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Cherokee Quotes

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Cherokee Quotes

“N’ another thing,” Mitch said reaching into his pocket. “I made ya this,” he continued, opening his hand to reveal a ring. “Yer gonna be causin’ lots of talk ’round here ‘bout where ya came from n’ why yer boy ain’t got no papa here ‘bouts. I sanded the high spots so it’ll shine when ya hold it to th’ light. Ye can determine if ye wants to wear it.” she smiled as she slipped it onto the finger of her left hand. “I will wear it until I see no need.”

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Book:Strings: The Story of Hope
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“Apart from Cherokee freedpeople, Cherokee citizens also spoke out against the present of African Americans from the United States. In 1894, the editor of the Cherokee Advocate incited his fellow tribesmen to resist both Black and white migration, telling them to ‘Be men, and fight off the barnacles that now infest our country in the shape of non-citizens, free Arkansas ni—ers, and traitors.’ Anti-Black sentiment like this encouraged Native peoples to ignore Indian freedpeople’s shared histories with their nations and to inaccurately associate them with Black interlopers from the United States. Indian freedpeople fought this attitude by attempting to differentiate themselves. When Mary Grayson was interviewed in 1937 as part of the Works Progress Administration Slave Narrative project, she illustrated this dichotomy, saying ‘I am what we colored people call a ‘native.’ That means I didn’t come into the Indian country from somewhere in the Old South, after the War, like so many Negroes did, but I was born here in the Old Creek Nation and my master was a Creek Indian. Mary felt that her experiences of enslavement were better than those of Black Americans, arguing that ‘I have had people who were slaves of white folks tell me that they had to work awfully hard and their masters were cruel to them, but all the Negroes I knew who belonged to Creeks always had plenty of clothes and lots to eat and we all lived in good log cabins we built.’ Mary clearly demarcated her history and circumstances from those of African Americans from the United States. Mary’s assertion of her identity as a ‘native’ rather than a newcomer (like other Blacks in the West) is reflective of a key component of the settler colonial process—strategic differentiation.”

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Book:I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land
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“Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. My folks were Indian. Both my mother and father had Cherokee blood in them. I was born and raised in Indian Territory. 'Course we're not the Americans whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but we met them at the boat when they landed.”

IfsRunningMotherCoursesFatherBornBloodMetsDiversityRaisedFolksTrackBoatIndianTerritoryAncestorMother And FatherBorn And RaisedRight TrackCherokeeMayflower
Author:Will Rogers
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“Negative thoughts were treated by Cherokee healers with the same medicines as wounds, headaches, or physical illness. It was believed that unchecked negative thoughts can permeate the being and manifest themselves in negative actions.”

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Book:Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women
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“We are a revitalized tribe. After every major upheaval, we have been able to gather together as a people to rebuild a community and a government. Individually and collectively, Cherokee people possess an extraordinary ability to face down adversity and continue moving forward. We are able to do that because our culture, though certainly diminished, has sustained us since time inmemorial. This Cherokee culture is a well-kept secret.”

PeopleWellsHas BeensGovernmentAbleTogetherFacesMovingCultureCommunityAbilitySecretMajorsAdversityExtraordinaryMoving ForwardTribesUpheavalKept SecretsCherokee
Author:Wilma Mankiller
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“[last words] What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.”

NightIndianNativeSunsetFlashNative AmericanIndigenousMother EarthAmerican IndianAmerican LifeGreat AmericanNative American WisdomBuffaloGreat SpiritNative AmericaFireflyNative American IndianWhat Is LifeGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomNative WisdomAmerican SpiritNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualWintertimeBeautiful SunsetCherokeeShadow Of DeathSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsWhite CloudsIndian TribesCherokee Indian
Author:Crowfoot
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“Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles.”

WorldDoeCirclesIndianNativeNative AmericanAmerican IndianNative American WisdomNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualNative American DreamCherokeeSpiritual IndianCherokee Indian
Book:Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
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“I owned a Ferrari, a Range Rover, a Mercedes 560SL convertible, a Jeep Cherokee and a Nissan 300ZX. I can't remember the intricate decision tree I had to climb in order to determine which one to drive to work on any given day - it probably had something to do with the weather, or which car had more gas in the tank, or upholstery that best matched whatever shirt I happened to throw on that morning.”

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Author:Michael J. Fox
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“I was no Cherokee. I was no warrior. I was nobody special. I was just a girl, scared and angry. When I saw myself in Daddy Glen's eyes, I wanted to die. No, I wanted to be already dead, cold and gone. Everything felt hopeless. He looked at me and I was ashamed of myself. It was like sliding down an endless hole, seeing myself at the bottom, dirty, ragged, poor, stupid.”

EyeWantedDiesGirlFeltPoorGoneSawsSeeingSpecialStupidColdAngryBottomScaredEndlessHolesWarriorDirtyAshamedHopelessDaddyRaggedCherokeeJust A GirlWanted To Die
Book:Bastard Out of Carolina: A Novel
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“A significant number of people believe tribal people still live and dress as they did 300 years ago. During my tenure as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, national news agencies requesting interviews sometimes asked if they could film a tribal dance or if I would wear traditional tribal clothing for the interview. I doubt they asked the president of the United States to dress like a pilgrim for an interview.”

PeopleIfsYearsBelieveStillsSometimesStatesFilmNationsPresidentUnitedNumbersUnited StatesDoubtNewsYears AgoDressesSignificantTraditionalChiefsAgencyInterviewsClothingsPrincipalPilgrimTenureCherokeeSignificant Numbers
Book:Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women
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“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the Sunset.”

LifeLittlesRunningDeathNightFunNatureChangeLosesDyingInspirational LifeShadowBreathsWinterIndianGrassNativeSunsetFlashNative AmericanIndigenousMother EarthAmerican IndianAmerican LifeGreat AmericanNative American WisdomBuffaloGreat SpiritNative AmericaFireflyNative American IndianWhat Is LifeGreat Native AmericanIndian WisdomNative WisdomAmerican SpiritNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualWintertimeBeautiful SunsetCherokeeWinter TimeShadow Of DeathSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsWhite CloudsIndian TribesCherokee Indian
Author:Crowfoot
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“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 nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.”

EarthStarsHeardSkyWindBirdBallsRoundsCirclesIndianNativeNative AmericanNestsAmerican IndianGreat AmericanNative American WisdomNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualNative American DreamCherokeeRound Earth
Book:Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
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“Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a person is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

PersonsMovingFormChildhoodSeasonsCirclesIndianNativeNative AmericanBack AgainAmerican IndianNative American WisdomNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomCircle Of LifeNative American SpiritualNative American DreamCherokeePower Moves
Book:Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
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“I'm lucky because I have so many clashing cultural, racial things going on: black, Jewish, Irish, Portuguese, Cherokee. I can float and be part of any community I want. The thing is, I do identify with being black, and if people don't identify me that way that's their issue. I’m happy to challenge people's understanding of what it looks like to be biracial, because guess what? In the next 50 years, people will start looking more and more like me.”

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Author:Rashida Jones
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“My name is Mankiller, and in the old Cherokee Nation, when we lived here in the Southeast, we lived in semi-autonomous villages, and there was someone who watched over the village, who had the title of mankiller. And I'm not sure what you could equate that to, but it was sort of like a soldier or someone who was responsible for the security of the village, and so anyway this one fellow liked the title mankiller so well that he kept it as his name, and that's who we trace our ancestry back to.”

WellsNamesNationsSecurityResponsibleFellowsSoldierTitlesNot SureVillageAncestryAutonomousCherokee
Author:Wilma Mankiller
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“It should be remembered that hundreds of people of African ancestry also walked the Trail of Tears with the Cherokee during the forced removal of 1838-1839. Although we know about the terrible human suffering of our native people and the members of other tribes during the removal, we rarely hear of those black people who also suffered.”

PeopleKnowsShouldHumansSufferingBlackTearsTerribleMembersRememberedNativeBlack PeopleTribesTrailsAncestryRemovalHuman SufferingCherokee
Author:Wilma Mankiller
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“The power of the world always works in circles.”

WorldCirclesIndianNativeNative AmericanAmerican IndianNative American WisdomNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualNative American DreamCherokeeSpiritual IndianNative American ProverbsLakota
Book:Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
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“Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.”

ReligionBirdCirclesIndianNativeNative AmericanNestsAmerican IndianNative American WisdomNative AmericaNative American IndianGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomNative American Indian InspirationalNative American SpiritualNative American DreamCherokee
Book:Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
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“Be the buffalo. Wilma Mankiller, the first female principal chief of the Cherokee nation, once told me how the cow runs away from the storm while the buffalo charges directly toward it—and gets through it quicker. Whenever I'm confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment. I become the buffalo.”

FirstsRunningNationsChallengesBecomingToughFemaleThreatMetaphorStormChiefsAfrican AmericanRunning AwayCowsPrincipalThreatenedTormentTough TimesConfrontingAnalystsBuffaloChargingCherokeeProlonging
Author:Donna Brazile
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