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Our fathers gave us many laws which they had learned from their fathers. These laws were good.

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
Learned
Law
Father
Many
Good
Fathers
Native
Laws
Gave

More quotes by Chief Joseph

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When my young men began the killing, my heart was hurt.
Chief Joseph
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Lawyer acted without authority from our band. He had no right to sell the Wallowa country.
Chief Joseph
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It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good words and the broken promises.
Chief Joseph
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It does not require many words to speak the truth.
Chief Joseph
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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.
Chief Joseph
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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.
Chief Joseph
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I will speak with a straight tongue.
Chief Joseph
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Good words will not give me back my children.
Chief Joseph
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Let me be a free man - free to travel, free to stop, free to work.
Chief Joseph
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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
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A man who would not love his father's grave is worse than a wild animal.
Chief Joseph
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All people should be treated the same way on earth.
Chief Joseph
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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
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Cursed be he that scalps the reputation of the dead.
Chief Joseph
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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.
Chief Joseph
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I labored hard to avoid trouble and bloodshed.
Chief Joseph
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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.
Chief Joseph
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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.
Chief Joseph
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I did not want my people killed. I did not want bloodshed.
Chief Joseph
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I would have given my own life if I could have undone the killing of white men by my people.
Chief Joseph