John Trudell, an active member of the indigenous struggle, gave this speech on July 18, 1980 at the Black Hills Survival Gathering. In his speech, he speaks of oppression, power, and liberation.

“We have to understand that when our oppressor treats us this way and do these things to us, we allow him to do it so long as we accept his lies. As long as we make excuses for his lies, as long as we tolerate his brutality, then we allow him to mistreat us. We have been allowing it too long. That’s genocide… It’s not revolution we’re after; it’s liberation. We want to be free of a value system that’s being imposed upon us. We do not want to participate in that value system. We don’t want to change that value system. We want to remove it from our lives forever. Liberation. We want to be free.”