Though many non-Native Americans have learned very little about us, over time we have had to learn everything about them. We watch their films, read their literature, worship in their churches, and attend their schools. Every third-grade student in the United States is presented with the concept of Europeans discovering America as a "New World" with fertile soil, abundant gifts of nature, and glorious mountains and rivers. Only the most enlightened teachers will explain that this world certainly wasn't new to the millions of indigenous people who already lived here when Columbus arrived.

The secret of our success is that we never, never give up.

I've run into more discrimination as a woman than as an Indian.

Look forward. Turn what has been done into a better path.

Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief.

If you argue with a fool, someone passing by will not be able to tell who is the fool and who is not.

It's like everybody's sitting there and they have some kind of veil over their face, and they look at each other through this veil that makes them see each other through some stereotypical kind of viewpoint. If we're ever gonna collectively begin to grapple with the problems that we have collectively, we're gonna have to move back the veil and deal with each other on a more human level.