1927 Grand Council of American Indians
"The white people who are trying to make us over into their image, they want us to
be what they call assimilated, bringing the Indians into the mainstream and destroying our
own way of life and our own cultural patterns. They believe we should be contented like
those whose concept of happiness is materialistic and greedy, which is very different from
our way.
We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated. We don't want any part of
the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways,
to be able to hunt and fish and to live in peace. We don't want power, we don't want to be
congressmen, bankers, we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we
are the owners of this land and because we belong here.
The white man says there is freedom and justice for all. We have had "freedom and
justice," and that is why we have been almost exterminated. We shall not forget
this."