---
title: "4 Indians Quotes By James W. Loewen"
description: "4 Indians quotes by James W. Loewen. Plus more from James W. Loewen and more Indians sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31e/james-w-loewen-12569_indians_no-matter-how-thoroughly-native-american_489063.png"
---

> [“No matter how thoroughly Native Americans acculturated, they could not succeed in white society. Whites would not let them. "Indians were always…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/no-matter-how-thoroughly-native-americans-acculturated-they-could-not/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/31e/james-w-loewen-12569_indians_no-matter-how-thoroughly-native-american_489063.png)

> [“The textbooks also fail to show how the continuous Indian wars have reverberated through our culture. Carleton Beals has written that "our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/the-textbooks-also-fail-to-show-how-the-continuous-indian-wars-have/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/5cd/james-w-loewen-12569_cognitive-dissonance_the-textbooks-also-fail-to-show-how-the_924219.jpg)

> [“Another result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. As historian Bruce Johansen put it, "A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/another-result-of-the-war-of-1812-was-the-loss-of-part-of-our-history/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b88/james-w-loewen-12569_forgetting_another-result-of-the-war-of-1812-was-th_2288641.png)

> [You go to towns in Massachusetts, Greenfield, first settled in 1686. Wouldn’t it be cool if it said, “Greenfield. First settled c.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/you-go-to-towns-in-massachusetts-greenfield-first-settled-in-1686/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b5f/james-w-loewen-12569_being-cool_you-go-to-towns-in-massachusetts-greenfi_3168616.jpg)

## Other authors on Indians

- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-sherman-alexie-84912.jpg) Sherman Alexie 15 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/sherman-alexie/)
- [Robert A. Williams, Jr 13 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/robert-a-williams-jr/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b006/author-chief-joseph-23189.jpg) Chief Joseph 13 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/chief-joseph/)
- [Scott Wallace 9 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/scott-wallace/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-sitting-bull-85763.jpg) Sitting Bull 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/sitting-bull/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-howard-zinn-42481.jpg) Howard Zinn 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/howard-zinn/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b015/author-leonard-peltier-59717.jpg) Leonard Peltier 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/leonard-peltier/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-henry-david-thoreau-41473.jpg) Henry David Thoreau 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/henry-david-thoreau/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-dennis-eckersley-28712.jpg) George Crook 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/george-crook/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-don-williams-29923.jpg) Dee Brown 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/dee-brown/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b002/author-deb-haaland-6164.jpg) Deb Haaland 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/indians/deb-haaland/)

## More by James W. Loewen

> [Many Americans have never owned a book. And others have never owned a non-fiction book. Providing them with a 300-page paperback would get them…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/many-americans-have-never-owned-a-book-and-others-have-never-owned-a/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Textbooks pretty much have no real drama. They have no real storyline. To the extent they have a storyline.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/textbooks-pretty-much-have-no-real-drama-they-have-no-real-storyline/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Taking ideas seriously does not fit with the rhetorical style of textbooks, which presents events so as to make them seem foreordained along a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/taking-ideas-seriously-does-not-fit-with-the-rhetorical-style-of/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/cherishing-columbus-is-a-characteristic-of-white-history-not-american/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [I often suggest in workshops that if you have 30 students in your American History course in 11th grade, or whatever grade level, that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/i-often-suggest-in-workshops-that-if-you-have-30-students-in-your/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Unfortunately, marketing textbooks is like marketing fishing lures: the point is to catch fishermen, not fish. Thus many adopted textbooks are flashy to catch…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/unfortunately-marketing-textbooks-is-like-marketing-fishing-lures-the/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [As a result of the sufferings and hard labor they endured, the Indians choose and have chosen suicide. Occasionally a hundred have committed mass…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/as-a-result-of-the-sufferings-and-hard-labor-they-endured-the-indians/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [I think the first important thing is that usually most textbooks are not written by their authors. And so by author I mean the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/i-think-the-first-important-thing-is-that-usually-most-textbooks-are/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Teachers need to teach the subject rather than to teach the textbook.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/teachers-need-to-teach-the-subject-rather-than-to-teach-the-textbook/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [“No matter how thoroughly Native Americans acculturated, they could not succeed in white society. Whites would not let them. "Indians were always regarded as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/no-matter-how-thoroughly-native-americans-acculturated-they-could-not/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [“We seem to feel that a person like Helen Keller can be an inspiration only so long as she remains uncontroversial, one-dimensional. We don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/we-seem-to-feel-that-a-person-like-helen-keller-can-be-an-inspiration/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Nobody would ever want to read a textbook about the Civil War and then interrupt that for two pages about water rights in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/nobody-would-ever-want-to-read-a-textbook-about-the-civil-war-and/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [Students will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/students-will-start-finding-history-interesting-when-their-teachers/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [“Students exit history textbooks without having developed the ability to think coherently about social life. Even”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/students-exit-history-textbooks-without-having-developed-the-ability/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

> [History can be a weapon, and it can be used against you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-w-loewen/history-can-be-a-weapon-and-it-can-be-used-against-you/)

[James W. Loewen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-w-loewen/)

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                        "text": "“No matter how thoroughly Native Americans acculturated, they could not succeed in white society. Whites would not let them. \"Indians were always regarded as aliens, and were rarely allowed to live within white society except on its periphery,\" according to [Gary] Nash. Native Americans who amassed property, owned European-style homes, perhaps operated sawmills, merely became the first targets of white thugs who coveted their land and improvements. In time of war the position of assimilated Indians grew particularly desperate. Consider Pennsylvania. During the French and Indian War the Susquehannas, living peaceably in white towns, were hatcheted by their neighbors, who then collected bounties from authorities who weren't careful whose scalp they were paying for, so long as it was Indian. Through the centuries and across the country, this pattern recurred.”",
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                        "text": "“The textbooks also fail to show how the continuous Indian wars have reverberated through our culture. Carleton Beals has written that \"our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character.\" As soon as Natives were no longer conflict partners, their image deteriorated in the minds of many whites. Kupperman has shown how this process unfolded in Virginia after the Indian defeat in the 1640s: \"It was the ultimate powerlessness of the Indians, not their racial inferiority, which made it possible to see them as people without rights.\" Natives who had been \"ingenious,\" \"industrious,\" and \"quick of apprehension\" in 1610 now became \"sloathfull and idle, vitious, melancholy, [and] slovenly.\" This is another example of the process of cognitive dissonance.”",
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                        "text": "“Another result of the War of 1812 was the loss of part of our history. As historian Bruce Johansen put it, \"A century of learning [from Native Americans] was coming to a close. A century and more of forgetting--of calling history into service to rationalize conquest--was beginning.\" After 1815 American Indians could no longer play what sociologists call the role of conflict partner--an important other who must be taken into account--so Americans forgot that Natives had ever been significant in our history. Even terminology changed: until 1815 the word Americans had generally been used to refer to Native Americans; after 1815 it meant European Americans.”",
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                        "text": "You go to towns in Massachusetts, Greenfield, first settled in 1686. Wouldn’t it be cool if it said, “Greenfield. First settled c. 13,000 B.P. or approximately 13,000 Before the Present. Resettled.” Maybe we could say even, “Resettled by whites,” Or, “Resettled anyway, 1686.” It would have a different impact. And of course it would help explain why the town is called Greenfield, because it was a green field and the fields were left by Native people who had already been farming them.",
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