A Sioux who had accepted Christianity was a little more lenient when he told a Catholic Missionary: "Do not pass through our land like a jackrabbit, walk through our land like a buffalo, and my people will see your tracks and know that you have been there."

An Indian saying concerning feelings toward the White men who were continually encroaching on their property: "It is better to give a porcupine blanket room than to be generous to a White Man."

"I have advised my people this way: When you find something good in the White man's road, pick it up; but when you find something bad, or it turns out bad, drop it and leave it alone." ...Sitting Bull - Sioux

"Let me see, is this real, let me see, is this real, this life I am living? The Gods, who dwell everywhere, let us see, is this real, this life I am living"...Pawnee

"A warrior I have been, now it is all over. A hard time I have." Sitting Bull

"We shall live again, we shall live again" .... Sioux

"The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors. On these plains the Great White Father at Washington sent his soldiers armed with long knives and rifles to slay the Indian. Many of them sleep on yonder hill where Pahaska White Chief of the Long Hair (General Custer) so bravely fought and fell. A few more passing suns will see us here no more, and our dust and bones will mingle with these same prairies. I see as in a vision the dying spark of our council fires, the ashes cold and white. I see no longer the curling smoke rising from our lodge poles. I hear no longer the songs of the women as they prepare the meal. The antelope have gone; the buffalo wallows are empty. Only the wail of the coyote is heard. The white man's medicine is stronger than ours; his iron horse rushes over the buffalo trail. He talks to us through his whispering spirit' (the telephone). We are like birds with a broken wing. My heart is cold within me. My eyes are growing dim--I am old..."

"Brother, our seats were once large, and yours were very small: You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely left a place to spread our blankets; you have got our country, but are not satisfied"... Red Jacket - Seneca

"My reason teaches me that land cannot be sold. The Great Spirit gave it to his children to live upon. So long as they occupy and cultivate it, they have a right to the soil. Nothing can be sold but such things as can be carried away"... Black Hawk - Saux

"The land we live on, our fathers received from God, and he transmitted it to us, for our children, and we cannot part with it"...Cornplanter - Seneca

"If we ever owned the land we own it still, for we never sold it. In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the government. Suppose a white man should come to me and say, Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them. Then he goes to my neighbor and says to him; Joseph's horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell. My neighbor answers, Pay me the money and I will sell you Joseph's horses. The white man returns to me, and says, Joseph, I have bought your horses and you must let me have them. If we sold our lands to the government, this is the way they were bought"... Chief Joseph-Nez Perce

"Before me peaceful, behind me peaceful, under me peaceful, over me peaceful, all around me peaceful" ... Navajo

Resentment and bitterness were expressed by the Dakotas in regard to the unjust treatment they received at the hands of the white invader. One reaction was:

"Wherever we went, the soldiers came to kill us, and it was all our own country. It was ours already, when the white man made the treaty with Red Cloud that said it would be ours as long as grass should grow and the waters flow. That was only eight winters before, and they were chasing us now, because we remembered and they forgot."

"My son, since I have seen all those cities, and the way the Long Knife People are doing, I begin to realize that our lands and our game are all gone. There is nothing but the Long Knives everywhere we went, and they keep coming like flies. So we will have to learn their ways, in order that we may be able to live with them."

"Coming is the whole world! The nation is coming! The nation is coming! The Eagle has brought the message to the tribe - says the Father - says the Father - Ate Heye lo! Ate Heye lo!"...Sioux

Sitting Bull told General Miles that he had no intention of surrendering his arms and ponies and that he intended to continue to hunt for a living. He is also supposed to have said:

"No Indian that ever lived loved a white man and no white man that ever lived loved the Indian. God Almighty made me an Indian, not an agency Indian, and I do not intend to become one."

On one occasion while in Canada after the Little Big Horn fight Sitting Bull was asked about the battle and he replied:

"They tell you I murdered Custer. It is a lie! I am not a War Chief. I was not in the battle that day. His eyes were blinded, so he could not see. He was a fool and rode to his death. He made the fight, not I."

In referring to the American Indians, Ben Franklin said: "... because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility. They think the same of theirs."

"The white man grows jealous of his red brother. The white man once came to trade; he now comes as a soldier. He once put his trust in our friendship and wanted no shield but our fidelity. But now he builds forts and plants big guns on their walls. He once gave us arms and powder and bade us hunt the game. We then loved him for his confidence ... now he covers his face with the cloud of jealousy and anger and tells us to be gone, as an offended master speaks to his dog ....
"... It matters little where we pass the remnant of our days. They will not be many. A few more moons, a few more winters -- and maybe not many. A few more moons; not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the white man whose God walked with him as friend with friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see..." Chief Joseph

"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. It was not hard to see that the white people coveted every inch of land on which we lived. Greed. Humans wanted the last bit of ground which supported Indian feet. It was land - it has ever been land - for which the White man oppresses the Indian and to gain possession of which he commits any crime. Treaties that have been made are vain attempts to save a little of the fatherland, treaties holy to us by the smoke of the pipe - but nothing is holy to the white man. Little by little, with greed and cruelty unsurpassed by the animal, he has taken all. The loaf is gone and now the white man wants the crumbs."... Luther Standing Bear-Sioux

"What kind of animal would sell the land where lie the bones of his father?" Chief Joseph - Nez Perce

During the summer of 1870, Red Cloud and a group of Sioux head men went to Washington for a talk. While there he was told he should move his people onto a reservation near an agency. Red Cloud commented: "The white children have surrounded me and left nothing but an island. When we first had this land we were strong, but now are melting like snow on a hillside, while you are grown like spring grass. I have two mountains, Paha Sapa (Black Hills) and the Big Horn Mountains. I want the Father (President) to make no roads through them. I have told them a fourth time I do not want my reservation on the Missouri."

Red Cloud was reminded of the treaty of 1868. It was after the contents of the Treaty had been explained to him in detail that he finally understood the truth of its real meaning. Red Cloud then spoke out in anger.

"You whites have a Chief (President) to go by but the only chief I go by is Wakantanka. The Whites think the Great Spirit has nothing do with us, but He has. After fooling with us and taking away our lands, the Whites will have to suffer for it hereafter."

In 1866, an Indian Agent attempted to negotiate a treaty with the Chippewa of Minnesota. The Treaty proposed an exchange of the tribes valuable land and best hunting grounds, rice fields and fisheries for what was described as the "poorest strip of land in Minnesota ... unfit for cultivation." Presenting the proposed treaty to the assembled Indians, the Agent said:
"My red brothers, the winds of fifty-five winters have blown over my head and have silvered it with gray. In all that time I have not done wrong to a single human and as your friend, I advise you to sign this Treaty at once."