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We were contented to let things remain as the Great Spirit Chief made them. They were not and would change the rivers and mountains if they did not suit them.
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
Mountain
Contented
Spirit
Suit
Change
Chief
Great
Chiefs
Made
Mountains
Things
Suits
Would
Rivers
Remain
More quotes by Chief Joseph
We were like deer. They were like grizzly bear.
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I labored hard to avoid trouble and bloodshed.
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If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace.
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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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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.
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I do not believe that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do.
Chief Joseph
My father... had sharper eyes than the rest of our people.
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
We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.
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I will speak with a straight tongue.
Chief Joseph
I pressed my father's hand and told him I would protect his grave with my life. My father smiled and passed away to the spirit land.
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Finest fur may cover toughest meat.
Chief Joseph
All people should be treated the same way on earth.
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I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people.
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We gave up some of our country to the white men, thinking that then we could have peace. We were mistaken. The white man would not let us alone.
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I saw clearly that war was upon us when I learned that my young men had been secretly buying ammunition.
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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
We had a great many horses, of which we gave Lewis and Clark what they needed, and they gave us guns and tobacco in return.
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A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal.
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
