Sitting Bull Quotations

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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.

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

Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.

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

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.

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

It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

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

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

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

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.

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.

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

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

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

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

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

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.

I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.

First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland.

The meat of the buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border.

I surrender this rifle to you through my young son, whom I now desire to teach in this manner that he has become a friend of the Americans. I wish him to learn the habits of the whites and to be educated as their sons are educated. I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle. This boy has given it to you, and he now wants to know how he is going to make a living.

Go back home where you came from. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people.

A cold wind blew on the prairie on the day the last buffalo fell. A death wind for my people.

What does it matter how long I pray, so long as my prayers are answered?

The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is as good as the right to move in the open country and live in our fashion.

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 do not wish to be shut up in a corral. All agency Indians I have seen are worthless. They are neither red warriors nor white farmers. They are neither wolf nor dog.

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.

If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it.

God made me an Indian, but not a reservation Indian.

God made me an Indian.

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. 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.

I know Great Spirit is looking down upon me from above, and will hear what I 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.

The love of possession is a desease with them.

This is a good day to die. Follow me!

Healthy feet can feel the very heart of Mother Earth.

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.

Our religion seems foolish to you, but so does yours to me. The Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and the Catholics all have a different God. Why cannot we have one of our own?

It does not take many words to tell the truth

What treaty have the Sioux made with the white man that we have broken? Not one. What treaty have the white man ever made with us that they have kept? Not one.

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.

Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.

Hear me, people: We have now to deal with another race- small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule.

For us, warriors are not what you think of as warriors. The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life. The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others. His task is to take care of the elderly, the defenseless, those who can not provide for themselves, and above all, the children, the future of humanity.