Tribal Sovereignty Quotes

Especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately impacted tribal communities, we must invest in infrastructure in order to advance economic recovery and create much-needed jobs.

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

We had hoped that the white men would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains. Now that hope is gone. They have passed the mountains, and have settled upon Cherokee land. They wish to have that action sanctioned by treaty. When that is gained, the same encroaching spirit will lead them upon other land of the Cherokees. New cessions will be asked. Finally the whole country, which the Cherokees and their fathers have so long occupied, will be demanded, and the remnant of Ani-Yunwiya, THE REAL PEOPLE, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek refuge in some distant wilderness. There they will be permitted to stay only a short while, until they again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host. Not being able to point out any further retreat for the miserable Cherokees, the extinction of the whole race will be proclaimed. Should we not therefore run all risks, and incur all consequences, rather than submit to further loss of our country? Such treaties may be alright for men who are too old to hunt or fight. As for me, I have my young warriors about me.

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.

Several speeches were made by the chiefs during the council, all expressive in the highest degree of their friendly disposition towards our government, and their conduct in every particular manifested the sincerity of their declarations.

Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government

An Act To Prevent Outrages Against The Indians

When I was a kid, I really loved Indians. Native Americans. Pardon. Me.

We're a matrilineal society, as Pueblo women, and there are a lot of tribes across the country who are.

To leave Indian tribes in possession of their country is to leave the country a wilderness.

This is a unique legal loophole in the U.S.: If a non-native comes on a reservation and commits any crime, the non-native should be prosecuted by a federal court. Tribal law can arrest and hold someone for a year, but tribal law cannot prosecute non-natives. So since the federal courts are so overloaded, some of the cases get tossed out.

Holocaust? Ninety million Indians? Only four million left? They all have casinos - what's to complain about?

The United States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like performance of their obligations.

I have great respect for Oklahoma's tribal members, and I celebrate their traditions and culture.

The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them.

We have received the talk of our father the President of the United States, by the hands of our brothers the commissioners on the part of the United States. We find it is the wish of our father to exchange lands with us, lying on the west side of the Mississippi river, which we are very sorry to hear, as we never had a thought of exchanging our land for any others, as we think that we would not a country that would suit us as well as this we now occupy, it being the land of our forefathers, if we should exchange our lands for anu other, gearing the consequences may be similar to transplanting an old tree, which would wither and die away, and we are fearful we would come to the same. We want you, our brothers, to take our talk. We have no lands to exchange for any other. We wish our father to extend his protection to us here, as he proposes to do on the west of the Mississippi, as we apprehend we would, in a few years, experience the same difficulties in any other section of the country that might be suitable to us west of the Mississippi. Friends and brothers; we know that our white brothers are crowding upon us daily, which we know is not just. We further consider that there are a number of nations west of the Mississippi that have been enemies to us as well as our white brothers. It would be as much impossible to unite us with them as it would be to unite oil and water, and we have every reason to believe that those tribes that have left their country are not well satisfied; and if that should be the case, we are fearful that those tribes will take satisfaction of us for injuries done by us as well as our white brothers. We are a small tribe, and unable to defend our rights in any country. Our father the President wishes that we should come under the laws of the United States; we are a people that are not enlightened, and we cannot consent to be under your Government. If we should consent, we should be like unto young corn growing and met with a drought that would kill it all.

I do not talk English very much… I go down Washington… Government wants to open the Indian country. Indian he no ready yet, maybe half of it, they ready. That’s what I come for. That’s what I tell commissioner.

Indians should teach Indians; … Indians should serve Indians, especially on reservations.

The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had it first; it is theirs. They may sell, but all must join. Any sale not made by all is not valid.

The U.S. Supreme Court has established that the tribes own their water. What I'd like to focus on is doing something with the water that results in economic development.

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 support the indigenous people anywhere in the planet.

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

My own special knowledge is about the Abenaki people and, to some degree, my Iroquois neighbors. But whenever I write anything about another tribal nation, I always get a lot of help. Not just from books, but from people who belong to that tribal nation.

The Cherokees, the only tribe I know to be contemplating the establishment of regular laws, magistrates, and government, propose a government of representatives, elected from every town. But of all things, they least think of subjecting themselves to the will of one man.