Brother when we came here to relate our grievances about our lands, we expected to have something done for us .... You are not to expect to hear of me any more, and brother we desire to hear no more of you.
As an indigenous leader from Bolivia, I know what exclusion looks like. Before 1952, my people were not allowed to even enter the main squares of Bolivia's cities, and there were almost no indigenous politicians in government until the late 1990s.
What's nice about 'Skinwalkers' is it's allowing an audience to see a different Indian perspective... I think, for myself, I'm trying to put the Indian perspective in a different dimension.
It's taken over 240 years for there to be a Native American woman elected to congress, so it's definitely significant that we were able to accomplish that.
Most governments in Latin America have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous people and their right to their own traditional territories.
The western has always been, for me, the bread and butter. It's the easiest place for an identifiable Native American to be able to work. But I do yearn to be known as an actor rather than a 'Native American actor.'
Bolivia is a majority indigenous nation, but that majority has always been excluded.
As a young Maori actor, I don't want to be seen as a child star; I want to be seen as a serious actor and an actor who can change the world.
I would say my flow is Aboriginal. Look at my face, nose, lips, and eyes.
I think the worst one [indian mascot] is the Cleveland Indians' Big Chief Wahoo. It's just a red face on a baseball with a big, toothy grin. It's the Sambo of all other offensive mascots. I have never seen a Native American smile that hard before, not even at a casino opening.
I don't think there's been that many indigenous players in Australia.
I represent more Native Americans than anyone else in Congress.
I am deeply gladdened that 1993 has been delcared the International Year of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations. It is the first year we have had in five hundred years. This is thanks to the struggle of many untitled, unnamed indigenous brothers who, without understanding international law, patiently walked the corridors asking for some time. Thanks to them this international year has been declared.
We hope the Bell Shakespeare Company will become an indigenous part of the Globe Shakespeare Centre in Australia.
Growing up in my mother's Pueblo household, I never imagined a world in which I would be represented by someone who looked like me.
There hasn't been that many indigenous Australians who have made it in the pop industry.
Whatever their reasons, Hollywood, or the entertainment industry, is saying something about Indians. I don't see the rest of the media knocking down any doors to do that.
Indigenous people in films, it's all, like, nose flutes and panpipes and, you know, people talking to ghosts... which I hate.
It is my hope that I could be not just a Prime Minister, but a Prime Minister for Aboriginal affairs, the first I imagine that we've ever had.
I think it's an important thing for a Mexican to say, especially now with the rebellion in Chiapas. Mexico has to confront her Indian face, and yet she refuses to do so. When you turn on Mexican television, it's like watching Swedish TV: everyone is blond.
On the first season of our show, I commissioned a Native American artist to make up, 'cause I'm known for the tomahawk, besides the hair and the leather outfit and the whole thing.
I'd much rather people knew me as a good tennis player than as an aboriginal who happens to play good tennis. Of course I'm proud of my race, but I don't want to be thinking about it all the time.
If the Indian people want stories written about themselves, how they want them told, they are going to have to make them, they're going to have to finance them. If you let Hollywood do it, Hollywood is going to get it wrong most of the time.
Western movies always seemed to show Indian women washing clothes at the creek and men with a tomahawk or spear in their hands, adorned with lots of feathers. That image has stayed in some people's minds. Many think we're either visionaries, 'noble savages,' squaw drudges or tragic alcoholics. We're very rarely depicted as real people who have greater tenacity in terms of trying to hang on to our culture and values system than most people.
We really wanted someone from the culture to sort of do that. And we heard about Taika [Waititi]. We saw his movie Boy, which that he had directed and written and which was great. We read another one of his scripts that was great. And we brought him in, showed him what we were doing. He really liked the idea.
