U & D

Here is a building list of quotations that you might put on flags or banners to decorate your classroom. Additions are welcome.

“We are citizens of the U.S., but we are also tribal people…We don’t want to assimilate. We’ve been around for thousands of years, and we don’t want to die out as a people.” Susan Hammond, Penobscot

“Our rivers, our waters, are not just a resource, they are us.” Barry Dana, Penobscot

“When President Lyndon B. Johnson was about to sign the Immigration and Nationality Act on Oct. 3, 1965, he chose to do it at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. That day he said, ‘Our beautiful America was built by a nation of strangers. From a hundred different places or more they poured forth into an empty land, joining and blending in one mighty and irresistible tide.’ Out of sight, out of mind and out of consideration is a credo so embedded in the American media when it comes to Native Americans that not one reporter or news organization even questioned the ignorant remarks by President Johnson in his 1965 speech even though it grated upon the ears of every living Native American. What in the heck does that tell you?” Tim Giago, Oglala Lakota, writing in Native American Times.

“What the president was speaking to was the erasing of ethnic lines of distinction on a global level – lines of distinction which differentiate humanity – of which indigenous peoples are a part. So, in that sense, I’m concerned about the president’s apparent desire to see the ‘tribal’ lines that distinguish peoples from one another disappear.” Professor Robert Odawi Porter, Seneca, responding to comments in Indian Country critical of President Obama’s inaugural.

“While we properly denounce individual acts of violence and hate that stem from racism, we must also acknowledge institutional racism that can be far more insidious and challenging to eradicate than individual racism. We, the Wabanaki People, understand individual and institutional racism.” Rep. Wayne Mitchell, Penobscot

“All four Tribes possess life expectancy averages more than 20 years less than the Maine population at large. Tribal unemployment rates range from 15 percent to 70 percent compared to neighboring populations of 5 percent to 8 percent. Maine Indian household incomes average less than $20,000 in some areas, far below statewide averages. Indian Health Services spent on average $2,130 per capita on medical care for Indian people in 2005 compared to a nationwide average of $6,423.” MITSC, 2008

“Graduates of Sanford High School that live in this community, business owners, the people that support and follow our programs, have a whole different meaning to the word ‘Redskins.’ And I think that in this day and age, with the political correctness of things, sometimes we go overboard.” Allan Young, Principal of Sanford HS (non-Native)