Sitting Bull Quotes

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.

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

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.

It does not take many words to tell the truth

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

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.

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

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

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!

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?

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

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

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.

God made me an Indian.

If 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.

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?

Healthy feet can feel the very heart of Mother Earth.

If a man loses anything and goes back and looks carefully for it, he will find it.

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.

I know Great Spirit is looking down upon me from above, and will hear what I say.

Is 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?

I was very sorry when I found out that your intentions were good and not what I supposed they were.

This is a good day to die. Follow me!

What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit.

Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.

What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.

God made me an Indian, but not a reservation Indian.

You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool than I am.

You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. If we told you more, you would have paid no attention. That is all I have to say.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

I 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.

A cold wind blew on the prairie on the day the last buffalo fell. A death wind for my people.

Only 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.

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

What 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?

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

He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other different desires.

Go 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.

First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland.

There 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.

What does it matter how long I pray, so long as my prayers are answered?

This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path.

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

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

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.

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

The meat of the buffalo tastes the same on both sides of the border.

Therefore, I do not wish to consider any proposition to cede any portion of our tribal holdings to the Great Father.

I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.