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Issue 10.1 | Jan/Feb/Mar 2007

Contents

Letter from the Editor | by Steve Elm

I arrived in New York City in the autumn of 1991, a hopeful ingénue, if one can be at the age of 31. There was no doubt in my mind that the previous years spent training and working as an actor in London would provide a leg up on the competition here. click here for more...

Memories | by Diane Fraher

World War II and its aftermath forced demographic and political changes that also affected western arts, the result being that New York City emerged triumphant over Paris as the center of western culture. click here for more...

My Years at the American Indian Community House in New York City | by Hanay Geiogamah

I worked with Native Americans in the Arts at the Community House in New York City from May, 1980 through early December, 1982; just about two and a half years. The actresses Jane Lind and the late and fabulous Marie Antoinette Rogers had organized a theater project there in 1981 as a valiant effort to develop new Indian theater within a tribal community: the urban Indian world of New York City. click here for more...

Jane Lind | by Jane Lind

My first few times in New York left me in shock. Over time, New York became an incredible experience. Getting my education in theater, dance, and every aspect of the performing arts, what a training ground. click here for more...

Donna Couteau | by Donna Couteau

I was a shy overweight teen-ager with a dream, cleaning a dance studio in exchange for ballet lessons in south Texas. The fact that I dared to dream came in part from the knowledge that I was Sac and Fox; related to legends like Black Hawk, Jim Thorpe, and Ernest Tubb of Grand Ole Opry fame from my non-Indian side. click here for more...

Muriel Miguel | by Muriel Miguel

I am 69 years old and have been in theater most of my life. My theater group, Spiderwoman Theater, is 30 years old. We have been here a long time!! I feel a great urgency to keep alive the generational memories of native people, especially in New York City. click here for more...

An Evening With Gloria Miguel | by Steve Elm

voice is deep, glottal; the accent brushed with the unmistakable color of New York City. Her face, set and full of character, gives so little away. It's in the eyes. They pierce, as if they know your secret. Then, Gloria Miguel’s face opens up with a wide, mischievous smile, and she points to me, "You've lost your boyish good looks." click here for more...

Louis Mofsie | by Louis Mofsie

Being a Native American New Yorker first and Native New Yorker second, one of the things I find most satisfying is performing in street fairs for other Native New Yorkers. If they like you they like you... if they don’t they don’t... they’ll let you know in no uncertain terms! click here for more...

Joe Cross | by Joe Cross

When I first came here I thought people (Indian artists) just came in and out of New York. I didn’t realize that anybody really lived here! It’s always great finding out that artists in all disciplines have used NYC, short or long term, to further and explore their careers. click here for more...

Why I Went to NYC | by Maurice Kenny

As soon as I graduated from High School I took a Greyhound to New York City to become a rich and famous Broadway actor. My father gave me one year to accomplish this feat and I soon discovered that my age, height, and the fact that I was not as handsome as Wes Studi... click here for more...

Marta Carlson | by Marta Carlson

New York city in the late 70s/early 80s was a hurricane of Native American talent. There was indigenous creative energy here expressing itself through a myriad of mediums (theatre, film, television, music, & art). There were limitless opportunities here to showcase our work. click here for more...

Writing, Questioning Why, Writing More | by Marijo Moore

Some mornings I wake up and wonder: why even bother to continue writing? When books such as those written by the spurned husband of a twenty-something teacher who had sex with her thirteen-year-old student are being published, I question: is this what the general public wants to read? click here for more...

Nadema Agard | by Nadema Agard

My first memories of the Native American art scene in New York was of going to Lloyd Oxendine’s gallery in Soho in the mid 1970’s. click here for more...

Ina McNeil | by Ina McNeil

I’ve always found New York to have an energy of its own and it has been important for me to make sure I am feeling that energy any time I do my creative work. It has been really good for my artwork for me to be here in New York... click here for more...

Ten Years according to Don | by Don Killsright

Talking Stick has been quite generous with me in allowing me to put my thoughts and views on paper and sharing it with all. It has been said that some of what I write has been controversial. I don’t know where the controversy comes from - I thought we all felt this way. click here for more...

Are We Still Here? | by Vicki Ramirez

When Talking Stick first started, it was yet another exciting opportunity for those of us in the Native Arts community to highlight our achievements and successes, especially for those of us involved in Native theatre. A comprehensive resource for funding, subsidies, and open auditions!? It was like the cherry on the cake of opportunity that we had been gorging ourselves on for years. click here for more...

That Sounds Like Me! | by Cochise Anderson

It was a long time ago when a young, Native artist started out by graduating from acting school on the Upper West Side. He had a dream of becoming an actor. Getting roles based on his ability and not his appearance. click here for more...

Diane Fraher | by Diane Fraher

I took a train from Oklahoma to New York because I had a scholarship to attend school in the east. The energy of New York was inspiring. It made me feel I could go anywhere and do anything. click here for more...

Setting Benchmarks in New York | by Diane Fraher

One of the most significant events during Peter’s term as Director of the Gallery was when he moved the Gallery to West Broadway in Soho. It gave it an identity in the real art world, and as a result the art critics tended to write about the shows. Critics, including Kay Larson from New York Magazine, Grace Glueck from the New York Times, Joan Shepard from the The Daily News and others like Howard Smith of the Village Voice all reviewed the shows mounted there. click here for more...

Put Something Up! | by Tristan Ahtone

Lloyd Oxendine dispenses with formal greetings by immediately introducing his birds. There are five of them in five separate and very large cages, bright green with the unmistakable “dinosaur-eyes” which watch his every movement as he gloats over them. click here for more...

Midnight on Park Avenue | by Pena Bonita

Park Avenue midnight, Weavin south black, silver, white limos. click here for more...

Talking Stick Issue 10.1 ANNIVERSARY ISSUE Talking Stick Arts Newsletter - Your online source for Native American Arts in and ... It was a long time ago when a young, Native artist started out by ...www.amerinda.org/newsletter/10-1/index.htmlhttp://www.amerinda.org/newsletter/10-1/index.html

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/insider/shortshot6.html

WATCH...

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL By Daily Insider Staff.

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Catch The End of Oil on Link TV this Sunday or Monday evening. And then join other Care2 viewers in a live online discussion about the end of oil! An oil expert will be on hand for this lively discussion. Make A Difference At Care2 & The Petition Site!

Why? We are already starting to see the consequences of global warming and a slow-down in the world's oil supply. What does this mean for the planet and for future generations?

This thought-provoking show follows Willie Nelson and others as they explore groundbreaking new ways to care for the planet we love.

Link TV broadcasts compelling documentaries from around the world, global and national news, world music from 96 countries, award-winning foreign films and innovative programs. Click the button below to take a peak at the program schedule for Part 2 of The End of Oil.

Program Synopses World Music Cinemondo
This Week's Schedule Today's Schedule
Mosaic Streams Mosaic Intelligence Report Newsletter About Mosaic Mosaic Intelligence Report Blog
Bridges to Baghdad Mosaic Snap Earth Focus Chat the Planet
Front Lines

Program Details
Special: The End of Oil - Part 2
Length: 02:00 Type of program: Documentary

Upcoming Airtimes:

Sunday, Feb 25th
08:00 pm

Monday, Feb 26th
01:59 am

Monday, Feb 26th
08:59 am

Thursday, Mar 1st
05:00 pm

Thursday, Mar 1st
11:00 pm

Friday, Mar 2nd
05:00 am

Friday, Mar 2nd
11:00 am

The End of Oil - Part 2 is the second half of a special four-hour programming block exposing the facts and quickly approaching consequences of our dwindling world oil supply. The special features Link TV’s original program Outside the Box with Peter Coyote: Beyond Big Oil and the controversial BBC documentary Global Warming: Bush’s Climate of Fear. The special will be hosted and debated throughout by renowned environmental reporter Mark Hertsgaard, actor/writer Peter Coyote, author <ATITLE=HTTP: href="http://www.thebushagenda.net/" www.thebushagenda.net>Antonia Juhasz ("The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time") and James Wood, director of Crude Impact.

WATCH VIDEO: Outside the Box with Peter Coyote: Thinking Beyond Big Oil
WATCH VIDEO: Outside the Box with Peter Coyote: Willie Nelson and Bio-Diesel
WATCH VIDEO: From Global Warming: Bush's Climate of Fear

For more on the special, see The End of Oil - Part 1.

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Gifts of the Forest: Native Traditions in Wood and Bark

January 25 - April 27, 2007

The UBS Art Gallery will present artifacts and new works demonstrating the cultural, spiritual and environmental significance of forests to Native American communities. Gifts of the Forest: Native Traditions in Wood and Bark, on view from January 25 to April 27, 2007 at The UBS Art Gallery (1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York City), will feature approximately 100 objects made by Native American tribes of eastern North America. Organized by the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Connecticut from their collection, the exhibition highlights 300 years of artistic traditions and contemporary expressions of cultural values.

Gifts of the Forest is organized into six sections, beginning with "First Man and First Woman", which presents a Native American creation story told through contemporary sculpture. "From the Hide of the Tree" features birch bark objects such as canoes, containers and cradleboards. "Carving in the Round" includes a variety of vessels and utensils made from hardwood burl, and "Following the Straight of the Grain" displays objects such as bows and snowshoes that take advantage of wood's strength and flexibility. "The Tool as Art" introduces woodworking instruments such as crooked knives and splint gauges for basket making, and "Weaving with Wood" highlights the tradition of splint basketry. The works on view will be complemented by modern paintings that portray the continuing influence of the forest on Native people.

The forests of North America from the Canadian Maritimes, along the Atlantic coast and west to the Mississippi River provided an abundance of raw materials for practical needs, including housing, medicine, food, tools and transportation, and also served as spiritual inspiration. A scale model of an early 20th century Penobscot birch bark canoe features etched designs of moose and deer on the bow and stern. The Abenaki tribe believes the Creator made humans from tree trunks, inspired by the beauty and grace of ash trees. The contemporary sculpture First Man and First Woman (2000) by Richard Love and Calvin Francis depicts this story, with figures emerging fromthe wood to express themes of creation, strength, protection and renewal associated with the great forests.

Native artists prized hardwood burl above all other types of wood for many objects and tools because of its extremely dense and beautifully patterned grain. The curving grain of the wood is the primary decoration on a 19th century effigy bowl; the two handles are abstract representations of effigies-animals or people that represent clans, ancestors or guardian spirits. Although the function of many pieces most often determines the form, Native artists enhanced their designs with carved decorations reflecting cultural values and expressing personal artistic vision. An effigy spoon from the mid-19th century features the curved beak of a bird of prey that appears to grow from the handle. An early 20th-century Ojibwa birch bark hamper is decorated with sepia-toned trees, clovers and grass that are etched into the bark. These basic forms are arranged symmetrically, conveying balance and harmony.

Native artists also adorn their work with painted designs. The complex sun pattern on the lid of a late 18th or early 19th century bent wood box is embellished with paint rubbed into the engraved lines. The intricate decoration on an Iroquois cradleboard from the mid-19th century expresses the special place of children in Native culture. Ornately carved with stylized flowers and brightly painted, the cradleboard was a highly prized family heirloom handed down from generation to generation. The contemporary painting Timberline by James Simon uses birch bark as a canvas for an evocative scene in which a lone figure stands against a brightly colored land.

To view the exhibition brochure please click here.

About the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center is a tribally owned and operated nonprofit institution whose mission is to further knowledge and understanding of the richness and diversity of Eastern Woodland and North America's indigenous cultures and societies. Opened in 1998, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum has hosted nearly two million visitors, including more than 40,000 school children and teachers annually.

The multi-media permanent exhibits trace the Native and natural history of southern New England from the time of the Ice Age to the present, imparting the story of the Pequot people and other Eastern Woodland tribal nations. Exhibit highlights include a walk-through, 16th century Pequot Village that features the sights, sounds and activities of daily life more than 400 years ago, as well as an extensive collection of ethnographic and contemporary Eastern Woodlands cultural material. A research department conducts archaeological and historical inquiries, and two research libraries as well as archives and special collections house more than 40,000 volumes, including documents, maps, rare books and other materials on all Native peoples of the United States and Canada. For more information about the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center visit www.pequotmuseum.org.

(above: Richard Love and Calvin Francis, Penobscot, First Man and First Woman, 2000, 48 inches H x 26 inches W x 23 inches D)

(above: Birchbark Hamper, Early 20th century, Ojibwa, 27 3/4 inches H x 17 1/2 inches W x 15 1/2 inches D)

(above: Cradleboard, Mid 19th century, Iroquois, 30 1/2 inches H x 13 3/4 inches W x 12 1/2 inches D)

(above: Canoe Model, Early 20th century, Northern New England, 22 1/4 inches L x 5 inches W x 4 inches D)

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featured guest
Sherman Alexie



Photo Credit: Rex Rystedt

Your Questions

6 Questions

P.O.V.'s Borders visitors sent Sherman these questions in response to his work and his answers to P.O.V.'s initial 6 Questions. Read on!

Question: Sherman, what advice would you give to young people who are still figuring out which borders they are willing to cross in their life? Like should they stay or leave home? Go to college or work with their own community first? Take risks & come out about certain parts of their identity (queer, poor, etc.) or not? Thanks.

Sherman: This feels like a question a social worker should answer. I don't know what any individual should do about crossing her own borders. I only know that I live a happier, more adventurous life, by crossing borders. Of course, the crossings are always painful, as well. In most ways, I think border crossing is a very selfish, individualistic act. I've come to the point in my life where I encourage young Native Americans to become much more selfish about their personal needs and wants.

Question: Mr. Alexie, I totally agree that we need fewer churches, but I have a comment pertaining to "white people," and your "sweatlodges." Until I had the privilege of being asked by a Lakota Medicine Man (I know this isn't your tribe) to participate in an Inipi Ceremony, my only knowledge of Indian culture was from books (a few Pow Wow's at Fort Hall). It was an inspiring experience and I am so glad that I took the opportunity. Not every white person is out to exploit Indian culture; some really do just want to understand it better. The Inipi Ceremony did that for me and when I have been asked, I have participated in other ceremonies. It has given me a respect for Indian culture that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. It is not my belief, but it gave me a chance to honor yours.

Sherman: Spiritual matters should be private. I've always found that non-Indians who participate in Indian ceremonies often find some way to make it public knowledge. I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture. Also, I think many Indian spiritual leaders ask white people to participate out of basic fears and insecurities. We Indian folks have been so battered and bruised by white culture, so hated and vilified, that we go crazy with need when individual white folks treat us with any sort of decency. We're an oppressed people who starve for respect. I suspect that Lakota Sioux elder is a good person who loves the attention he gets from white folks. We all want the love and attention of others.

Question: How do you negotiate in your life, relationships with White people? By the way, I love and respect your work (though I don't always agree with everything!)

Sherman: I was recently asked how I could stand to be around white people, which is so funny, considering that most of my closest friends are white. Perhaps Indian culture and white American culture are oppositional, but individuals don't have to be. Most of my friendships are not based on race, but are based on basketball and books. If you love basketball and books, chances are good you'll be my friend. If you can explain the many nuances of the pick-and-roll and say it in iambic pentameter, I'll probably marry you.

Question: In discussions with Native scholars, I have heard them lament non-Natives who do not know how to approach Native texts. How would you suggest non-Natives learn to cross the border of literary criticism when dealing with Native texts?

Sherman: Incorporate the native texts with non-native texts. Read "Ceremony" alongside "Emma." Read "House Made of Dawn" alongside "Moby Dick." Read Simon Ortiz and Emily Dickinson together.

Question: Mr. Alexie, This may be a question you can't answer, but here it goes. I work at a Native American charter school in Northern California, and the kids I tutor in reading and literacy there have some of the greatest things to say, they just don't always know how to say them, let alone write them. Unfortunately, all the kids have a long way to go when it comes to reading and writing. To both encourage their education of their various tribal cultures and to encourage them to read I want to engage them in discussions about being Native American (there's a lot of racism at the school as well) and I want to get them to read. They don't want to do either. None of the teachers there seem to know what to do either, they are very tired. As a Native American who found a love of words, what would you suggest I do about introducing Native American literature to fifth, sixth, and seventh graders? I really want to read the seventh graders The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, but I just might get fired. We'll see.

Sherman: Get a video camera and make homemade films about the stories you're reading. Get a copy of Simon Ortiz's "Man in the Moon," a story about an elder Indian man's reaction to the moon landing, and have your kids make a short film out of it. This generation of kids are motion picture trained, so use that training as a bridge to the written word.

Question: How has the situation in Palestine affected your view of the struggle for indigenous land rights?

Sherman: I think most of the leaders of Israel and Palestine are guilty of violent fundamentalism. I don't agree with violent action. I condemn Israeli tanks and Palestinian suicide bombers. But I also know the mainstream media here in the US doesn't really show the oppressive conditions that many Palestinians endure. I wish the US would act as a ethical mediator in this conflict, and many other international conflicts, and not create policy simply based on our economic concerns. But of course, that's asking a lot of any administration, especially the current one.

Question: Sherman — What was your path to becoming a queer ally?

Sherman: Yes, it's official. OUT Magazine named me a queer ally for 2002! What's that phrase? Straight but not narrow. In my opinion, there's something magical about androgyny. It takes a man and a woman to make life, the creation of life is androgynous, so the creation of art is also androgynous. Therefore, androgynous people must also be magical.

Question: Hello, Sherman. Since many indigenous youth and other youth of color look up to you as role model, how do you handle that role in the community responsibly?

Sherman: As a reluctant role model, I can only advocate for two things for any youth: stay sober because you'll die young if you don't, and question all authority figures because they're usually seeking to protect their power.

Question: Here's a biggie: what are your visionary ideas for solving the issues/struggles you work on?

Sherman: I have no answers. I only hope I'm asking the right questions.

Want to read more? Check out Sherman's answers to P.O.V.'s 6 questions, the same 6 we asked all of the featured guests.


	Sherman Alexie learned to read by age three and devoured novels, which often made him the brunt of other kids' jokes on the Spokane Indian Reservation where he grew up. He has published 14 books to date, including The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Reservation Blues, and Indian Killer. more...

	Visit Sherman's website at: www.fallsapart.com

SHERMAN

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2002/borders/talk/dialogue010_sa.html

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IMPORTANT PETITION!!!
petitiou rt of game

-----------------

Welcome to Whales Revenge, an ambitious campaign to gather 1 million signatures for a petition to stop whaling.

Every year thousands of precious mammals are slaughtered in the name of so-called 'scientific research'.

Add your voice by signing this campaign then forwarding it everyone you know. Please help us stop the killing.

www.whalesrevenge.com

Peace & Love

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Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie (1966– )
writer, filmmaker, poet (Spokane and Coeur d’Alene)
interview, READ Magazine, 2003

All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot of Native American literature is stuck in one idea: sort of spiritual, environmentalist Indians. And I want to portray everyday lives. I think by doing that, by portraying the ordinary lives of Indians, perhaps people learn something new.

Paula Gunn Allen (1939– )
poet, novelist, and critic (Laguna, Sioux, and Lebanese)
from The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986)

Humor is widely used by Indians to deal with life. Indian gatherings are marked by laughter and jokes, many directed at the horrors of history, at the continuing impact of colonization, and at the biting knowledge that living as an exile in one's own land necessitates. . . . Certainly the time frame we presently inhabit has much that is shabby and tricky to offer; and much that needs to be treated with laughter and ironic humor.

Dennis Banks (1937– )
Activist and co-founder of the American Indian Movement (AIM) (Anishinabe)
from "His Aim is True," MetroActive (March 14, 1996)

What we did in the 1960s and early 1970s was raise the consciousness of white America that this government has a responsibility to Indian people. That there are treaties; that textbooks in every school in America have a responsibility to tell the truth. An awareness reached across America that if Native American people had to resort to arms at Wounded Knee, there must really be something wrong. And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing. From that, our own people began to sense the pride.

Black Elk (1863–1950)
religious leader (Oglala Sioux)
from Black Elk Speaks (1961)

Everything an 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. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

Black Hawk (1767–1838)
chief (Sauk)
From a speech at his surrender following the Black Hawk War (1832)

[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. You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it.

Gertrude Bonnin [Zitkala-Sa] (1876–1938)
author and activist (Yankton Sioux)
from "Why I am A Pagan," 1902

A "Christianity" pugilist commented upon a recent article of mine, grossly perverting the spirit of my pen. Still I would not forget that the pale-faced missionary and the hoodooed aborigine are both God's creatures, though small indeed their own conceptions of Infinite Love. A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.

Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse (1840–1877)
chief (Oglala Sioux)
Statement, Sept. 23, 1875

One does not sell the land people walk on.

Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933– )
historian and activist (Hunkpapa Lakota)
from the New York Times Magazine, 1979

This country was a lot better off when the Indians were running it.

Michael Dorris (1945–1997)
writer and anthropologist (Modoc)
from an Oct. 25, 1995, interview published in the Artful Dodge, College of Wooster (Ohio)

I certainly don't object to [writers] trying to imagine the lives of other societies, but you have to do it with a certain amount of humility and respect. If it were not for the ethnographic material that had been collected by missionaries and anthropologists and so forth, much of past Native American society would no longer be accessible. What I object to is making kitsch of things that are very serious.

Louise Erdrich (1954– )
novelist (Ojibway)
from a Jan. 17, 2001, interview, Atlantic Unbound

It's impossible to write about Native life without humor—that's how people maintain sanity.

Chris Eyre (1969– )
filmmaker (Cheyenne and Arapaho)
from "Vision Quest," The Reader, 2002

There aren’t a lot of alternative roles for Indian actors. I think we’ve fallen short of portraying Indians in the media. We don’t need to make another Dances With Wolves, because it’s not an Indian movie. When Indians portray themselves, then we have a different perspective. I’ve been asked about making period pieces but I’ve never read one that wasn’t about guilt, and I’m not trying to make a guilt film.

Flying Hawk (1852–1931)
chief (Oglala Sioux)

Indians and animals know better how to live than white man; nobody can be in good health if he does not have all the time fresh air, sunshine, and good water.

Geronimo (1829–1909)
chief (Apache)
to President Grant after surrender (1877)

It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return. I want to spend my last days there, and be buried among those mountains. If this could be I might die in peace, feeling that my people, placed in their native homes, would increase in numbers, rather than diminish as at present, and that our name would not become extinct.

Joy Harjo (1951– )
Poet and musician (Muskogee)
from Voices from the Gaps: Women Writers of Color, 1993

It's important as a writer to do my art well and do it in a way that is powerful and beautiful and meaningful, so that my work regenerates the people, certainly Indian people, and the earth and the sun. And in that way we all continue forever.

Joseph (c. 1840–1904)
chief (Nez Perce)
statement following surrender at the battle of Bear Paw (1877)

My people, some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are, perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I can find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

Russell Means (1939– )
Activist and cofounder of the American Indian Movement (AIM) (Oglala Lakota)
interview, PBS television, Alcatraz Is Not an Island, 2002

Before AIM, Indians were dispirited, defeated, and culturally dissolving. People were ashamed to be Indian. You didn't see theyoung people wearing braids or chokers or ribbon shirts in those days. Hell, I didn't wear 'em. People didn't Sun Dance, they didn't Sweat, they were losing their languages. Then there was that spark at Alcatraz, and we took off. Man, we took a ride across this country. We put Indians and Indian rights smack dab in the middle of the public consciousness for the first time since the so-called Indian wars.

N. Scott Momaday
N. Scott Momaday (1934– )
writer (Kiowa)
interview, PBS television, The West, 2002

The turn of the century was the lowest point for the devastation of Indian culture by disease and persecution, and it's a wonder to me that they survived it and have not only maintained their identity, but are actually growing stronger in some ways. The situation is still very bad, especially in certain geographical areas, but there are more Indians going to school, more Indians becoming professional people, more Indians assuming full responsibility in our society. We have a long way to go, but we're making great strides.

Carlos Montezuma (1866?–1923)
Physician and reformer (Yavapai)
quote c. 1916, cited in The Native Americans: An Illustrated History

The Indian Bureau system is wrong. The only way to adjust wrong is to abolish it, and the only reform is to let my people go. After freeing the Indian from the shackles of government supervision, what is the Indian going to do: leave that with the Indian, and it is none of your business.

Mourning Dove (1884?–1936)
novelist and politician (Salish)
from Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography

There are two things I am most grateful for in my life. The first is that I was born a descendant of the genuine Americans, the Indians; the second, that my birth happened in the year 1888. In that year the Indians of my tribe, the Colvile (Swy-ayl-puh), were well into the cycle of history involving their readjustment in living conditions. They were in a pathetic state of turmoil caused by trying to learn how to till the soil for a living, which was being done on a very small and crude scale. It was no easy matter for members of this aboriginal stock, accustomed to making a different livelihood (by the bow and arrow), to handle the plow and sow seed for food. Yet I was born long enough ago to have known people who lived in the ancient way before everything started to change.

Powhatan (?–1618)
chief of the Powhatan
speech, 1609, cited in The Native Americans: An Illustrated History

Do you believe me such a fool as not to prefer eating good meat, sleeping quietly with my wives and children, laughing and making merry with you, having copper and hatchets and anything else—as your friend—to flying from you as your enemy, lying cold in the woods, eating acorns and roots, and being so hunted by you meanwhile, that if but a twig break, my men will cry out, "here comes Captain Smith!" Le us be friend, then. Do not invade us thus with such an armed force. Lay aside these arms.

Red Cloud (1822–1909)
chief (Oglala Sioux)
speech, 1866

We were told that they wished merely to pass through our country. . . to seek for gold in the far west . . . Yet beforethe ashes of the council are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. . . . His presence here is . . . an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be allowed for corn?

Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull (1831?–1890)
Chief (Oglala Sioux)
Statement, year unknown

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.