Cherokee Quotes

“Give me strength, not to be better than my enemies, but to defeat my greatest enemy, the doubts within myself. Give me strength for a straight back and clear eyes, so when life fades, as the setting sun, my spirit may come to you without shame.”
― P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast

“As much as his heart remained rooted here, what lay beyond his country, beyond his nation, called to him like a cord buried deep within, pulling taut, drawing him away.”
― Leslie K. Simmons, Red Clay, Running Waters

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.”
― Cherokee Proverb

“Now the ash of their aspirations lay bitter on his tongue. He was certain he would not have done differently, but oh, if only he had known how briefly the taste of the possible would be sweet on his lips.”
― Leslie K. Simmons, Red Clay, Running Waters

“They stood in the pool of lantern light, the house still around them. She placed a hand to calm his still heaving chest, the heat of his body fresh from travel. The coolness of her hand made him start, then he pulled her close. It was more than her body he needed.”
― Leslie K. Simmons, Red Clay, Running Waters

“A Cherokee elder was teaching his young grandson about life.
"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt and ego.
The other is good- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too."
The boy thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather,
"Which wolf will win?"
The elder simply replied,
"The one you feed.”
― Tsalagi Tale

“Before you judge a person you have to walk in their moccasins and live in their lodge for a month.”
― Buddy Hannah

“Cherokee Saying - Love only has one eye - not two.”
― Vera Lucia Lima, When the Angels Say Amen: A Spiritual Journey through Cherokee Oppression, Betrayal, Survival and Love

“The Cherokee used to fear that taking a photo would make them lose their souls. Over exposure and desensitization is pretty close to losing one's soul. So they were right to quite an extent.”
― Sabine Shah

“the medicine wheel is inside of you it not in a pile of stones the medicine wheel is inside the heart and body”
― Medicine Turtle, the quiet revolution of the 7th generation: die stille revolution der 7. generation

“The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightening bug and the lightening
~Mark Twain”
― Virginia C. Ferguson, Tula's Path: A Cherokee Trail of Tears Story

“Your father doesn't like me," Charley said to Wesley later when Wesley had gotten them away from the crowd.
"Father doesn't seem to like anyone," Wesley said. "Don't let it worry you."
"But you brought me to his house. I don't like to be in the home of someone who doesn't like me."
"But my brother Skylar claims it is his home, and I believe that Skylar does like you," Wesley said. "He's Indian like you."
"Yes. We are both Cherokees. What is Skylar's clan?"
"I believe I've heard him say that it's Wolf."
"Then we are related. I'm Wolf clan."
"That's amazing, Charley. So you and my brother are related. Does that make us related too?"
"I don't think so, Wesley, because the relationship is through our mothers."
"Well, that's too bad. I would like to be your brother.”
― Robert J. Conley

“Déjà ton âme se fane,
Elle devient bleue.”
― Anonyme

“N’ another thing,” Mitch said reaching into his pocket. “I made ya this,” he continued, opening his hand to reveal a ring. “Yer gonna be causin’ lots of talk ’round here ‘bout where ya came from n’ why yer boy ain’t got no papa here ‘bouts. I sanded the high spots so it’ll shine when ya hold it to th’ light. Ye can determine if ye wants to wear it.” she smiled as she slipped it onto the finger of her left hand. “I will wear it until I see no need.”
― Patricia Ann Ledford, Strings: The Story of Hope

“Apart from Cherokee freedpeople, Cherokee citizens also spoke out against the present of African Americans from the United States. In 1894, the editor of the Cherokee Advocate incited his fellow tribesmen to resist both Black and white migration, telling them to ‘Be men, and fight off the barnacles that now infest our country in the shape of non-citizens, free Arkansas ni—ers, and traitors.’

Anti-Black sentiment like this encouraged Native peoples to ignore Indian freedpeople’s shared histories with their nations and to inaccurately associate them with Black interlopers from the United States. Indian freedpeople fought this attitude by attempting to differentiate themselves. When Mary Grayson was interviewed in 1937 as part of the Works Progress Administration Slave Narrative project, she illustrated this dichotomy, saying ‘I am what we colored people call a ‘native.’ That means I didn’t come into the Indian country from somewhere in the Old South, after the War, like so many Negroes did, but I was born here in the Old Creek Nation and my master was a Creek Indian. Mary felt that her experiences of enslavement were better than those of Black Americans, arguing that ‘I have had people who were slaves of white folks tell me that they had to work awfully hard and their masters were cruel to them, but all the Negroes I knew who belonged to Creeks always had plenty of clothes and lots to eat and we all lived in good log cabins we built.’ Mary clearly demarcated her history and circumstances from those of African Americans from the United States. Mary’s assertion of her identity as a ‘native’ rather than a newcomer (like other Blacks in the West) is reflective of a key component of the settler colonial process—strategic differentiation.”
― Alaina E. Roberts, I've Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced.”
― Cherokee Proverb

“Many jokes were about colonizers who claim to be Native because of some distant person in their family's history. The most common joke, and one I have told, is about someone being one-sixteenth Cherokee since their great-great-grandmother was a Cherokee princess.
I laugh at these jokes even as I worry that they would make that joke about me since I am one-eighth. I cackle and like the videos, and feel the flicker of pain in the back of my mind that screams that, if I ever had children, these videos would be about them.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity