-Bear

- The Soldiers came to the borders of the village and forced us across the Niobrara to the other side, just as one would drive a herd of ponies; and the soldiers pushed us until we came to the Platte River. They drove us on in advance just as if we were a herd of ponies, and I said, "If I have to go, I'll go to that land. Let the soldiers go away, our women are afraid of them." And so I reached the Warm Land (Indian Territory). We found the land there was bad and we were dying one after another, and we said, "What man will take pity on us?" And our animals died. Oh, it was very hot. "This land is truly sickly, and we'll be apt to die here, and we hope the Great Father will take us back again." That is what we said. There were one hundred of us died there.

White Eagle of the Poncas

White Horse - Cheyenne

Wicked Chief

Sarah Winnemucca

The traditions of our people are handed down from father to son. The Chief is considered to be the most learned, and the leader of the tribe. The Doctor, however, is thought to have  more inspiration. He is supposed to be in communion with spirits... He cures the sick by the laying of hands, and payers and incantations and heavenly songs. He infuses new life into the patient, and performs most wonderful feats of skill in his practice.... He clothes himself in the skins of young innocent animals, such as the fawn, and decorated himself with the plumage of harmless birds, such as the dove and hummingbird ...

Sarah Winnemucca Paiute - (1844-1891)

Sarah Winnemucca - (Tocmetone) - Paiute

"Sarah was born into a family of great leaders with both her father and her grandfather having been Chiefs of this Nevada Nation"

Wolf Robe - Cheyenne

Wolf Robe Biography

- I never want to leave this country; all my relatives are lying here in the ground. And when I fall to pieces I am going to fall to pieces here.

Shunkaha Napin (Wolf Necklace) 

"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."

Wovoka, Paiute

Grandfather says that when your friends die you must not cry. You must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life.

Wovoka, Paiute

When the sun died, I went up to heaven and saw God and all the people who had died a long time ago. God told me to come back and tell my people they must be good and love one another, and not fight, or steal, or lie.   He gave me this dance to give to my people.

- Wovoka, Paiute 1857- 1932

- All Indians must dance, everywhere, keep on dancing. Pretty soon in the next spring Great Spirit come. He bring back all game of every kind. The game will be thick everywhere. All dead Indians come back and live again. They all be strong just like young men, be young again. Old blind Indians see again and get young and have fine time. When Great Spirit comes this way, then all the Indians go to the mountains, high up away from the whites. Whites can’t hurt Indians then. Then while Indians way up high, big flood comes like water and all white people die, get drowned. After that, water go away and then nobody but Indians everywhere and game all kinds thick. Then medicine man tell Indians to send word to all Indians to keep up dancing and the good time will come. Indians who don't dance, who don't believe in the word, will grow little, just about a foot high, and stay that way. Some of them will be turned into wood and be burned in fire.

Wovoka, the Paiute Messiah

Wovoka - The Visionary	Wovoka (Jack Wilson	Wovoka - Prophet or Daemon?
Wovoka

Beauty and ugliness are everywhere - even in some of the same things. To some a wide open prairie is empty and colorless - but to others it is uncluttered simplicity - the way life itself ought to look. Physical appeal is high on some lists, but nu tso se dv na, which is cherokee comfort, lasts longer. Whatever is in our hearts is in our sight. To love something or someone makes us see the beauty of it - not the wrong. It is to our advantage to be gentle in our observations - to see and cultivate the best in who we are and in those around us. We love quiet; we suffer the mouse to play; when the woods are rustled by the wind, we fear not.......

Indian Chief 1796

"Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children."

-Ancient Indian Proverb

Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find money cannot be eaten.

-Cree Prophecy

…The white man says, there is freedom and justice for all. We have had "freedom and justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget this."

-From the 1927 Grand Council of American Indians

"The Spirits Warn You Twice,

The Third Time You Stand Alone"

Famous Quotes on the Red Road

Other Famous Quotes

An Indian Prayer

A Prayer to the Great Spirit

Quotes Through Indian Eyes

Biography of Big Foot

ES Curtis Collection Biographies #3

bios on Blue Eagle, Bue Horse, Calico, Charge Crow, Eagle Elk, Elk Bow, Fast Elk, Fast Thunder, Flying Shield, Good Lance, Good Voice Hawk, Gray Bear, His Fights, Hollow Horn Bear, Little Dog, Long Fox, Mosquito Hawk, Red Cloud, Red Hawk, Ring Thunder, Shield, Slow Bull, Spotted Elk, Stands First, Struck By Crow, Two Strike, Yellow Hawk and Yellow Horse

ES Curtis Collection Biographies #4

bios on Big Ox, Bread, Bull Chief, Bull Goes Hunting, Bull Tongue, Coups Well Known, Does Everything, Fish Shows, Flathead Woman, Fog In The Morning, Goes Ahead, Hairy Moccasins, Hoop On The Forehead, Hunts The Enemy, Hunts To Die, Lone Tree, Medicine Crow, Old Dog, On Top, Plenty Coups, Red Wing, Shot In The Hand, Standing Elk, Skins Wolf, Spotted Jack Rabbit, Two Leggings, Two Whistles, Wet, White Man Runs Him, Wolf, Wolf Lies Down, Young Hairy Wolf, Good Bear, Lean Wolf, Long Time Dog, Sitting Owl, and White Duck

ES Curtis Collection Biographies #5

bios on Bear's Belly, Bull Neck, Crow Ghost, Four Horns, Red Star, Sitting Bear, Assiniboin Boy, Curly Head, Cuts Tether, Eagle Child, Head Dress, Horse Capture, Lone Flag, No Bear, Otter Robe, Red Whip, Running Fisher, Three White Crows, and White And Yellow Cow

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Joseph Brant	Chief Looking Glass
Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle	Geronimo
Chief Joseph	Geronimo - 2
Chief Joseph, Nez Perce	Pocahontas - 2
Chief Sitting Bull - 1	Squanto--God's Special Indian
Chief Sitting Bull - 2	Tecumseh - 1
Chief Cochise	Tecumseh - 2

History & Leaders of the Oglala Lakota Sioux: Historical information and facts about Chief Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Black Elk, treaties, and battles

Warriors and Chiefs: Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Warrior Curly, Custer's Last Stand: Facts and information about each

Andrew Ross, Dan Katchongva, Dead Eyes, "Great White Father", Heinmot Tooyalaket, Kangi Wiyaka, Kintpuash, Leon Shenendoah, Mahpiua Luta, Manuelito, Mato Gleska, Mawatani Hanska, Motavato, Naiinyanupi, Nicaagat, Parra Wa Samen, Shunka Witko, Shunkaha Napin, Sinte Galeshka, Tahmelapashme, Tatanka Yotanka, Tatoke Inyanke, The Indian Helper, Wanigi Ska, White Thunder, Woquini, Yellow Wolf

JERONIMO DE AGUILAR

"THE MAROONED PRIEST WHO SPEEDED THE CONQUEST (1489? - 1531?)"

Apache Men

bios on John Cody (Goodah), Nochedelklinne, Naiche, and Geronimo (Goyathlay)

Apache Warriors

Info on Cochise, Victorio, Geronimo, Juh, Nana, Naiche, Chalipun, Eskiminzin

Tribe elder Lawrence Aripa dies

a newspaper article by Ken Olsen in The Spokesman-Review

Armijo

from Camden Station Elementary School

Aspinet

"Aspinet was the chief sachem of the Nauset Indians"

Dennis Banks

from A & E

"Chief" Charles Albert Bender

short article from A & E

Lewis Bennett (Deerfoot)

photo & bio

Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco)

details and photo

General John Buford

his life & time among the Indians, among other things

U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell

a picture and bio

George Catlin

article from The Wild West

Chinnabbee

"He was a Natchez leader who brought his people to Talladega in 1756"

John Chivington

"The hero of Glorietta Pass and the butcher of Sand Creek"

Henry Roe Cloud (Wonah'ilayhunka)

very short article form A & E

LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS: THE LIFE STORY OF COL. WILLIAM F. CODY "BUFFALO BILL"

a copy of a book written by his sister

Christopher Columbus

article from Vista Magazine

Comcomly

from Camden Station Elementary School

Conanacus

"Conanacus was the chief sachem of the Narragansetts"

Corbitant

"Corbitant was a petty-sachem under chief Massasoit of the Wampanoags"

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

"Coronado led a royal expedition of about 300 Spanish soldiers, over 1,000 Tlaxcalan Indians, and enormous herds of livestock north into what is now the American West"

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

general overview

CORTEZ THE INFAMOUS

Steve Wilkins' bio of him

Hernán Cortés

Five Letters of Cortés to the Emperor

Hernan Cortes

a pretend newspaper interview

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND HERNAN CORTES

"the ironic situation of a man who changed history, being a virtual unknown in a country on which he exerted such a profound influence. "

Cortés, Hernán

brief article

HERNAN CORTES (ALSO HERNANDO CORTEZ)

very detailed page

George Crook

"Considered the army's greatest Indian fighter, General George Crook earned that reputation by developing a respect for his enemy that carried over into his relationships with Native Americans off the battlefield as well"

Crow Biographies

list of written works on Crow biographies

Crow Dog (Kargi Sunka)

short article by A & E

Cuauhtemoc

"last emperor of the Aztecs"

CUAUHTEMOC (1496 - 1525)

short page in Spanish

General George A. Custer Home Page

lots of info

My Life on the Plains, by Gen.G.A.Custer

a copy of his book

Deganawida

from Camden Station Elementary School

Louise Erdrich

"daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father, the author explores Native American themes in her works"

Estevanico the Moor

"tales of the adventures that befell three conquistadores and their Moorish slave during the sixteenth century led to Spain's Francisco Vásquez de Coronado's exploration of what is now the American Southwest."

Famous Native American Freemasons

long list of pictures & biographies

Famous Nebraska Native Americans

biographies on Crazy Horse, Red Cloud and Standing Bear

First American Forefathers

info on: Chief Joseph, Seattle, Cochise, Cornplanter, Crazy Horse, Gall, Geronimo, Joseph Brant, Kicking Bear, Quanah Parker, Red Cloud, Red Jacket, Sitting Bull and Tecumseh

Simon Girty

detailed biography of this man

"A Monster So Brutal: Simon Girty"

"the Degenerative Myth of the American Frontier, 1783-1900"

Edward Goodbird

from Camden Station Elementary School

Great Chiefs & Leaders

an excellent series of articles by Glenn Welker:

Graham Greene OFFICIALLY Unofficial Fan Page

"Welcome to our page devoted to appreciation of a remarkable Canadian Actor"

Grey Owl

"Grey Owl wrote three best-selling books while he lived in Prince Albert National Park: Pilgrims of the Wild (1935), Sajo and Her Beaver People (1935) and Tales of an Empty Cabin (1936)"

Gonzalo Guerrero

detailed account of the "Father of the Mestizos of Yucatan"

King Haiglar

short article on this "Catawba Indian Chief"

Chief John Hicks

"This famous Miccosukee chief was of the Wind Clan"

Hobomok

"Hobomok assisted Myles Standish"

Sam Houston

"Houston & Native Americans"

Oliver Otis Howard

he dealt with Cochise and Chief Joseph

Iyanough

"Iyanough was the chief sachem of the the Cummaquid tribe"

Andrew Jackson

"President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1830"

Andrew Jackson

from the Grolier Encyclopedia

Andrew Jackson

detailed site

Chief Killbuck

lots of info from several sources

JACK KINNARD, A SCOTCH-CREEK MESTIZO

from "200 YEARS AGO ON THE S. GEORGIA FRONTIER"

Alfred L. Kroeber

lots of info on this anthropologist

Leschi, celebrated Nisqually Chief

a letter from "J. Ross Browne to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 4 December 1857"

Leschi: A Warrior

very detailed article

James Logan (Tahgahjute)

from A & E's Biography

Chief Logan

brief article

Chief Logan's Elm

brief article on him and a speech under a tree

Looking Glass (Allalimya Takanin)

a look at him

Wilma Mankiller

"former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation"

Chief George Manuel

detailed article by the Fourth World Documentation Project

Chief Phillip Martin

"Chief of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians"

Massasoit

"Massasoit was the Chief of the Wampanoag confederation"

John Lowery McCoy

"He served as a special attoney for the Western Cherokees for a number of years"...and more

Alexander McGillivray

from A & E

ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY and his wives

Creek leader

Chief William McIntosh

about "Tustunnugee Hutkee (White Warrior)"

Creek Indian Chief William McIntosh (1775 approx. - 1825)

about him

Russell Means

from A & E

An Interview with Russell Means

"The Existential Indian"

Russell Means

brief article

Metallic

"The Last of the Androscoggins, The Lone Indian of the Magalloway"

Chief Micanopy

short article

NEZAHUALCOYOTL

The PEARL QUEEN greets HERNANDO DeSOTO

a short article on The Pearl Queen of Cotifachiqui

King Philip (Metacomet)

from A & E

Pierpole

"Last Indian of the Sandy River" by Nancy Lecompte

Peter Perkins Pitchlynn

Posey--Indian Chiefs

nice bio by B.Glenn

Poundmaker

from Camden Station Elementary School

James Poweshiek

an interview with him in 1942

from Camden Station Elementary School

Chief Pushetonequa

an interview

Quadequina

"Quadequina was the brother of Massasoit"

THE QUETZALCOATL "TRINITY"

Red Shoes

from Camden Station Elementary School

Louis Riel-The Metis Man

Samoset

Don Pedro Miguel Say

short article on this teller of Mayan stories

Scabby Bull, an Arapaho Indian

his image

Selocta

"He was the translator for General Andrew Jackson at Ft. Jackson treaty signing"

Seminole Leaders

briefs on Osceola, TUKO-SEE MATHLA, MICANOPY, NEAMATHLA, and BILLY BOWLEGS AND HIS WIFE

Seminole War Chiefs

Short Bull

a loving tribute by his great-grand child, interesting pictures, too

Paul Chaat Smith

"one of the decade's leading voices on issues of American Indian art, identity, mass culture and politics"

Redbird Smith

from Camden Station Elementary School

Stone Forehead

from Camden Station Elementary School

Boeda Strand

lots of info and genealogy

Tahchee

from Camden Station Elementary School

Tamahay

as remembersed by Ohiyesa

Tamaque: The Peace Maker

from Camden Station Elementary School

Tarhe

nice article on “A distinguished Wyandot Chief and Loyal American.”

Address of Tarhe, Grand Sachem of the Wyandot Nation to the assemblage at the Treaty of Greenville

"Tarhe was the first chief to sign the Treaty of Greenville"

Tenskwatawa (The Prophet}

Tecumseh's brother and spritual leader

The Shawnee Prophet Tenskwatawa

about Tecumseh's brother

Tenskwatawa's Vision

lots of details

The Prophet (Tenskwatawa)

several pages of info

"The Prophet Indian" - Tenskwatawa

a painting and brief bio

Tenskwatawa's eclipse

a brief article on this prediction

Tenskwatawa

a brief article and painting

Tenskwatawa

from the "Miracle of the Day" site

The Prophet's Rock (Tenskwatawa)

one in a series of pages from students at Battle Ground School (BGS)

The Prophet in Battle

more from BGS

The Prophet's Drinking

more from BGS

The Prophet's Eye

more from BGS

The Prophet's Life and Name

more from BGS

The Prophet's Visions

more from BGS

Jim Thorpe: The Man

about him

Jim Thorpe: Athlete of the Century Campaign

about him and his sports activities

Jim Thorpe

more about him

Jim Thorpe

from A & E

Jim Thorpe House

photo and basic info

Three Noted Chiefs of the Sioux

about Sitting Bull, Gall & John Grass

Chief Thundercloud

painting & short bio

Red Thunder Cloud, 76, Dies...

about his life

Tisquantum (Squanto)

"Tisquantum was a native of the Patuxet tribe"

Tokamahamon

"Tokamahamon was another Indian from the Wampanoag tribe"

Tomochichi

Creek Chief

CHIEF TUSKALOOSA

"The Chief of the Maubilians was Tuskaloosa"

The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca

written in 1542, he talks about his travels and the people he met

Urvashi Vaid

"Indian-American lawyer and social activist"

Ots-Toch Van Slyke

details and genealogy

Voices from the Past

quotes from:

Brigadier General Stand Watie

the forgotten General

Brigadier General Stand Watie

a short article from a civil war page

Warriors and Chiefs: Stand Waite: Cherokee Chief and Confederate General

from The History Net

Cherokee Stand Watie exhibited bravery and leadership while fighting for two lost causes

article from "Wild West"

Wapella, Chief of the Musquakees

"He was one of the delegation led by Keokuk to Washington in 1837"

War Eagle

a picture of his grave and a short story

Warriors and Chiefs

bios on Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Curly

Washington

"An Arapaho Chief of good name and a peaceable man..."

William Weatherford & his wives - "Leader of the Creeks"

Woman Sprit - Juana Maria - Chuamsh - a short history on this woman

General Thomas S. Woodward - "...a brave, rough, warm-hearted man, of fine intellectual endowments, a most sagacious judge of character, extensive knowledge of Creek Indian history, manners and character"

Yoholo-Micco - "The Chief accompanied the Creek delegation to Washington in the winter of 1825-26"

Zitkala-Sa   "The Soft-Hearted Sioux"

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