When I go around in America and I see the bulk of the white people, they do not feel oppressed; they feel powerless... and we understand the psychological genocide that they have already inflicted upon their own people.
John TrudellBelieving isn't thinking, but we've been programmed to believe that believing is thinking. To use our intelligence to think means we're keeping the energy active, we're thinking, we're really using the power of our intelligence in a thinking way. But when we've been programmed to believe, we're no longer thinking, because energy flows.
John TrudellWeโre not Indians and weโre not Native Americans. Weโre older than both concepts. Weโre the people, weโre the human beings.
John TrudellThe strength of the poetry as we enter into whatever it is we are entering into, will be determined by the clarity of the thinking we put into it.
John TrudellWhen we're believing, we're not really thinking, because the belief has walls: "This is what I believe." So what I believe is like a box, and we're taking the energy of our thinking and putting into a box of beliefs, pretending that we're thinking. But we're really stifling our own energy. We create these mental stresses and frustrations, because we're blocking our spirit, so to speak.
John Trudell