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When they laid down their arms, we murdered them. We lied to them. We cheated them out of their lands. We starved them into signing fraudulent agreements that we called treaties which we never kept. We turned them into beggars on a continent that gave life for as long as life can remember. And by any interpretation of history, however twisted, we did not do right. We were not lawful nor were we just in what we did. For them, we do not have to restore these people, we do not have to live up to some agreements, because it is given to us by virtue of our power to attack the rights of others, to take their property, to take their lives when they are trying to defend their land and liberty, and to make their virtues a crime and our own vices virtues.

Marlon Brando#2

HistoryPowerJusticeLand

About this quote

What does it mean?
Brando condemns US treatment of Native Americans as unlawful and unjust.
In plain terms
The US cheated Native Americans out of their rights and land.
What can you take from it?
Power does not make historical actions just or lawful.

Where it applies

  • historical review
  • rights discussions

Putting it to work

  • review treaties
  • discuss reparations

Questions to consider

  • How do we fix past wrongs?
  • Is power justice?

Another view

It presents a one-sided historical narrative without specific context.

More from Marlon Brando

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