Tribal leaders in Arizona are criticizing the state's school superintendent for a speech that labels people without a written language as "savages incapable of knowledge or reflection," The Arizona Daily Star reports.

Superintendent Tom Horne took the quote from a book written in the mid-1700s. He says it has nothing to do with Native people.

But Vivian Juan-Saunders, chairwoman of the Tohono O'odham Nation, and Maria Amarillas, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe's language development administrator, said the use of the quote is insensitive. University of Arizona Regents Professor Jane Hill, a specialist in anthropology and linguistics, says the words are "exclusionary, insensitive and anachronistic."

Horne gave a speech with the quote on Tuesday and Wednesday. He plans on redelivering it today.

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Horne speech offends Indians (The Arizona Daily Star 1/7)