Quotes from Win Blevins

A man does not sell the earth the people walk on." That

No Water made her want to be taken, which was exciting and frightening. Crazy Horse made her want to give, which was fulfilling. She

None of them are willing to see themselves or others simply as what they are. All is colored with myth, with the ideal. Everyone is a figure in a cosmic drama—an imaginary drama.

The North American Indian, regarded as "backward," has a life that makes sustenance, responsibility for oneself, and dignity possible. These backward people have no hint of the worthiness of their own persons.

We will speak of what we must do concerning the Frenchman, who now comes as many as the locusts—who drinks the water, burns the wood, and kills the buffalo of our hunting grounds, so that the Shoshone people may one day have not enough to eat.

Everything was askew—this whole time on earth, his time for being alive, was aberrant. Three

That was a big misunderstanding. The Indians thought that the white man's God had powerful medicine, to be able to give white people guns and pots and wheeled wagons and thousands of beads and mirrors and far-seeing telescopes and other wonders. They wanted to get such great medicine for themselves. What they were after was material, not spiritual.

Sam did think Appaloosas were the best. They were perfectly conformed, their markings beautiful. Most of them were short bodied and stocky, built for bursts of speed, which made them the ultimate buffalo runners.

heart. As he looked around at the agency Indians, dependent, destitute, spiritless, it was clearer than ever that an agency offered no life to him and no prospect for the return of Hawk. The people might be able to live here, he didn't know. Hawk would never come to him here, and he would die. And until his death, live gutted of spirit. He walked his pony and felt in its hooves the pulse of the drum, tapping the earth.

1850: The Shoshones began to distinguish between "Americans," whom they liked as good friends, and "Mormons," whom they did not like.

But facts fall short of truth, because truth includes the yearnings of the human heart—

if they watched the soldiers and opposed them everywhere, the whites could do nothing.

What good is a white man if you can't have a little fun with him? "At

Other Lakota would respect it. None would try to coerce it or even influence it. None would mock it. Your understanding was the essence of you, and to follow it your sacred choice. All

You can do anything, be anything," his father often said, "if you're willing to accept what comes

Among the whites some think they can see and choose for others.

They fight and kill each other. Instead of respecting another man's way, they stop at nothing to get him to adopt their way. Like the Mormons." The

When you are truly thirsty, drink deep. When you truly feel the drum, dance.

the U.S. government this very summer was sending an army against the Mormons at the big salty lake to make the Mormons live like the other wasicu, especially not to take more than one wife. Incomprehensible. "They

Their deepest desire—believe me about this—is to change our way of living. Their deepest desire is to make us like them. I swear it." Tasunke

the claims of incredible numbers of wasicu, an old tale raised once more.

You might fight your enemy—that had respect in it. You might even kill him—respect again. But to do what the wasicu did: afflict your enemy with disease, pen him up, starve him, and then rescue his body on the condition that he surrender his spirit

But these were only things. In return for them the wasicu wanted you to relinquish your own genius, which was not of things but of the spirit. From

Mitakuye oyasin—we are all related. So