Instead, American Indian policy has now become general American policy. Look around you. Today, as I look across the landscape of the United States of America, the opposite of freedom prevails. Just as we had to battle for freedom for our lands, we had hoped farmers and ranchers would realize they were next on America's sacrificial chopping block. Over the past three decades, family farm after family farm and ranch after ranch has been auctioned off or sharecropped out to corporations.
War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength.
Instead of learning to be critical thinkers, America's youth are conditioned into an ethic of mass consumerism and corporate careerism. Even during the siege at Wounded Knee, when I had left to meet with federal officials and then to speak at a few university campuses, I still remember the same complacency. The students were lounging about the green lawn, taking in the sun and talking among themselves, paying no attention to my words. I walked off without finishing. Today, the thought criminals are the Branch Davidians or the Montana Freemen.