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I am Indian, and I'm proud of it. Indian life is mythologically rich and powerful.

Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief.

Individually and collectively, Cherokee people possess an extraordinary ability to face down adversity and continue moving forward.

The Indians were well mounted and felt proud and elated because they had been made United States soldiers.

I was told all my life I was part Cherokee. Then it was Crow. The latest is Blackfoot.

It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi.

Part of my ancestry is Cherokee. And in that tradition, you become an adult when you're 52.

When I was a kid, I really loved Indians. Native Americans. Pardon. Me.

The Cherokees tried to do everything within the law and wished only to live in peace on their own lands. Yet they were cheated out of their birthright and treated as if they were less than human.

I'm sure I went through a stage when I resented being Indian because in every other manner, in terms of cultural reference points and vocabulary and all the rest of it, I was way ahead of everybody else - so the one thing that set me back was being Indian. And I couldn't do anything about it.