Great Speeches by Native Americans

by Bob Blaisdell (editor)

Remarkable for their eloquence, depth of feeling, and oratorical mastery, these 82 compelling speeches encompass five centuries of Indian encounters with nonindigenous people. Beginning with a 1540 refusal by a Timucua chief to parley with Hernando de Soto ("With such a people I want no peace"), the collection extends to the 20th-century address of activist Russell Means to the United Nations affiliates and members of the Human Rights Commission ("We are people who love in the belly of the monster").
Other memorable orations include Powhatan's "Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food?" (1609); Red Jacket's "We like our religion, and do not want another" (1811); Osceola's "I love my home, and will not go from it" (1834); Red Cloud's "The Great Spirit made us both" (1870); Chief Joseph's "I will fight no more forever" (1877); Sitting Bull's "The life my people want is a life of freedom" (1882); and many more. Other notable speakers represented here include Tecumseh, Seattle, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse, as well as many lesser-known leaders.
Graced by forceful metaphors and vivid imagery expressing emotions that range from the utmost indignation to the deepest sorrow, these addresses are deeply moving documents that offer a window into the hearts and minds of Native Americans as they struggled against the overwhelming tide of European and American encroachment. This inexpensive edition, with informative notes about each speech and orator, will prove indispensable to anyone interested in Native American history and culture.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native American, American History, Native Americans, Classics, Reference

218 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2000

About the author

Bob Blaisdell is a published adapter, author, editor, and an illustrator of children's books and young adult books. He teaches English in Brooklyn at Kingsborough Community College. He is a reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle and Christian Science Monitor and the editor of more than three dozen anthologies for Dover Publications. Email him at Robert.Blaisdell@Kingsborough.edu

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband asked me why after I told him that this book was taking me longer than usual. "Is it because there is no narrative with it all just being random speeches?" "No, that's not actually it because there IS a narrative. I don't know much about Native American history, but I know the general arc of it and all these speeches - see, I just can't read for hours, I can't read speech after speech because it's just so SAD. They try, they're optimistic, they're angry, they plead, they bargain, they make logical and emotional appeals and in the end it just will not matter. I know, in a general sense, how it all plays out."

It is depressing to read this book, but it is also illuminating. So much Native American history I know only half-remembered school classes, but here I get to learn about it first hand. The mini-paragraphs written by the editor that precede each speech were really useful. They provided (for me, much needed) context.

I wish that the speeches were cited better than they are. I sincerely doubt that many of the beginning speeches were given in English, but since this book only cites where it found the speech, it doesn't provide any information as to who the translator was or when the translation was done (on the spot or years later). Also lacking - why were these speeches recorded and by whom?

Still though, this was a book I'm glad I have read.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't believe the importance of this collection of speeches can be overstated. It covers nearly 500 years of the history of Native American relations with first the colonizers then the US government. It is arranged chronologically which lends to an understanding of how interactions between the groups changed, tragically for the worse.

What this collection also gives voice to is the wide variety of attitudes held by the various speakers. It belies the notion of some universally agreed upon response from indigenous peoples. Different groups and different times in history, even different leaders within the various groups held sometimes opposing ideas of how to respond to the incursions upon their land, cultures, and beliefs.

This should be required reading in every high school in order to allow native peoples to speak for themselves from the pages of history, rather than the eurocentric presentation most often provided...if anything more than the most cursory treatment is given at all.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the last of the four books that I had to read last year for a English literature class when I went back to school for my highy school diploma before I graduated.it was the one that I actually love the most.

Update
This was one of my 2017 Around the year in 52 books, read a total of 7 speeches from it.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The selections are great; I simply wish there was more context given. Still a great resource, and Dover Thrift is always at the right price.

[Marcha Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who thinks they know American history needs to read this book. Those who don't understand why the white men are hated also need to read it. In a nutshell, it's a testimonial of exploitation, lies, and aggression, which has been the norm on the part of supposed "civilized" nations for millennia. Seeing indigenous people as inferior, savages, and uncivilized based on their lifestyle and thus treating them no better than animals has a sordid and long history.

This book chronicles the treatment of the Indigenous Americans from the first contact by the Pilgrims in the 1600s through the 20th century. The lies and aggression are nothing short of shameful and an embarrassment to any honest person. Those of us who grew up playing "cowboys and Indians" and watching similar TV shows were not seeing things as they really are.

In most cases, the Indigenous Americans only wanted peace. Some had the foresight to see the problems that were coming. They saw the land as sacred, given to them by The Great Spirit, and they treated Mother Earth with respect and gratitude. They may not have had the white man's technology, but their societal norms were often far more advanced than "civilized" nations. The wholesale slaughter and exploitation of these people in the name of Christianity is a national disgrace.

Besides the actual slaughters, their children were often taken away, essentially kidnapped, and sent to boarding schools where their native culture was derided while they were indoctrinated with supposedly white civilization's values. Their women were often sterilized without their knowledge. There is no doubt the intent was genocide.

If you think things have changed today, think again. Power and control by those with selfish and evil intent still prevails. Corporate power subdues the rights of individuals. Nothing has changed.
I cried more reading this book than any novel. It's a very sad commentary on the foundation of the United States. These Native Americans were highly intelligent, moral individuals. In the vast majority of cases, they were only aggressive when they'd had enough of being lied to and could see the intent was their annihilation.

Read it. More people need their eyes opened to the truth that is our history and how it relates to what's going on today.

[Staci Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Such a great way to see how colonialist, european, and american relations change with the natives from the initial contact stages all the way to the manifest destiny and westward expansion into the indian lands. Definitely a good primary source to understand the native's side in American history and crucial events and wars. Not always a perfect source though when you think about the difficult translations from the native tongue to English, however, certain speeches can offer a new perspective in native beliefs towards the white man. Although native people were seen as uncivilized and savagery, the eye witness accounts of whites raiding indian villages, killing innocent women and children show these "christian" settlers as the real savages that some americans like to forget in history... after all, winners write the history books.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. One of the most painful things I've ever read. Important though. Every American should look this stuff in the face.

[degelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many quotes that could be pulled from this book and repeated here, but I won't be transcribing them today. In fact, I'm regretting that I didn't invest in a highlighter and I haven't used one in years. If there was book I've read recently that should be marked up, it's this one.

I can break down some of what I learned from this into two takeaways:

1) It's absolutely mind-numbing to read speeches reiterating a community's needs in a thoughtful, reasonable, thorough and diplomatic way, only for those needs to be repeatedly ignored and denied. The term "speaking truth to power" pales in comparison to this. It's speaking logic to complete disregard and insanity.
2) The native populations of North America were always considered lesser, subhuman or "lagging behind" by their colonizers, but in reality their way of doing things was light years ahead of what strangers brought to their shores.

The opening speech is the most telling and suggests an alternative way these people could have handled Europeans taking over the land and enslaving the locals. Chief Acuera sees through these newcomers all the way back to 1540: "With such a people I want no peace... We will treat you as you deserve. Every captive will we quarter and hang up to the highest tree along the road."

Other communities were more collaborative, helpful and thus easier to exploit, so they weren't as fortunate. From that speech onward the history of North American native communities follows a rather straight line: being repeatedly evicted, assaulted, lied to, and murdered via starvation, disease and warfare. They fight back as much as they can, realizing their hospitality was no different than signing their own death warrant. When they defend themselves or advocate for their rights they are greeted with hostility and fury. One of the speeches details a meeting with George Washington, who raises his hand then closes it into a fist, demonstrating how he will surround native populations with his men then crush all of them like bugs. This marks the beginning of a long, protracted attempt at complete genocide, and you can easily see parallels to what is happening elsewhere in the world today. The acts of a colonizer are always self-serving and insane. This is no exception.

The last speech in this book was given in 1991, reflecting on the previous 500 years of Native history and looking ahead to the future. There is an acknowledgment that from the beginning Columbus viewed them as slaves, and brought an economy to the land that is divorced from reality, the cycles of nature and freedom itself. This is the last thing I read and the freshest in my mind, so here is a quote to end this on:

"If you do not work with the laws [of nature] that surround you, you will not survive. It is quite simple. We know that there is no mercy in the natural law whatsoever. It will exact retribution in direct ratio to violation. You cannot discuss this- there are no lawyers, only the retribution. The problem here is that we visit this retribution on our children and on our grandchildren."

There was so much knowledge and foresight these people have offered to counter the European mindset, only to be ignored. I wish the rest of us could catch up to them, but centuries of damage have already been done, and that's a tragedy that transcends this book and words altogether. The replies to these speeches aren't published here, but all you have to do is look around and observe the way we're living to find those answers. Our day to day survival isn't reliant on nature or people as much as money, acquisition, ownership and material things, and as many of us know that hasn't made humans or our environment any safer, happier or sustainable.

The natives of North America knew this and pointed it out from the beginning, but weren't listened to. The repercussions of that continue to this day.

[Gregory Klug · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compelling chronicle of the Native Americans’ response to the white settlement of the land they inherited from the Great Spirit. There is much tragedy to mourn and wisdom to glean from the North American Indians included in this volume. Spanning four centuries, most of the speeches date from the nineteenth, in which we encounter the eloquent words of Red Jacket, Red Cloud, Chief Seattle, Chief Joseph (one of my heroes) and several others. These documents illustrate different responses to colonial presence, such as Chief Tecumseh who advocated war with the States and fought with the British in the war of 1812, and Chief Pushmataha, who advocated peace with Americans and fought with them against the British.

It is impossible for a sane person not to admire the courage with which men such as King Philip and Sitting Bull defended their land and people. It is also illuminating to cross-reference the information in this book with that found in encyclopedia articles written about the various figures (most of whom have Wikipedia or Britannica articles or both). In the end, I believe Americans in particular need to look squarely at the history embodied by these pages, allow themselves to be affected by it, and even grapple with what it means to be an American in light of what our forebears have done to Native peoples and to the land that was theirs since time immemorial.

[Mark Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful and illuminating book. I read it years ago and set it aside - stunned by the clarity and wisdom reflected in its pages. Recently, I picked it up again and was again touched by the weight of its contents, by the gravitas of its speakers, and the truth of words wrought in a forge of unending war. If ever there was a lesson for humanity, it is in the words of these great leaders speaking for their dying nations.

There is an inevitable, overarching sadness to this book that permeates every speech and every page. Their words are so expressive and vivid and their messages so resigned, that you feel the crushing weight of their moment. Your heart will go out to them and their people, though their time of suffering is long past.

Importantly, this is not a book that appears to be designed to make you feel bad about who you are or where your ancestors come from. It’s more of a peek at a wisdom that was earned at great cost, but which is still relevant today. It may also offer some insights into the perspective of their descendants today. Understanding is always good.

[Anup Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever wanted to hear the Native American struggle "from the horse's mouth", this is about as close as you can get. Starting in the 1500s and up to 1992, this book is a rough chronology of speeches made by mostly prominent Native Americans. Surely many of these have been translated, but the passion, pain, perseverance, and frustration all come through in these pages. Many of them I'd heard about, like Sitting Bull, but most I did not. Bob Blaisdell does a good job of introducing each speaker and his role in history.

It's a fairly quick read, 218 pages on paperback. Many of the speeches are just a page, a handful are ten or more pages.

I naturally come away from this reading experience as both disheartened and disgusted by the way our American ancestors treated the Native Americans and for how they've been taken off their lands by force and deceit. I've always believed that, but hearing it from the old chiefs reinforces it that much more.

[Angela Gyurko · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Others of your accursed race have, in years past, poisoned our peaceful shores. They have taught me what you are. What is your employment? To wanter about like vagabonds from land to land, to rob the poor, to betray the confiding, to murder in cold blood the defenseless. No! With such a people I want no peace--no friendship." (3)

And this is how it started in 1540.

From this beginning, to Chief Joseph telling the story of July 1878, when he and others were loaded into rail cars and shipped to Kansas in the heat, with three of his people dying on the journey. Released from the rail cars finally to a place with no shelter, no food (163).

This is another slow read, and so much of it explains how little Americans have changed over time.

Anyone seeking "Fair and Balanced" coverage to today's events need to be sure to read this balance.

[Brian Washines · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is closer to 4.5 stars as far as a nice archive of the Indigenous experience in the United States in our own words, as best we could given the words we could communicate to the government back then. Some accounts are powerful like Chief Seattle's though the substantiation of his words as a reliable account were questionable at best, but where there was substantiation we get a view into desperation instilled, promises broken, and histories lost. We see that pattern. Systematic. Heartless. Churling eastward across the continent from ocean to ocean. Though I've read a few of these speeches in various anthologies throughout my life (Chief Joseph's still resonates as always) I enjoyed seeing them in this handy edition. These words were American. They are America. Still alive. Still here.

[Lissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far the saddest book I've read up to date. :( It's kind of sad reading through the speeches knowing that through the passage of time, the misunderstanding across cultures, stupid prejudices, and dumb mistakes by all, these peoples have been largely "rubbed out". This collection of speeches was good from the perspective of what the native Americans wanted. That was only to be left to their lands and not encroached upon by settlers. It's ennobling because it exposes the reader to the remarkable beauty of Native American thought.

[Calico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This serves as a good resource, as it's organized chronologically. It is all speeches, so the accuracy may not be 100%, but it has served it well. I found this a lighter and captivating read, albeit painful due to how much suffering they have undergone. I would highly recommend it as a 201 sort of book for those interested in native history.

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is eye-opening, memorable, and extremely powerful. The speeches are filled with beauty and sorrow, rebuke and forgiveness, anger and mercy, hate and grace, and so much wisdom. Do not pass this book up. The words here will stay with you forever.

[Sharon Dorival · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was well worth the money and the read.

This book narrates a part of history I was never taught. It was good seeing things the Indians way and not as re-written history retold as lies and misconceptions.

[Tarawyn Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a hard read. I just hope there's no such thing as generational karma or else all white people in the U.S. are going to hell forever for what our ancestors did to the Native Americans and African slaves in this country.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a must Read Indian History .Hundreds of Years

I found the book full of Indian Nation discussions and interpretations of what was said and what French,English traders and military actually ment.

[Jim Keyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

All I can think of is one word: wisdom.

[E.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The translations are uneven and perhaps not entirely reliable, but the meaning shines through nevertheless.

[Emily Wynsma]

Read the first few for my book group. Very interesting and enlightening.

[Alexander Stemer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intelligent, insightful, and heart-breaking voices of the not-so-distant past.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different speeches by different Indians. Interesting how they thought.

[Gabrielle (Estel.Edits) · Rating 4 out of 5]

IG @estel.edits

[Great Speeches by Native Americans] Transcriptions with context.
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I thought about adding this review to a list of minis, but the subject matter deserves its own post. Native American literature is too easily overlooked.
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It's hard to describe how breathless Native American speeches make me feel. They are at once filled with beautiful imagery and metaphor while also being straight to the point. They are a beautiful valley of crops without unnecessary flowers.
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This collection lets the speeches speak for themselves. Each is titled by the speaker, given a subtitle of an important quote, and proceeded by a small contextual note. The context is sparring. It gives the reader enough to understand how the speech is reaction to events, but little enough so it doesn't overshadow the speech itself. It also sheds light into the grey areas of context - there is much we do not know. For example, one speech is from a woman. The context explains that allowing a woman to speak to male delegates could have been an insult or it could have been an appeal to emotions. The introduction also does a good job more fully encompassing the usual settings of such speeches.
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I was impressed by the range and balance of subject matter. I have read other Native American speech anthologies, but they focus greatly on one theme, such as religion, over another. #GreatSpeechesbyNativeAmericans is a well curated list. Take your time with them.
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Great Speeches by Native Americans (edited by Bob Blaisdell) ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️✨4.5/5

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Native Americans had a great tradition of oratory, regardless of the individual tribe, and a sample selection spanning four hundred years of interaction with white settlers and colonialists is presented here. Notable Native Americans such as Sagoyewatha, Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, and Tecumseh are among the voices that speak of four hundred years of aggression, broken promises, and continual encroachment by the overwhelming tide of European and American influence. Twentieth century selections by Russell Means and Oren Lyons demonstrate that the same problems that generations of Native Americans faced are still present in the modern age.

These speeches are rich in vivid imagery and a wide range of emotions from indignation and sorrow to anger and calls restraint. These speeches make for sobering reading - the oppression and repression of the Native Americans is one of history's greatest errors and the full details from the Native American side comes out when reading. This offers a different view of European colonisation of North America and thus is a cause for reflection.

The selection of speeches covers a wide range of Native American tribes and times, but further biographical and historical details of the speaker, the location and timing of the speech etc. would have been useful.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent survey of speeches covering five hundred years, from a Timucua chief's parley with Hernando de Soto in 1540 and finishing with a Six Nations Iroquois spokesperson’s discussion from 1991 on Native American sovereignty and land ownership in America from the arrival of settlers. Moving, poignant, direct, highly informative, full of natural metaphors, vivid descriptions and skilful oratory, and often downright shocking and disturbing. Books like this should be a must-read for high school students across the U.S., as an integral part of the patchwork history of our country.

[Marco Valeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro che rivela la sofferenza di un popolo dimenticato. Penso sia molto profondo e interessante osservare l'evoluzione del rapporto tra bianchi e nativi americani attraverso l'evoluzione dei discorsi dei personaggi più rappresentativi di un popolo maltrattato. L'unica pecca (ma forse sarebbe stato un altro libro) la scarsità di informazioni prima di ogni discorso. Un libro che consiglierei soprattutto ai giovani per far capire come nel mondo ci siano sempre più punti di vista

[Kerri Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, good

I have kept this on my Kindle because I keep going back and forth between a few of my native history books a family history and this book and sometimes I go to one of the other because of what was stated in one of the speeches it helps narrow down my research in certain eras. I refer to it on several occasions because of what was said by these great people is very helpful for us today. Good good. 10/14/19 Took it out again doing some research.

[Irmgard · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the Liberal Arts and Science Exam I had to take this spring was a speech of an Native American chief from an early century just after the first Europeans had arrived in the Americas that got me interested in reading this book.