“Although wrongs have been done to me, I live in hopes. I have not got two hearts….Now we are together again to make peace.”

We want to take good tidings home to our people, that they may sleep in peace.

I once thought that I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man, but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses and everything else, it is hard for me to believe the white men any more.

I want you to give all these chiefs of the soldiers here to understand that we are for peace, and that we have made peace, that we may not be mistaken by them for enemies.

If you treat a sick child as an adult and a sick adult as a child, it usually works out pretty well.

And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.

Grown men may learn from very little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

I got my best foot forward onto greener grass, cause there ain’t no future living in the past.

[Black Hawk] has fought for his countrymen, the squaws and papooses, against white men, who came year after year, to cheat them and take away their lands.

And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

Everywhere is the center of the world. Everything is sacred.

It is good to have a reminder of death before us, for it helps us to understand the impermanence of life on this earth, and this understanding may aid us in preparing for our own death.