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Indigenous Peoples Quotes

Browse 61 quotes about Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Peoples Quotes

“The global Indigenous cause reached a major milestone in 2007 when the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Only four members of the assembly voted in opposition, all of them Anglo settler-states - the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.”

CanadaAustraliaColonialismUnited States Of AmericaUnited NationsNew ZealandSettlersIndigenous Peoples
Book:An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States
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“The Australian aborigines, reckoned to be among the most primitive of races upon evidence that is far from conclusive, have a region that is well-developed. They worship the Earth Mother, and recognise in their graceful, plaintive stories the prior existence of culture heroes as well limned as any in Valhalla. To an amazing degree they feel the reality of the metaphysical world they have created––the dream-time, which is neither a dream nor a period, or if it is a period is one which has no dimension, so that the past and the present exist together.”

Indigenous PeoplesAborigines
Book:Tangaroa's Godchild
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“Meanwhile, hemlocks kept their footings in the deep, shady wrinkles of lower mountain slopes— coves shaped by intimate creeks and gorges carved by thundering rivers. Even east of the mountains, hemlocks survived on steep, north- facing slopes. In all of these places, microclimates continued to mimic conditions experienced in the region during the ice age. These isolated pockets are the last vestiges of a forest that once covered much of the Southeast. They are refugia.”

ScienceSafetyClimate ChangeRefugeEcologyIndigenous PeoplesAmerican IndiansLumbee Indians
Book:On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice
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“Paleoecology teaches that refugia are not only physical places, but they also represent bottlenecks along a timeline. Large populations of trees, insects, birds, and more shrink down to tiny remnants during times of adversity, but when glaciers retreat and weather warms, populations rebound. If conditions permit, populations spring from their refugia into their former ranges or, perhaps, into new places with favorable soils and climate. Sometimes I imagine that Lumbee ancestors who sought refuge in the remotest parts of their lands were biding their time, waiting to spring forth into a radically transformed world.”

ScienceSafetyClimate ChangeRefugeEcologyIndigenous PeoplesAmerican IndiansLumbee Indians
Book:On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice
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“I'm reasonably certain, salmon, swordfish, and hammerhead sharks do not find themselves paralyzed by spasms of self-blame for their plight - What could I do differently to placate these people? If only I were a better fish they would not hate me - but instead know precisely who is killing them. The same can be said for the indigenous. You can't get much clearer than Sitting Bull, who said, when forced to speak at a celebration of the completion of a railroad through what had been his people's land: "I hate you. I hate you. I hate all the white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts, so I hate you." It's important to note, by the way, that the white translator did not speak these words, but instead the "friendly, courteous speech he had prepared." [Glaspell, Kate Eldridge. "Incidents in the Life of a Pioneer." North Dakota Historical Quarterly, 1941, 187-88.]”

HateCivilizationLiarsThievesRape CultureIndigenous PeoplesWhite PeoplePacifists
Book:Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization
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“I guess you hate the people most who make justifiable demands. Because they go to the heart of our psyche. We know they are right, and therefore, we have to destroy them if we can. I think a lot of people are really afraid of justifiable Indian claims to land and resources. They're most afraid of the fact that the claims are morally right, because when you are confronted with a moral imperative against an immoral imperative on your part, you've got to hate the people who assert that moral imperative...We hate them because their claims are totally justified--and we know it.”

Human RightsActivismNative AmericanAmerican IndianIndigenous Peoples
Author:Mary Crow Dog
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