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You might as well expect rivers to run backwards as any man born free to be contented penned up.
Chief Joseph
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Chief Joseph
Age: 64 †
Born: 1840
Born: March 3
Died: 1904
Died: September 21
Tribal Chief
Wallowa Valley
Joseph Buruzagia
Hin-mut-too-uah-lat-kekht
Thunder Rolling in the Mountains
Heinmot Tooyalaket
Joseph the Younger
Might
Contented
Well
Backwards
Men
Rivers
Expect
Free
Born
Running
Wells
Penned
More quotes by Chief Joseph
I labored hard to avoid trouble and bloodshed.
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Finest fur may cover toughest meat.
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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 cannot tell me.
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All people should be treated the same way on earth.
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Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good.
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I hope that no more groans of wounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above, and that all people may be one people.
Chief Joseph
We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets that hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: if he has been a good man, he will have a good home if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same.
Chief Joseph
Some of you think an Indian is like a wild animal. This is a great mistake.
Chief Joseph
My father... had sharper eyes than the rest of our people.
Chief Joseph
Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.
Chief Joseph
If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian, he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. give them all the same law. Give them all an even chance to live and grow.
Chief Joseph
General Howard informed me, in a haughty spirit, that he would give my people 30 days to go back home, collect all their stock, and move onto the reservation.
Chief Joseph
We did not know there were other people besides the Indian until about one hundred winters ago, when some men with white faces came to our country.
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Cursed be he that scalps the reputation of the dead.
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All men were made brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect the rivers to run backward as that any man who was born free should be content when penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases.
Chief Joseph
It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.
Chief Joseph
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast.
Chief Joseph
From where the sun now stands I will fight no more.
Chief Joseph
The earth is our mother. She should not be disturbed by hoe or plough. We want only to subsist on what she freely gives us.
Chief Joseph
The first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark.
Chief Joseph