Do you know or can you believe that sometimes the idea obtrudes … whether it has been well that I have sought civilization with its bothersome concomitants and whether it would not be better even now…to return to the darkness and most sacred wilds (if any such can be found) of our country and there to vegetate and expire silently, happily and forgotten as do the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. The thought is a happy one but perhaps impracticle.
Ely S. Parker (1828-1895)
Seneca Iroquois sachem,
Brigadier General U.S. Army