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 More Quotes by Sitting Bull More Quotes From 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 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 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. Sitting Bull hurt men war
