Native Lands Quotes

The natives are very exact and punctual in the bounds of their lands, belonging to this or that prince or people, even to a river, brook, &c. And I have known them make bargain and sale amongst themselves for a small piece or quantity of ground ; notwithstanding a sinful opinion amongst many, that Christians have right to heathen's land.

The Indians have a right to the occupation of their lands, independent of the States within whose chartered lines they happen to be

The illicit traffic of liquor among the Indians and the indiscriminate leasing of their lands have done more harm than anything that happened to them in their history, even now we hear of some desperate deed committed through their drunkenness.

Most governments in Latin America have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous people and their right to their own traditional territories.

From several of the Indian tribes inhabiting the country bordering on Lake Erie purchases have been made of lands on conditions very favorable to the United States, and, as it is presumed, not less so to the tribes themselves.

The United States - you know, native people are large landowners, but the military has a huge chunk of our territories. And in those, there are a number of places that are our sacred sites.

The Great Spirit has stocked your land with cows, ours with Buffalo. Yours with hogs, ours with Bear. Yours with sheep, ours with deer. He has given you the advantage that your animals are tame while ours are wild and demand not only a large space for range but art to hunt and kill them. Nevertheless, they are as much our property as other animals are yours and ought not to be taken from us without our consent or for something of equal value.

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

The lands granted were in the occupancy of savages and situated in a wilderness, of which the government had never taken possession, and of which it could not with its own citizens ever have taken possession.

Since my residence at Tippecanoe, we have endeavored to level all distinctions, to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischiefs are done. It is they who sell the land to the Americans.

Another important acquisition of territory has also been made since the last session of Congress. The friendly tribe of Kaskaskia Indians with which we have never had a difference, reduced by the wars and wants of savage life to a few individuals unable to defend themselves against the neighboring tribes, has transferred its country to the United States, reserving only for its members what is sufficient to maintain them in an agricultural way

The Indians are acknowledged to have an unquestionable … right to the lands they occupy.

You cannot turn the clock back, you cannot give the island of Manhattan back to the indigenous, but on the other hand, you can ensure that the indigenous can maintain their way of life.