Madeline’s Reviews > Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder > Status Update

“It is my people who must stand as the shadow that reminds you of your failures. It is our memory that must keep you on the good road. It does you no good to pretend that we did not exist and that you did not destroy us. This is our land, we will always be here. You can no more remove our memory than you can hide the sun by putting your hand over your eyes.”

Imagine your grandma’s skull in a museum exhibit.

“There were little girls playing with dolls and little boys who were just learning to walk. The soldiers killed them all. Then your people had the nerve to talk about massacres by the Indians. Do you know why we ambushed the soldiers? Because we were trying to keep them away from our children and babies and our old people. We had to get to them before they got to our families.”

Correction: Sitting Bull was dragged out of bed and shot in the head. His killer received a medal.

“I do not wish to be shut up in a corral. All agency Indians I have seen were worthless. They are neither red warriors nor white farmers. They are neither wolf nor dog.”

“When something is sacred, it does not have a price. I don’t care if it is white people talking about heaven or Indian people talking about ceremonies. If you can buy it, it isn’t sacred and once you start to sell it, it doesn’t matter whether your reasons are good or not. You are taking what is sacred and making it ordinary.”

“It all comes back to possessions. You want to have everything and you think that is fine, as long as it is put in piles or in rooms or in boxes with labels. We don’t have very much and we leave it when we don’t want it or need it.”

“All you really care about is keeping things clean. You don’t care how they really are, just so long as they are clean. You see a dirt path with a pop can next to it and you think that is worse than a big paved highway that is kept clean. You get madder at a forest with a trash bag in it than at a big shopping center that is all clean and swept.”

“Generosity is the most important. Now we have been turned around. We think that good people should be rewarded, just like the white man thinks. Can’t you see how much better it was when good people thought they should give, not that they should get? We didn’t measure people by rich and poor. We didn’t know how. When times were good, everyone was rich. When times were bad, everyone was poor.”

“We did not think we owned the land. The land was part of us. We didn’t even know about owning the land, it is like talking about owning your grandmother. You can’t own your grandmother! She just is your grandmother, why would you talk about owning her?”