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Quote by Colson Whitehead

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The Underground Railroad

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Author

Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead is an American novelist known for his distinctive literary style and profound insights into historical themes. His works cover a range of topics from slavery to modern urban life, with his 'New York Trilogy' and 'The Underground Railroad' being particularly notable. more

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“. . . [H]ad North America been a wilderness, undeveloped, without roads, and uncultivated, it might still be so, for the European colonists could not have survived. They appropriated what had already been created by Indigenous civilizations. They stole already cultivated farmland and the corn, vegetables, tobacco, and other crops domesticated over centuries, took control of the deer parks that had been cleared and maintained by Indigenous communities, used existing roads and water routes in order to move armies to conquer, and relied on captured Indigenous people to identify the locations of water, oyster beds, and medicinal herbs.”

ColonialismConquestAmerican IndiansNative American Genocide
Book:An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
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“Work is part of the equation for learning. Work is part of the equation for growing. Work is part of the equation for maturing. Work is part of the equation for achieving. Work is part of the equation for adjusting. Work is part of the equation for enduring. Work is part of the equation for healing. Work is part of the equation for rejoicing. Work is part of the equation for life.”

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“Under the crust of that portion of Earth called the United States of America—"from California . . . to the Gulf Stream waters"—are interred the bones, villages, fields, and sacred objects of American Indians. They cry out for their stories to be heard through their descendants who carry the memories of how the country was founded and how it came to be as it is today. [opening lines of the Introduction; ellipsis sic].”

HistoryGenocideErasureNative American Genocide
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“Do my brothers know the name of this favored people?” “It was the Lenni Lenape,” returned Magua, affecting to bend his head in reverence to their former greatness. “It was the tribes of the Lenape! The sun rose from water that was salt, and set in water that was sweet, and never hid himself from their eyes. But why should I, a Huron of the woods, tell a wise people their own traditions? Why remind them of their injuries; their ancient greatness; their deeds; their glory; their happiness; their losses; their defeats; their misery? Is there not one among them who has seen it all, and who knows it to be true? I have done. My tongue is still for my heart is of lead. I listen.”

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“In a more perfect world, that would’ve also been the moment when she’d say, “Look, honey, I know you resonate with the character of Pocahontas, but we already live on stolen land and you are not an indigenous person, so it would be very insensitive for you to wear someone else’s culture as a costume.” “Certainly, Mother,” I’d respond. “You’re absolutely correct. My teacher taught us about the land theft and subsequent genocide of Native American nations in kindergarten last week as part of our People’s Herstory class, so I shouldn’t go as Pocahontas. But could I go as another Disney princess instead?”

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“Between 1492 and the American Revolution, the indigenous population in North America declined by 90%. In 1491 Native people controlled all of the 2.4 billion acres that would become the United States of America. Native Americans now control about 56 million acres, roughly 2 percent. America's Existential Crisis: Our Inherited Obligations to Native Nations.”

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