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

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

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

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.

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

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?

What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.