We were told that they wished merely to pass through our country. . . to seek for gold in the far west . . . Yet before the ashes of the council are cold, the Great Father is building his forts among us. . . . His presence here is . . . an insult to the spirits of our ancestors. Are we then to give up their sacred graves to be allowed for corn?
Interpretation
This quote reflects the conflict between indigenous rights and expansionist ambitions.
Red Cloud's words express the deep-seated grievances of Native Americans regarding the encroachment of settlers onto their lands. He highlights the hypocrisy of promises made by the U.S. government and the disrespect shown towards the sacred lands of his ancestors, questioning the morality of sacrificing graves for agricultural expansion. The quote emphasizes the spiritual bond between indigenous peoples and their ancestral territories, illustrating the broader themes of colonization and cultural erasure.
In practice
During a speech on indigenous rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of respecting ancestral lands.
I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
The Great Spirit will not make me suffer because I am ignorant. He will put me in a place where I shall be better off than in this world.
When I was a young man, I was poor. In a war with other nations, I was in eighty-seven fights. There I received my name and was made Chief of my nation. But now I am old and am for peace.
Look at me. I was a warrior on this land where the sun rises, now I come from where the sun sets. Whose voice was first surrounded on this land - the red people with bows and arrows. The Great Father says he is good and kind to us. I can't see it.
And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
There is not one piece of cosmic dust that is outside the scope of God's sovereign providence.
Sin is the willful transgression of divine law. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the gift of God to His children to correct and overcome the consequences of sin. The gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ provides us at all times and at all places with the blessings of repentance and forgiveness.
It’s a way of life to be always texting and when you looks at these texts it really is thoughts in formation. I do studies where I just sit for hours and hours at red lights watching people unable to tolerate being alone. Its as though being along has become a problem that needs to be solved and then technology presents itself as a solution to this problem…Being alone is not a problem that needs to be solved. The capacity for solitude is a very important human skill.
How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
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