Frasi di Toro Seduto

„Per noi i guerrieri non sono quello che voi intendete. Il guerriero non è chi combatte, perché nessuno ha il diritto di prendersi la vita di un altro. Il guerriero per noi è chi sacrifica sé stesso per il bene degli altri. È suo compito occuparsi degli anziani, degli indifesi, di chi non può provvedere a sé stesso e soprattutto dei bambini, il futuro dell'umanità.“

—  Toro Seduto

„Quando avranno inquinato l'ultimo fiume, abbattuto l'ultimo albero, preso l'ultimo bisonte, pescato l'ultimo pesce, solo allora si accorgeranno di non poter mangiare il denaro accumulato nelle loro banche.“

—  Toro Seduto

Attribuite

„Questo è un buon giorno per morire. Seguitemi!“

—  Toro Seduto

„Siete ladri e bugiardi. Vi siete presi le nostre terre e ci avete resi emarginati.“

—  Toro Seduto

Visions 3, Zanichelli
Fonte poco chiara

„Sette anni fa abbiamo stipulato un trattato con l'uomo bianco. Ci ha promesso che la terra dei bufali sarebbe stata nostra per sempre. Adesso minacciano di prenderci anche quella. Dovremmo cedere, fratelli? O invece dire loro: "Dovrai uccidermi prima di impossessarti del mio paese."“

—  Toro Seduto

citato in La terra è la nostra madre, p. 52

„Quando sarai pronto a morire sarai grande abbastanza per vivere.“

—  Toro Seduto

„È strano, ma vogliono arare la terra, e sono malati di avidità. Hanno fatto molte leggi, e queste leggi i ricchi possono infrangerle, ma i poveri no. Nella loro religione i poveri pregano, i ricchi no. Tolgono denaro ai poveri e ai deboli per sostenere i ricchi e i potenti.“

—  Toro Seduto

citato in La terra è la nostra madre, p. 51

„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. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee.“

—  Sitting Bull

Also told to Charles Larpenteur at Fort Union in 1867. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 73.

„I am nothing, neither a chief nor a soldier.“

—  Sitting Bull

Recorded by a reporter after Sitting Bull's retreat to Canada after being defeated in the Black Hills War, originally published in the New York Herald on November 16, 1877. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 190.

„Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land.“

—  Sitting Bull

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5712889.Sitting_Bull
Attributed quotes

„They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. That nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path. We cannot dwell side by side.“

—  Sitting Bull

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5712889.Sitting_Bull
Attributed quotes

„You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them.“

—  Sitting Bull

As recorded by reporters covering a speech made by Sitting Bull to U.S. military officers at a conference between the military and the Sioux who had retreated to Canada. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 196.
Contesto: 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.

„I hardly sustain myself beneath the weight of white men's blood that I have shed.“

—  Sitting Bull

Recorded by the Jesuit priest Pierre-Jean De Smet after a council with Sitting Bull on June 19, 1868. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 79-80.
Contesto: I hardly sustain myself beneath the weight of white men's blood that I have shed. 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. I rose, tomahawk in hand, and I have done all the hurt to the whites that I could.

„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

Testimony to the Dawes Commission (22 August 1883)

„I have killed, robbed, and injured too many white men to believe in a good peace. They are medicine, and I would eventually die a lingering death. I had rather die on the field of battle.“

—  Sitting Bull

Recorded by Charles Larpenteur at Fort Union in 1867. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 73.

„This is a good day to die. Follow me!“

—  Sitting Bull

Rallying cry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25 June 1876), quoted in Campaigns of General Custer in the North-west by Judson Elliott Walker

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

—  Sitting Bull

GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5712889.Sitting_Bull
Attributed quotes

„Because I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. He put in your heart certain wishes and plans; in my heart he put other and different desires. Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary, that eagles should be crows.“

—  Sitting Bull

Quoted in Vine Deloria, God Is Red: A Native View of Religion. Golden, Colo: Fulcrum Pub, 2003, cited to Virginia Armstrong, I have spoken; American history through the voices of the Indians. Chicago, Sage Books, 1971.

„The love of possessions is a disease in them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not! They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbor away. … If America had been twice the size it is, there still would not have been enough.“

—  Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches, p. 75
Sourced quotes