On this page:
- Lone Man (Isna-la-wica) Teton Sioux
- Shooter - Teton Sioux
- Sitting Bull - Teton Sioux
- Red Dog - Oglala Sioux
- Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
- Many Horses - Oglala Sioux
- Flat-Iron (Maza Blaska) - Oglala Sioux Chief
- Gertrude S. Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) - Yankton Sioux
- Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
- Crazy Horse - Sioux
Lone Man (Isna-la-wica) Teton Sioux
I have seen that in any great undertaking it is not enough for a man to depend simply upon himself.
Lone Man (Isna-la-wica) Teton Sioux
Shooter - Teton Sioux
All birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals and with human beings. The reason Wakan Tanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here by Wakan Tanka to be an independent individuality and to rely upon itself.
Shooter - Teton Sioux
Sitting Bull - Teton Sioux
When I was a boy, the Sioux owned the world. The sun rose and set in their land; they sent ten thousand men into battle.
Where are the warriors today? Who slew them? Where are our lands? Who owns them?
What white man can say I ever stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say I am a thief.
What white woman, however lonely, was ever captive or insulted by me? Yet they say I am a bad Indian.
What white man has ever seen me drunk ?
Who has ever come to me hungry and left me unfed ? Who has ever seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken?
Is it wrong of me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am a Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?
Sitting Bull - Teton Sioux
Red Dog - Oglala Sioux
We are all poor because we are all honest.
Red Dog - Oglala Sioux
Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
I have attended dinners among white people. Their ways are not ours.
We eat in silence, quietly smoke a pipe, and depart. Thus is our host honored.
This is not the way of the white man. After his food has been eaten, one is expected to say foolish things. Then the host feels honored.
Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
Many of the white man's ways are past our understanding ... They put a great store upon writing; there is always a paper.
Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
The white people must think that paper has some mysterious power to help them in the world. The Indian needs no writings; words that are true sink deep into his heart, where they remain. He never forgets them. On the other hand, if the white man loses his papers, he is helpless.
Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
I heard one of their preachers say that no white man was admitted to heaven unless there were writings about him in a great book!
Four Guns - Oglala Sioux
Many Horses - Oglala Sioux
I will follow the white man's trail. I will make him my friend, but I will not bend my back to his burdens. I will be cunning as a coyote. I will ask him to help me understand his ways, then I will prepare the way for my children. Maybe they will outrun the white man in his own shoes.
There are but two ways for us. One leads to hunger and death, the other leads to where the poor white man lives. Beyond is the happy hunting ground where the white man cannot go.
Many Horses - Oglala Sioux
Flat-Iron (Maza Blaska) - Oglala Sioux Chief
From Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery, comes all power. It is from Wakan Tanka that the holy man has wisdom and the power to heal and make holy charms. Man knows that all healing plants are given by Wakan Tanka, therefore they are holy. So too is the buffalo holy, because it is the gift of Wakan Tanka.
Flat-Iron (Maza Blaska) - Oglala Sioux Chief
Gertrude S. Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) - Yankton Sioux
We send our little Indian boys and girls to school, and when they come back talking English, they come back swearing. There is no swear word in the Indian languages, and I haven't yet learned to swear.
Gertrude S. Bonnin (Zitkala-Sa) - Yankton Sioux
A wee child toddling in a wonder world…. I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan.
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
They made us many promises, more than I can remember. But they kept but one--They promised to take our land...and they took it.
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
Look at me - I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches, but we want to train our children right. Riches will do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
"The Great Spirit raised both the white man and the Indian. I think he raised the Indian first. He raised me in this land, it belongs to me. The white man was raised over the great waters, and his land is over there. Since they crossed the sea, I have given them room. There are now white people all about me. I have but a small spot of land left. The Great Spirit told me to keep it."
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
Whose voice was first sounded on this land? The voice of the red people who had but bows, and arrows...What has been done in my country I did not want, did not ask for it; white people going through my country... When the white man comes in my country he leaves a trail of blood behind him...I have two mountains in that country... The Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountain. I want the great father to make no roads through them. I have told these things three times; now I have come here to tell them the fourth time.
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
In 1868, men came out and brought papers. We could not read them and they did not tell us truly what was in them. We thought the treaty was to remove the forts and for us to cease from fighting. But they wanted to send us traders on the Missouri, but we wanted traders where we were. When I reached Washington, the Great Father explained to me that the interpreters had deceived me. All I want is right and just.
Chief Red Cloud - Sioux
Crazy Horse - Sioux
"We did not ask you white men to come here. The Great Spirit gave us this country as a home. You had yours. We did not interfere with you. The Great Spirit gave us plenty of land to live on, and buffalo, deer, antelope and other game. But you have come here, you are taking my land from me, you are killing off our game, so it is hard for us to live.
Now, you tell us to work for a living, but the Great Spirit did not make us to work, but to live by hunting. You white men can work if you want to. We do not interfere with you, and again you say why do you not become civilized? We do not want your civilization! We would live as our fathers did, and their fathers before them."
Crazy Horse - Sioux
I was hostile to the white man...We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be let alone. Soldiers came...in the winter...and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They said we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape...but we were so hemmed in we had to fight. After that I lived in peace, but the government would not let me alone. I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting...They tried to confine me... and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.
Crazy Horse - Sioux
Still the Government can not be trusted, and still the government allows Native Lands to be trespassed upon and ravaged by anyone with the desire to do so! And they lock up anyone who tries to protect their lands!
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