When one lives in a society where people can no longer rely on the institutions to tell them the truth, the truth must come from culture and art.
John TrudellRead
We’re not Indians and we’re not Native Americans. We’re older than both concepts. We’re the people, we’re the human beings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the human identity beyond national or cultural labels.
John Trudell's quote challenges the limitations of identity based on nationality or cultural labels. He asserts that these labels are constructs that do not define the essence of humanity, suggesting that we are all part of a broader human existence that transcends such divisions.
Themes
IdentityHumanityCultureLabelsExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for indigenous rights, a speaker might use this quote to highlight the deeper connection to humanity.
More from John Trudell
All quotes →When I go around in America and I see the bulk of the white people, they do not feel oppressed; they feel powerless... and we understand the psychological genocide that they have already inflicted upon their own people.
John TrudellRead
We have power... Our power isn’t in a political system, or a religious system, or in an economic system, or in a military system; these are authoritarian systems... they have power... but it’s not reality. The power of our intelligence, individually or collectively IS the power; this is the power that any industrial ruling class truly fears: clear coherent human beings.
John TrudellRead
The great lie is that it is civilization. It's not civilized. It has been literally the most blood thirsty brutalizing system ever imposed upon this planet. That is not civilization. That's the great lie, is that it represents civilization.
John TrudellRead
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