Geronimo

“I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.”

“The soldiers never explained to the government when they made treaties why we are on the warpath. We are on the warpath only to revenge our wrongs and not to kill Americans and Mexicans.”

“When a child, my mother taught me the legends of our people; taught me of the sun and sky, the moon and stars, the clouds and storms.”

“I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peacefully when people began to speak of swords.”

“There is no death. Only a change of worlds.”

“It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return.”

“I am a free man, I will not be a captive.”

“We had no churches, no religious organizations, no Sabbath day, no holidays, and yet we worshiped. Sometimes the whole tribe would assemble to sing and pray; sometimes a smaller number, perhaps only two or three.”

“The sun is the only god that I will ever respect.”

“I was no chief and never had been, but because I had been more deeply wronged than others, this honor was conferred upon me, and I resolved to prove worthy of the trust.”

“As a babe I rolled on the dirt floor of my father's tepee, hung in my tsoch at my mother's back, or suspended from the bough of a tree. I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds, and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes.”