“My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon. So long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have a right to the soil.”

A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, ‘I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.

Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away

No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.

Nobody asks to be a hero, it just sometimes turns out that way.

The white men speak bad of the Indian, and look at him spitefully. But the Indian does not tell lies; Indians do not steal.

What, do y’all think you’re heroes?’ I didn’t know what to say at the time, but if he asked me again, I’d say no. I’d say there’s no way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero. It just sometimes turns out that way.

If you treat a sick child as an adult and a sick adult as a child, it usually works out pretty well.

I got my best foot forward onto greener grass, cause there ain’t no future living in the past.

[Black Hawk] has fought for his countrymen, the squaws and papooses, against white men, who came year after year, to cheat them and take away their lands.

When I get home and people ask me,’Hey, Hoot, why do you do it, man? What are you? Some kind of war junkie?

The white men despise the Indians, and drive them from their homes. But the Indians are not deceitful.

If you treat a sick child as an adult and a sick adult as a child, it usually works out pretty well.

And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.

Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

I got my best foot forward onto greener grass, cause there ain’t no future living in the past.

[Black Hawk] has fought for his countrymen, the squaws and papooses, against white men, who came year after year, to cheat them and take away their lands.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death.