In a short time a group of commissioners arrived to begin organization of a new Indian agency in the valley. One of them mentioned the advantages of schools for Joseph's people. Joseph replied that the Nez Perces did not want the white man's schools.
"Why do you not want school?" the commissioner asked.
"They will teach us to have churches," Joseph answered.
"Do you not want churches?"
"No, we do not want churches."
"Why do you not want churches?"
"They will teach us to quarrel about God," Joseph said. "We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that."
-The Flight of the Nez Perces, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.
-Tashunka Witko (Crazy Horse)
As soon as the dancing was finished, many of the young men rode off to Texas to hunt buffalo and raid the Texans who had taken their lands. They were especially angry against white hunters who were coming down from Kansas to kill thousands of bison; the hunters took only the skins, leaving the bloody carcasses to rot on the Plains. To the Kiowas and Comanches the white men seemed to hate everything in nature. "This country is old," Satanta had scolded Old Man of the Thunder Hancock when he met him at Fort Larned in 1867. "But you are cutting off the timber, and now the country is of no account at all." At Medicine Lodge Creek he complained again to the peace commissioners: "A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers here on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my bison; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry."
-The War to Save the Buffalo
"Their needs are so few that they do not wish to adopot civilized habits," Meeker complained to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "What we call conveniences and comforts are not sufficiently valued by them to cause them to undertake to obtain them by their own efforts...the great majority look upon the white man's ways with indifference and contempt."
-The Utes Must Go!
What would this "country" look like if Europeans had never colonized even a pinch of dirt?
What would this "country" look like if America hadn't lied, murdered, and sinned against the people who were here first?
I wonder how many types of animals we would see that no longer walk the earth.
I wonder how tall and many trees there would be. How thick and powerful their trunks would be.
I wonder how "advanced" the culture would be.
I wonder about the beauty that has been replaced by asphalt and corn.
Who were the savages?
Who were the uncivilized?
Who were the wise peoples?
In this life as I have mentioned before it seems like once something is broken it can never be set right. There are races of people that are extinct, wiped off the earth. Voices never to be heard.
My heart feels like bursting, I feel sorry.
Willow Tree March - The Paper Kites
"Why do you not want school?" the commissioner asked.
"They will teach us to have churches," Joseph answered.
"Do you not want churches?"
"No, we do not want churches."
"Why do you not want churches?"
"They will teach us to quarrel about God," Joseph said. "We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that."
-The Flight of the Nez Perces, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk.
-Tashunka Witko (Crazy Horse)
As soon as the dancing was finished, many of the young men rode off to Texas to hunt buffalo and raid the Texans who had taken their lands. They were especially angry against white hunters who were coming down from Kansas to kill thousands of bison; the hunters took only the skins, leaving the bloody carcasses to rot on the Plains. To the Kiowas and Comanches the white men seemed to hate everything in nature. "This country is old," Satanta had scolded Old Man of the Thunder Hancock when he met him at Fort Larned in 1867. "But you are cutting off the timber, and now the country is of no account at all." At Medicine Lodge Creek he complained again to the peace commissioners: "A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers; but when I go up to the river I see camps of soldiers here on its banks. These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my bison; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry."
-The War to Save the Buffalo
"Their needs are so few that they do not wish to adopot civilized habits," Meeker complained to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. "What we call conveniences and comforts are not sufficiently valued by them to cause them to undertake to obtain them by their own efforts...the great majority look upon the white man's ways with indifference and contempt."
-The Utes Must Go!
What would this "country" look like if Europeans had never colonized even a pinch of dirt?
What would this "country" look like if America hadn't lied, murdered, and sinned against the people who were here first?
I wonder how many types of animals we would see that no longer walk the earth.
I wonder how tall and many trees there would be. How thick and powerful their trunks would be.
I wonder how "advanced" the culture would be.
I wonder about the beauty that has been replaced by asphalt and corn.
Who were the savages?
Who were the uncivilized?
Who were the wise peoples?
In this life as I have mentioned before it seems like once something is broken it can never be set right. There are races of people that are extinct, wiped off the earth. Voices never to be heard.
My heart feels like bursting, I feel sorry.
Willow Tree March - The Paper Kites