"The history of humankind in North and South America can be divided into two parts: the history of the aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere prior to the landfall of Western man, and the history of North and South America after the voyages of Columbus. These histories can be likened to an iceberg.... [S]even-eighths lie beneath the surface of the water. We can see Western occupation above the surface and visible. The aboriginal peoples' time is below the surface and invisible. This 500-year occupation by Western man contrasts with the conservative estimate of 12,000 years of aboriginal occupation."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"The American Indian in the Past," in Exiled in the Land of the Free, edited by Oren R. Lyons and John C. Mohawk (1992)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Oren_Lyons
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Oren Lyons
2 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Oren Lyons →
Related Quotes
"We come here...speaking the truth on behalf of people, of the world, of the four-footed, of the winged, of the fish t…"
"One cannot be "an Indian." One is a Comanche, an Oneida, a Hopi. One can be self-determining, not as "an Indian," but…"
"Indians have been the victims of fine rhetoric, followed by inaction or worse, for two centuries. Swift action is wha…"
"At the moment there is a veritable renaissance going on in tribal America as we come to terms with who we are as trib…"
"tribal ideas of progress may be radically different from Euro-American ideas. For example, the Northern Cheyenne coun…"
"We are of the soil and the soil is of us."
"Instead of doing to settler society what they did to us — genociding, removing, excluding — there’s a capaciousness t…"
"Capitalism is fundamentally a social relation. It’s a profit-driven system, whereas Indigenous sort of ways of relati…"
"We can see that settler colonialism in Israel — or, in Palestine, is really an extension of settler colonialism in No…"
"It’s no coincidence that Indian people are in the same department that manages wildlife and federal lands"