Seneca
Literature


Red Jacket
Great Seneca Orator

Quotes by Red Jacket:

"Know that we are eager to share our gifts, in the name of love.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the dumb can understand.

It is another's fault if he be ungrateful;
but it is mine if I do not give.

There is none more abusive to others
than they that lie most open to themselves.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished;
but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Nothing is so wretched or foolish as to anticipate misfortunes.
What madness is it to be expecting evil before it comes.

What madness it is for a man to starve himself
to enrich his heir, and so turn a friend into an enemy!
For his joy at your death will be proportioned to what you leave him.

A well-governed appetite is a great part of liberty.
All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness.

Difficulties strengthen the mind as labor does the body.
Drunkenness is nothing else but a voluntary madness.

There is as much greatness of mind
in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

Money does all things for reward. Some are pious and honest
as long as they thrive upon it, but if the devil himself gives
better wages, they soon change their party.

That which is given with pride and ostentation
is rather an ambition than a bounty.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
The sun also shines on the wicked.

Other men's sins are before our eyes;
our own are behind our backs.

No action will be considered blameless, unless the will was so,
for by the will the act was dictated.

It is proof of a bad cause when it is applauded by the mob.
Every guilty person is his own hangman."


Stories

Godasiyo the Woman Chief

Niagara Falls

Sacrifice at Niagara Falls

Seek Your Father

Three Brothers Who Followed the Sun


The Seneca nation became one of the five strong tribes of the Iroquois linguistic family in central New York state, forming the Iroquois Nation as early as 1390. Later they obtained guns from the Dutch, giving them a dominating influence over the entire northeast. Senecas live between Lake Seneca and the Genesee River, about in the middle of the region. The Iroquois Nation attained the highest form of governmental organization reached by any Native American nation.


Mr. Barry Snyder, President
Seneca Nation of Indians of NY
P.O. Box 231, Haley Building
Salamanca, NY 14779
(716) 532-4900



WHEN I SLEEP

When I sleep
I dream of my people;
In battles long ago.

I see their pain,
Their anger,
Their sorrow.

"I CRY IN MY SLEEP"

The Spirit of our people
Who lived long ago,
Still lives.

"BUT ONLY IN OUR DREAMS"

By: H. M. Sisler, Jr., Seneca


Indigenous Peoples' Literature Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature

Compiled by: Glenn Welker





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