Sitting Bull (1831 – 1890)
Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man and war chief, notable for his role in the defeat of George Armstrong Custer and the U S 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Now that we are poor, we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.
I will remain what I am until I die, a hunter, and when there are no buffalo or other game I will send my children to hunt and live on prairie mice, for where an Indian is shut up in one place his body becomes weak.
I have killed, robbed, and injured too many white men to believe in a good peace. They are medicine, and I would eventually die a lingering death. I had rather die on the field of battle.
This is a good day to die. Follow me!
If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place.
It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.
What white man can say I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.
You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.
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?
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?
Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.
If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it.
In my early days, I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly.
We did not give you our land; You stole it from us.
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.… I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit has chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.
I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.
What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.
Look at me, see if I am poor, or my people either. The whites may get me at last, as you say, but I will have good times till then. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee.
The earth has received the embrace of the sun and we shall see the results of that love.