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You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.

— Chief Joseph

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More quotes by Chief Joseph

Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever.

The white man has more words to tell you how they look to him, but it does not require many words to speak the truth.

I never said the land was mine to do with it as I chose. The one who has the right to dispose of it is the one who has created it. I claim a right to live on my land, and accord you the privilege to live on yours.

The Indian Dispossessed (1906)

We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God, as the Catholics and Protestants do. We do not want that. We may quarrel with men about things on earth, but we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that.

The Wisdom of the Native Americans (1999)

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.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Chief Joseph (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.