“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.”

Healthy feet can feel the very heart of Mother Earth.

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

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

Every seed is awakened, and all animal life.

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

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

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

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

I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.

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?

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?

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?

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

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.

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.

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

I think the word of the United States has been as good as gold in its international dealings and its agreements.

Whatever you perceive, you always make a story with yourself as the main character, and that dictates your life. Then when you read ‘The Four Agreements’, you hear another voice beneath the story, the voice that comes from your integrity, your spirit.

Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did.

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

Modern intelligence won’t accept anything on authority. But it will accept anything without authority.

As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to ‘do what the people want,’ instead of what the document actually commands, politicians who pick and confirm new federal judges will naturally want only those who agree with them politically.

Every vocation becomes more agreeable when united with devotion.

Loyalty in relationships doesn’t mean you have to blindly agree or be silent.