John Marshall Quotes

Tribal sovereign immunity is an anachronism in today’s world.

The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them. [The Seminole Indians]

To correctly understand the Constitution, then, we must read it with reference to this well known existing State of our relations with the Indians -- the United States asserting the right of soil, sovereignty, and jurisdiction, in full dominion, the Indians occupant of allotted hunting grounds.

[We must defend ourselves] against all Indians in generall, for that they are all Enemies

We did not expect to conquer the whites. I took up the hatchet to revenge the injuries which my people could no longer endure. Had I borne them without striking, my people would have said - "Black Hawk is a woman; he is too old to be a chief; he is no Sauk.

The Constitution does not apply to the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation predates the Constitution.

I want no peace till the Indians suffer more.

There is now a recognition that there are three sovereigns in this country, and they are the Federal Government, the state governments and the tribal governments.

I cannot but think that there are strong reasons for doubting the applicability of the epithet "state" to a people so low in the grade of organized society as our Indian tribes most generally

I will back you with my whole authority... I will say nothing and do nothing to restrain our troops from doing what they deem proper on the spot, and will allow no mere vague general charges of cruelty and inhumanity to tie their hands, but will use all the powers confided to me to the end that these Indians, the enemies of our race and of our civilization, shall not again be able to begin and... carry out their barbarous warfare.

Civilization or death to all American savages!

I disapprove... of the proposal to subject the Indians to our laws without their consent,... It is so little in concord with our principles of government.

It is presumed that humanity dictated the original policy of the removal and concentration of the Indians in the West to save them from threatened extinction. But today, by reason of the immense augmentation of the American population, and the extension of their settlements throughout the entire West, covering both slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the Indian races are more seriously threatened with a speedy extermination than ever before in the history of the country

No white man found fighting by the side of an Indian will be taken prisoner; instant death will be his lot.

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 can not tell me.

They [the American Indians] have claims on the magnanimity and, I may add, on the justice of this nation which we must all fill. We should become their real benefactors; we should perform the office of their Great Father, the endearing title which they emphatically give to the Chief Magistrate of our Union.

In the multitude of cares claiming my constant attention I have been unable to examine and determine the exact treaty relations between the United States and the Cherokee Nation.

Having lost the old ways, we Cherokee must Consider that we cannot live without the English, for they have all their goods of the English and Arms … without which we could not go to War and so we will always be ruled by them.

Have we, the first holders of this prosperous region, no longer a share in your history? Glad were your fathers to sit down upon the threshold of the long house. Had our forefathers spurned you from it, when the French were thundering at the opposite side to get a passage through, and drive you into the sea, whatever has been the fate of other Indians, the Iroquois might still have been a nation, and I, instead of pleading here for the privilege of living within your borders, I – might have had a country.

What description of Indians are to be deemed members of a State, is not yet settled; and has been a question of frequent perplexity and contention in the Federal Councils. And how the trade with Indians, though not members of a State, yet residing within its legislative jurisdiction, can be regulated by an external authority, without so far intruding on the internal rights of legislation, is absolutely incomprehensible. This is not the only case in which the articles of confederation have inconsiderately endeavored to accomplish impossibilities;

Laws form the most important portion of a nation's history.

Neither our present-day natives nor their ancestors ever surrendered their sovereignty…. Frankly, I don't recall ever surrendering my sovereignty either. I was never asked whether I accepted the rule of federal, provincial or municipal governments over me. I was simply born here, like a Mohawk or an Inuit, and successive groups of people calling themselves the government have taken it upon themselves to claim that they rule me.

(We have allocated $500,000) for purchases of territory from the Indians and payment of annuities to them.

Why does not the Great Father put his red children on wheels, so he can move them as he will?

If bad men among the Indians shall commit a wrong or depredation upon the person or property of any one, white, black, or Indian, subject to the authority of the United States and at peace therewith, the Navajo tribe agree that they will, on proof made to their agent, and on notice by him, deliver up the wrongdoer to the United States, to be tried and punished according to its laws