"I would give up everything rather than have the blood of white men upon the hands of my people."

"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace."

"I know that my race must change."

"I labored hard to avoid trouble and bloodshed."

"A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal."

"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."

"Lawyer acted without authority from our band. He had no right to sell the Wallowa country."

"A chief called Lawyer, because he was a great talker, took the lead in the council, and sold nearly all the Nez Perce country."

"We damaged all the big guns we could, and carried away the powder and the lead."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"All people should be treated the same way on earth."

"We do not want churches. They will teach us to quarrel about God."

"We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow!"

"Big name often stands on small legs."

"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."

"The eye tells what the tongue would hide."

"Look twice at a two-faced man."

"It takes few words to tell the truth."

"Good words do not last long unless they amount to something."

"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."

"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."

"When an Indian fights, he only shoots to kill."

"I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people."

"I saw that the war could not be prevented. The time had passed."

"I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition."

"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."

"I did not want my people killed. I did not want bloodshed."

"War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war."

"Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all people understand."