Sitting Bull

Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children’s mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean.

I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

Therefore, I do not wish to consider any proposition to cede any portion of our tribal holdings to the Great Father.

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

They want us to give up another chunk of our tribal land. This is not the first time or the last time.

I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place.

Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps.

It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and left me unfed? Who has seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken?

They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.

He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart, he put other different desires.

I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief.

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.

What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.

God made me an Indian.

There are things they tell us that sound good to hear, but when they have accomplished their purpose they will go home and will not try to fulfill our agreements with them.

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.

I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.

What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.

The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.

Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.

What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.

This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path.

In my early days, I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly.

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!

The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.

Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.

I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.

When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set on their land; they sent ten thousand men to battle. Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?