QUOTES by Chief Joseph
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"Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all people understand."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We gathered all the stock we could find, and made an attempt to move. We left many of our horses and cattle in Wallowa. We lost several hundred in crossing the river."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"Our chiefs are killed. . . . The little children are freezing to death. . . . My people have no blankets, no food. . . . My heart is sick and sad. . . . I will fight no more forever."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"The earth was created by the assistance of the sun, and it should be left as it was. The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man's business to divide it."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!"
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"The earth is our mother. She should not be disturbed by hoe or plough. We want only to subsist on what she freely gives us."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, or shot down like animals."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other then we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike - brothers of one father and mother, with one sky above us and one country around us and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall all be alike-brothers of one father and one another, with one sky above us and one country around us, and one government for all."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; If he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I am ready to talk today. I have been in a great many councils, but I am no wiser. We are all sprung from a woman, although we are unlike in many things. We can not be made over again. You are as you were made, and as you were made you can remain. We are just as we were made by the Great Spirit, and you can not change us ; then why should children of one mother and one father quarrel ? — why should one try to cheat the other ? I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace.....Treat all men alike. Give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The Earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.......Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade....where I choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to think and talk and act for myself, and I will obey every law, or submit to the penalty."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"Governor Isaac Stevens of the Washington Territory said there were a great many white people in our country, and many more would come; that he wanted the land marked out so that the Indians and the white man could be separated."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We damaged all the big guns we could, and carried away the powder and the lead."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"A chief called Lawyer, because he was a great talker, took the lead in the council, and sold nearly all the Nez Perce country."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"Lawyer acted without authority from our band. He had no right to sell the Wallowa country."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"For a short time we lived quietly. But this could not last. White men had found gold in the mountains around the land of winding water."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I would give up everything rather than have the blood of white men upon the hands of my people."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We soon found that the white men were growing rich very fast, and were greedy."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"General Howard informed me, in a haughty spirit, that he would give my people 30 days to go back home, collect all their stock, and move onto the reservation."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"You might as well expect rivers to run backwards as any man born free to be contented penned up."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"When the last deer disappears into the morning mist, When the last elk vanishes from the hills, When the last buffalo falls on the plains, I will hunt mice for I am a hunter and I must have my freedom."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases."
Quote by -Chief Joseph
"We live, we die, and like the grass and trees, renew ourselves from the soft earth of the grave. Stones crumble and decay, faiths grow old and they are forgotten, but new beliefs are born. The faith of the villages is dust now... but it will grow again... like the trees."
Quote by -Chief Joseph