“The violent rap we got laid on us, it was all our people that died. You don’t see no long list of feds and death squad members and any of these other people. You don’t see any long list of their dead. You see a long list of our dead, and you look at that list and every one of them’s got an Indian name.”
“And when I really didn’t know how I was going to survive–I mean, I was really having trouble figuring out what to do–I started writing. And that’s how it came. I was taken from one world and thrown into another one–is exactly the way I look at it, and it took a while to make the adjustment. But I was handed the writing very quickly and was–and within six months of that, I was given the lines to hang onto.”
“We live in a society that’s very beautiful, and a lot of people are intimidated to speak their consciences because they don’t want to be political. They don’t want to have these labels laid out. I’m just speaking my truths the way that I see them.”
“I don’t trust anyone who isn’t angry. You think about it, how could anyone see what’s going on in this world and not be angry? I do not trust those who have no anger. I do not trust the pretenders to peace, you know. The pretenders to peace–these are the ones that maybe they’ve got their pie. They got themselves taken care of and now they’re all for peace, or some illusion of peace. To be angry at times, you know, it’s a sign of life. It’s like, that our pulse is still beating.”~
SOURCE: NPR Morning Edition