"Indian people can disagree till doomsday about which defensive strategy is best, or whether we should even resist. If we continue to disagree on politics, policy, philosophy and enter into destructive personality clashes, we will lose all...Few acknowledge that real change began to take place only after the tremendous sacrifices of the young Warriors of the American Indian Movement. The beneficiaries of the Movement [accept the gains] while the real Warriors lie unrecognized in their graves or in prison cells...We need our Warriors, and where are they? In prisons, in hiding, pursued relentlessly by the FBI... Don't forget the Warriors, we may never see their like again!!"
Janet McCloud, Puyallup Nisqually
"We are statistics that everyone has heard about, the unemployed, uneducated, alcoholics, welfare recipients. We have been the study of many Congressional studies and investigations, all types of studies, but we as statistics still remain - our situation has remained the same for a century. So we have grouped together behind our religious beliefs, our respect for human rights, our beliefs that we are entitled to human rights as well as everybody else. Our functions have been to educate our own people and to try and educate the White American as to the fact that we exist yet today. I mean when you look at A.I.M, [this is] who we are. We are the descendants of Geronimo, Crazy Horse. We are the indigenous people. We are concerned about what is happening to our people now, because, you know, we don't like to be a statistic...To respect the Creator we must show respect, we must respect ourselves. Too many times we have seen our people in a condition where we don't see...even self-respect."
John Trudell