I, Tatanka Iyotanka, wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle. We have killed enough white men with your rifles, so I give this rifle back to you, for Tunkasila Wakan Tanka will use a different way to help us overcome the white man.

Sitting Bull

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.

Sitting Bull

warrior fighting children

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.

Sitting Bull

fighting dog mean

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.

Sitting Bull

race father people

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

Sitting Bull

fists broken together

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.

Sitting Bull

white-man broken men

It does not take many words to tell the truth

Sitting Bull

telling-the-truth doe

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.

Sitting Bull

environmental mother native-american

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

Sitting Bull

india rights native-american

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.

Sitting Bull

heart native-american men

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

Sitting Bull

rifles wish men

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.

Sitting Bull

coffee men believe

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

Sitting Bull

white doe men

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.

Sitting Bull

fashion country moving

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!

Sitting Bull

friends earth spring

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?

Sitting Bull

catholic different doe

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

Sitting Bull

giving-up land want

Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows.

Sitting Bull

fake-people native-american men

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.

Sitting Bull

yield native-american animal

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, for where an Indian is shut up in one place his body becomes weak.

Sitting Bull

hunters games children

Healthy feet can feel the very heart of Mother Earth.

Sitting Bull

mother feet heart