Indian oratory : famous speeches by noted Indian chieftains

"I gave the Halloo" (1758) ; All their warriors have made themselves as one man" (1760) / Teedyuscung (Delaware)

"You must lift the hatchet against them" (1763) ; "Father, be strong and take pity on us, your children, as our former father did" (1765) / Pontiac (Ottawa)

"Listen to me, fathers of the thirteen fires" (1790) / Cornplanter (Seneca)

"Brother, the great spirit has made us all" (1792) / Red Jacket (Seneca)

"We have borne everything patiently for this long time" (1794) / Joseph Brant (Mohawk)

"Brothers, these people never told us they wished to purchase our lands from us" (1795) / Little Turtle (Miami)

"Sleep not longer, O Choctaws and Chickasaws" (1811) ; "Father, listen! The Americans have not yet defeated us by land" (1813) / Tecumseh (Shawnee)

"We do not take up the warpath without a just cause and honest purpose" (1811) / Pushmataha (Choctaw)

"It is too soon, my great father, to send those good men among us" (1822) / Petalesharo (Pawnee)

"For more than a hundred winters our nation was a powerful, happy, and united people" (1832) ; "Farewell to Black Hawk" (1832) / Black Hawk (Sauk (Sac))

"Let the Siouz keep from our lands, and there will be peace" (1837) / Keokuk (Sauk (Sac))

A gift of "talking leaves" (1839) / Sequoyah (Cherokee)

"By peace our condition has been improved in the pursuit of civilized life" (1843) ; "The Cherokee people stand upon new ground" (1861) / John Ross (Cherokee)

"The Indians' night promises to be dark" (1853) / Seattle (Suquamish)

"They have not got forked tongues" (1855) / Washakie (Shoshone)

"I want to tell you my heart" (1859) / Chief Joseph (Nez Perce)

"We want the privilege of crossing the Arkansas to kill buffalo" (1865) / Black Kettle (Cheyenne)

"It is our great desire and wish to make a good, permanent peace" (1865) ; "My people are waiting on the hills to greet me when I return" (1871) / Little Raven (Arapaho)

"I am the man that makes it rain" (1866) / Lone Wolf (Kiowa). "You must speak straight so that your words may go as sunlight to our hearts" (1866) / Cochise (Apache)

"You sent for us; we came here" (1867) / Tall Bull, (Cheyenne)

"Do not ask us to give up the baffalo for the sheep" (1867) / Ten Bears (Comanche)

"Teach us the road to travel, and we will not depart from it forever" (1867) / Satanta (Kiowa)

"My heart is very strong" (1967) ; "I love the land and the buffalo and will not part with it" (1867) / Satanta (Kiowa)

"If we make peace, you will not hold it" (1868) / Gall (Sioux)

"I represent the whole Sioux nation, and they will be bound by what I say" (1870) / Red Cloud (Sioux)

"May the white man and the Indian speak truth to each other today" (1873) ; "The whites think we don't know about the mines, but we do" (1873) / Blackfoot (Crow)

"This country south of the Arkansas is our country" (1867) ; "I have worked hard to bring my people on the white man's road" (1873) / Kicking Bird (Kiowa)

"I have said yes, and thrown away my country" (1873) / Captain Jack (Modoc)

"We preferred our own way of living" (1877) / Crazy Horse (Sioux)

"I see that my friends before me are men of age and dignity" (1877) / Spotted Tail (Sioux)

"Osages have talked like blackbirds in spring : nothing has come from their hearts" (1880) / Governor Joe (Osage)

"I feel that my country has gotten a bad name" (1883) ; You are living in a new path" (1888) / Sitting Bull (Sioux)

"I was living peaceably and satisfied when people began to speak bad of me" (1886) / Geronimo (Apache)

"I bring you word from your fathers the ghosts" (1890) / Kicking Bear (Sioux)

"The Tonkawa killed him

it makes my heart hot" (1890) ; "I want my people follow after white way" (1910) ; "Some white people do that, too" (1910) / Quanah Parker (Comanche)