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.

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.

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

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

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

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.

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.