65 Sitting Bull Quotes From The Hunkpapa Lakota Leader

Lakota Tatanka Iyotake, Sitting Bull, was a Teton Dakota Indian military chief who united the Sioux people in their struggle for survival on the great plains of North America.

Sitting Bull led United Tribes to victory against General George Armstrong Custer and the US military in the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. Unfortunately, the courageous Sitting Bull was shot by Indian police officers in 1890 due to his resistance.

A biography written by Robert M.Utley, titled 'The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull' provides us with a deeper insight into this brave leader's contribution in uniting his tribe against white supremacy. Let's take a look at some of the best Sitting Bull quotes.

For more quotes, take a look at [Native American quotes] and [Tecumseh quotes].

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Sitting Bull is fondly remembered for his distrust and stubborn resistance against the white supremacist.

1. "I hate all the white people. You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts."

-Sitting Bull.

2. "I would rather live in a tepee and go without meat when game is scarce than give up my privileges as a free Indian, even though I could have all that white men have."

-Sitting Bull.

3. "What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and left me unfed?"

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

5. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

8. "We want no white men here. The Black Hills belong to me. If the whites try to take them, I will fight."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

10. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

11. "I had rather die on the field of battle. "

-Sitting Bull.

12. "The life my people want is a life of freedom."

-Sitting Bull.

13. "I myself would rather die an Indian than live a white man."

-Sitting Bull.

14. "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.

15. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

16. “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it.”

-Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull was a courageous leader who motivated his people to fight together against the white people.

17. "My people want to move their tepees here and there to different hunting grounds."

-Sitting Bull.

18. "White men like to dig in the ground for their food. My people prefer to hunt the buffalo as their fathers did."

-Sitting Bull.

19. "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.

20. "Every seed is awakened, and all animal life."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

22. "The white men had many things we wanted, but we could see that they did not have the one thing we liked best – freedom."

-Sitting Bull.

23. "I have advised my people thus: when you find anything good in the white man’s road, pick it up; but when you find something bad, or that turns out bad, drop it, leave it alone."

-Sitting Bull.

24. "We have now to deal with another race - small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. "

-Sitting Bull.

25. "These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

27. "My brothers, shall we submit? or shall we say to them: ‘First kill me, before you can take possession of my fatherland!'"

-Sitting Bull.

28. "This is a good day to die. Follow me!"

-Sitting Bull.

29. "We are poor, but we are free."

-Sitting Bull.

30. "If we must die, we die defending our rights."

-Sitting Bull.

31. "Healthy feet can feel the very heart of Mother Earth."

-Sitting Bull.

32. "My friends and relatives, let us stand as one family, as we did before the white people led us astray."

-Sitting Bull.

33. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

35."No white man controls our footsteps."

-Sitting Bull.

36. "I want you to teach my people to read and write, but they must not become white people in their ways of living and of thinking; it is too bad a life."

-Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull loved his native land and was stubborn about not giving the land to the white people.

37. "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.

38. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

39. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

40. "Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red?"

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

42. "I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

44. "I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief…I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit has chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

46. "This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path. We cannot dwell side by side."

-Sitting Bull.

47. "The land under my feet is mine again. I never sold it, I never gave it to anyone."

-Sitting Bull.

48. "Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

54. "God made me an Indian, but not a reservation Indian.”

-Sitting Bull.

55. "I was born near where I stand."

-Sitting Bull.

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

-Sitting Bull.

57. "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?"

-Sitting Bull.

58. "The warrior, for us, is one who sacrifices himself for the good of others."

-Sitting Bull.

59. "It does not take many words to tell the truth”.

-Sitting Bull.

60. "The warrior is not someone who fights, because no one has the right to take another life."

-Sitting Bull.

61. "I hardly sustain myself beneath the weight of white men’s blood that I have shed. "

-Sitting Bull.

62. "If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place."

-Sitting Bull.

63. "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."

-Sitting Bull.

64."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.

65."I will remain what I am until I die, a hunter, and when there are no buffalo or other game...”

-Sitting Bull.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Sitting Bull quotes then why not take a look at Andrew Jackson quotes, or [Chief Joseph quotes]

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