No people on Earth ever enjoyed a freedom like we Indians enjoyed before the White Man came to this country.

 

"No people on Earth ever enjoyed a freedom like we Indians enjoyed before the White Man came to this country.  Everything was free.  We were free and so were the animals and the birds and the rivers and the whole wonderful land from end to end.  All free.  All pure.  All happy.  This was the freest and purest and happiest place in the whole Universe.  We were the Great Spirit's forest children, living free according to His Law.  Then Columbus and his gang hit this country by accident.  We're sorry that they did.  Our Instructions didn't tell us what to do about the White Man.  We welcomed him when he came here.  We fed him.  We took care of him.  We believed God had sent him here to help us.  God gave the White Man powers we never saw before - material powers.  He was supposed to share those powers to make life better for all of us.  He was supposed to use the material power in the service of the spiritual power.  He was supposed to connect them.  He didn't.  Instead, he used his material powers to steal our land and our freedom . . . Only one thing's sadder than remembering you once were free, and that's FORGETTING you once were free.  That would be the saddest thing of all. That's one thing we Indians will never do."

Mathew King (Noble Red Man),
Lakota chief and elder

Photo: Yellow Vetch blowing in the wind, with the Yellow Mounds behind; Badlands National Park, SD; May 19, 2012