Quotes About Independence

Montana July 1897 D

On March 12, 1973, a big day, Wounded Knee declared itself a sovereign territory o the independent Oglala Nation. Anybody of goodwill, Indian or white, could become a citizen. Whatever one might say about AIM, it was never racist. As Crow Dog expressed it: "We don't want to fight the white man, but only the white man's system.

Many times I asked my grandmother, "Why don't you teach me the language?" Her answer always was: " 'Cause we want you to get an education, to live a good life. Not have a hard time. Not depend on nobody. Times coming up are going to be real hard. You need a white man's education to live in this world. Speaking Indian would only hold you back, turn you the wrong way.

Watching him with one eye, she wondered if men ever figured out that they were more appealing when they were pursuing their own work than when they were pursuing a woman.

Why must we cling to those who walk away instead of granting freedom? We must give the same liberty God gives to prodigals-an ability to let them go-or we'll be perennially bound to others for our happiness and effective service.

Waiting for someone else to write your history was no way to live. Sometimes it was only a certain way to die.

Who was this girl who thumbed her nose at two kingdoms and did as she pleased?

Sometimes you need to own one whole day. Maybe that's what makes you brave enough to face another.

Aster was eager for any kind of— Chance. She had only wanted a chance . A way out, a greater story than the one that had been written for her, just like I had wanted. Tell my bapa I tried, Miz . A chance to control her own destiny. But for her, escape was impossible.

I was afraid of all the lost choices I would never be able to make, and that for the rest of my life someone would always be telling me what to do or say or think, even when I had better ideas of my own. I was afraid of never being anything but what suited others and being pushed and prodded until I fit the mold they shoved me into and I forgot who I was and what I wanted.

This life was a dream of my own making, one where my imagination was my only boundary. It was a life that I alone commanded.

Being like everyone else is highly overrated.

I picked the Scholar's or the Chancellor's doors or—especially fun for me—the Timekeeper's, resetting his clock and timepieces? That had especially angered my father, but I'd only done it hoping it would create an extra hour in his day for me.

Who was this girl who thumbed her nose at two kingdoms and did as she pleased? I wanted to know. As

You are not letting me go anywhere. Where I go and what I do is still my choice to make.

I am choosing my own destiny now - not a book, nor a man or a kingdom.

Pauline frowned. "But you're not a soldier, Lia. You're his daughter. You had no choice, and that meant I had no choice. No one should be forced to marry someone they don't love." She lay back, gazing up at the stars and wrinkling her nose. "Especially not some old stuffy, puffy prince." We broke into giggles again, and more than the air I breathed, I was thankful for Pauline.

We were alone, we had each other, and we had a whole wilderness ahead of us.

The world was so much safer when you only had yourself to lose.

You [men] are not our protectors.... If you were, who would there be to protect us from?

I love to fly. It's just you're alone, there's peace and quiet, nothing around you but clear blue sky. No one to hassle you. No one to tell you where to go or what to do. The only bad part about flying is having to come back down to the fuckin' world.

We don't care how they do it in New York.

You were many wonderful things to many people before you met him--don't let this one event define who you are.

The man who stands in dependence on another is no longer a man at all, he has lost his standing, he is nothing but the possession of another man.