Palin's John Wooden Quote Actually From Native Activist

John Wooden Legs more into tribal land rights than UCLA coach
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2009 6:39 PM CST
Palin's John Wooden Quote Actually From Native Activist
Hall of Fame UCLA coach John Wooden.   (AP Photo)

Sarah Palin has made many a mention of her background as a basketball point guard, but in her memoir she completely misses the net with a quote attributed to coaching legend John Wooden, Geoffrey Dunn writes. In fact, it’s Native American activist John Wooden Legs behind the quote, which she uses as the epigram to Going Rogue’s third chapter.

“Our land is everything to us,” Wooden Legs in a 1960 essay. “I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it—with their lives.” Dunn, who “never figured the Wizard of Westwood as an advocate for radical land distribution,” scoffs, “There’s also no small amount of irony in the quote, given Palin's abysmal record on Alaska Native issues during her truncated term as governor.”
(More Sarah Palin stories.)

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