Duhaime.org
Law · Legal Information · Justice
 

Honorable Murder

"When a white man kills an Indian in a fair fight, it is called honorable, but when an Indian kills a white man in a fair fight, it is called murder."

Chiksika, Shawnee Nation War Chief, died 1792

Indian tipiChiksika (also spelled Cheeseekau) was the older brother of the better-known Shawnee Chief, Tecumseh.

He, along with all his Shawnee Nation was conquered first by the Iroquois, at point of rifle, uprooted from their lands in Ohio.  In 1792, the Shawnee took on the American settlers and their armies and were routed in 1794.

In one skirmish, in October of 1792, Chiksika was shot dead.

Chiksika is known for a more ominous quotation related mostly to the environment and , with the passage of time, increasingly difficult to deny:

"The white man seeks to conquer nature, to bend it to his will and to use it wastefully until it is all gone and then he simply moves on leaving the waste behind him and looking for new places to take. The white man is a monster who is always hungry and what he eats is land."

REFERENCES:

 

Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
Last updated: Monday, September 14, 2009
By: Lloyd Duhaime
Permalink

Comments

There are currently no comments, be the first to post one.

Post Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Enter the code shown above:

  • Dictionary
  • Resources
  • LawMag

Unless otherwise noted, this article was written by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer (and Notary Public!). It is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.

top