I have noticed that whenever you have soldiers in the story it is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called history. (Paula Gunn Allen, American Indian writer)

I learned a history not then written in books but one passed from generation to generation on the steps of moonlit porches and beside dying fires in one-room houses, a history of great-grand-parents and of slavery and of the days following slavery; of those who lived still not free, yet who would not let their spirits be enslaved. (Mildred Taylor, Black writer)

That there should be a purpose to suffering, that a person should be chosen for it, special - these are houses of the mind, in which whole peoples have found shelter. (Gish Jen, Asian American novelist)

The government was supposed to wipe us out, commit a war of genocide and kill every last one of us. But we survived, and we survived because the creator has a plan for us. We’re bringing the old ways back, ways that teach about the spirit, about community, about justice, about love for the Earth. And we’re bringing them to the world in a time when it needs them. (William Underbaggage, American Indian activist)

Our tribe unraveled like a coarse rope, frayed at either end as the old and
new among us were taken. (Louise Erdrich, American Indian novelist)