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.
I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.
I know Great Spirit is looking down upon me from above, and will hear what I say...
You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. If we told you more, you would have paid no attention. That is all I have to say.
I hardly sustain myself beneath the weight of white men's blood that I have shed. The whites provoked the war; their injustices, their indignities to our families, the cruel, unheard of and wholly unprovoked massacre at Fort Lyon ... shook all the veins which bind and support me. I rose, tomahawk in hand, and I have done all the hurt to the whites that I could.
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?