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The Rights of My People
Chief Flying Eagle, Earl Mills, Sr. - Mashpee Wampanoag
--Sitting Bull/Tatanka Iyotake (Hunkpapa Lakota) 1877
"The palefaces had things that we needed in order to hunt.
We needed ammunition.
Our interests were in peace.
I never sold that much land."
Here Sitting Bull picked up with his thumb and forefinger a little dirt,
lifted it, and let it fall and blow away.
"I never made or sold a treaty with the United States.
I came in to claim my rights and the rights of my people.
I never made war on the United States Government.
I never stood in the white man's country.
I never committed any depredations in the white man's country.
I never made the white man's heart bleed.
The white man came on my land and followed me. The white man made me fight for my hunting grounds. The white man made me kill him or he would kill my friends, my women, and my children. We have all fought hard. We did not know Custer. There was not as many Indians as the white man says. There was not more than two thousand. I did not want to kill any more men. I did not like that kind of work. I only defended my camp. When we had killed enough, that was all that was necessary."
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