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?
Sitting BullGo 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.
Sitting BullI was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.
Sitting BullThey 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.
Sitting BullIf 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.
Sitting BullWhat 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.
Sitting BullInside 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.
Sitting BullOur 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?
Sitting BullFor 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.
Sitting BullEach 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.
Sitting BullThere 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.
Sitting BullHear 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.
Sitting BullThey want us to give up another chunk of our tribal land. This is not the first time or the last time.
Sitting BullI 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.
Sitting BullIn my early days, I was eager to learn and to do things, and therefore I learned quickly.
Sitting BullOnly 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.
Sitting BullI 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.
Sitting BullI 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.
Sitting BullHe put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.
Sitting BullWhat white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.
Sitting BullI want to tell you that if the Great Spirit had chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.
Sitting BullTherefore, I do not wish to consider any proposition to cede any portion of our tribal holdings to the Great Father.
Sitting BullWhat white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.
Sitting BullThe 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.
Sitting BullWhat 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?
Sitting BullIs 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?
Sitting BullI 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.
Sitting Bull