For a subject worked and reworked so often in novels, motion pictures, and television, American Indians remain probably the least understood and most misunderstood Americans of us all.

Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive.

There is a connection, hard to explain logically but easy to feel, between achievement in public life and progress in the arts.

My call is not to those who believe they belong to the past. My call is to those who believe in the future.

Our responsibility is one of decision, for to govern is to choose.

So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green. Only when the winds of adversity blow can you tell whether an individual or a country has steadfastness.