Sitting Bull Native Quotations

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.

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

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?

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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

If we must die, we die defending our rights.

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

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

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.

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

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

God made me an Indian.

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

Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.

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