Our love of possession is our disease.

The great Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man Sitting Bull resisted forced settlement on reservations in the 1870s. In 1877, after he defeated General Custer at Little Bighorn, he decided to migrate to Canada. He had mixed feelings about such migration as he pronounced the following words:

“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!


Yet, hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race – small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their 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 and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. The nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all that are in its path.

We cannot dwell side by side. 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 away from us. My brothers, shall we submit or shall we say to them: “First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland…”

Our love of possession is our disease.

Responses to "Why Do We Kill, Maim, and Colonize? Chief Sitting Bull Told Us in 1877"

  1. Michael H says:

    Charles Alexander Eastman, "Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains", (Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, and Company, 1918), p. 119.

  2. Anonymous says:

    and sitting bull spoke the truth about this subject

  3. The sentence which most bothers me is "They even take tithes of the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule." This would require a fairly deep understanding of Western culture to make at all - the very concept of tithes would be difficult to express in Lakota, because the idea is so foreign, AFAICT. Also, it's something a Sioux warrior would have been very unlikely to encounter at that time/place. While there's a reasonable chance that Tatanka Iyotake learned about it when he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1885/86, after living among Whites, it is also almost certain that he did NOT know it, nor would have said it, in 1877 after the Battle of the Greasy Grass (Little Bighorn.)

  4. Google >>> how can an individual............

    Leonard Peltier >>>

    WORLD TV >>>

  5. no one really has to even go into a church to feel the greedy controlling attitudes that prevail throughout christianity. Jesus would certainly not approve of such malpractice of the human conscious. comment by Bullfrogs Blues, prophet of light life and love

  6. Anonymous says:

    The wild west was not wild until the comming of the whites. The history of the american conquest is well documented. What one said verbatum doe's not change the facts.

  7. Tim D. says:

    A wise man watches his adversary, and learns their ways. To know about tithing and greed. one must only watch. Custer was not defeated by fools nor luck nor chance. he was arrogant and greedy. Native peoples communicated between tribes and had a 400 year preview of European colonization prior to this 1877 oration of Tatanka Iyotake.

  8. Anonymous says:

    What I don't understand is why America hasn't given the land back to the native American's like they demanded with sanctions that the Afrikaner South Africa did? Bit hypocritical really! World without borders is my dream :) One people One Earth :)

  9. Anonymous says:

    When the native' s were removed from their lands the children were put in boarding schools forced to speak english only The removal started in 183O so he may have been taught it

  10. Anonymous says:

    We have already taken so much from them. This is their Mother earth, do NOT take away their sacred land! They have been treated terribly and have been forced sacrifice enough!

  11. And those same words are just as true today...

  12. The whites only kept ONE promise - they promised to take our land, AND THEY TOOK IT

  13. Anonymous says:

    so true

  14. Anonymous says:

    It's interesting that there's so much talk about terrorism by the corporate employees, also known as politicians and news stations; that they will always try and hide the fact that the Native Americans were the first of this country to experience what a terrorist is. They fought terrorism on a daily basis until the terrorists took over and started a country.

  15. Anonymous says:

    its easy to see in hinds sight after the fact...what do we do now after knowing what has happened continues to happen still?

  16. A far reaching prophecy . Wise man, Sitting Bull. Interesting, the white man, with their "manifest destiny" raped the land; lied to n cheated the original Americans.
    Now, in the 21st century, the rich n powerful whites are repeating that transgression upon Americans that they deem lowly and unworthy of dignity and human rights. Corporations n Big Money believe it is their right and their "destiny" to OWN the land. And to subject those that they deem "inferior" to live a difficult life and reap so little for their daily struggles.

  17. Lewis says:

    I'm not Native American, I'm Norwegian, but I have studied their cultures and have found them to be honorable, respectful of life, even each other's, and dutiful in their preservation of this earth. Losing this beautiful land and livelihood to the encroaching white race is a travesty of justice. The "world without borders" is coming, and the Native Americans will find that, in many ways, Jehovah views the world as they do. It is to be cared for, protected and appreciated for it's intricate and sustaining beauty, and not plundered to increase wealth.

  18. Isnt it off how we decimate the native peoples with mass genocide and deceit until they are but a pale shadow of what they once were holding it in our minds how the savages are so inferior until now we dig up there ones and artifacts and nearly worship their ways as so much better and more sacred. This is clearly an insight into what a sick people we are. Ducks unlimited right? Same thing. First we decimate then we glorify? Durt. We put the ideals of natives up on a pedestal. But let's be real. Soany tribes across such a vast land. So
    Many languages do many ways. Cannibslism. Warfare territory and classism was very much a part of indegenous lifestyles. I mean who got to marry the chiefs daughter. The brave who absconded the most ponies and scalps from the competing neighbors. No ? And what is wampum? It is basically cash.

  19. Anonymous says:

    imo it will take a meteorological event on a world wide scale to even begin to dent this problem, and from what geologic records show, plenty of natural disasters that make every nuke on this planet basically a cherry bomb, plus, if you dont think other species from other worlds don't have a say so on the stupid shit happening here and now, just check out the video of the asteroid exploding over russia several years back, and watch what really made that thing explode before it hit with a force of 100 hiroshimas...we are small fry with , as john anthony west puts it , with our candy stripe toothpaste and nukes... so sooner or later,this, as everything in natural, will evolve itself out if not in harmony with universal imo , these greedy zetite lowlifes will only get to play with there nukes and armies so much before more respectful entities possibly stop this bs

  20. Dennis says:

    Sitting Bull counciled his warriors to not defile the bodies of the fallen calverymen. The People did not listen. They enflamed the desire for vengeance. Like Shawnee Chief Techumsa, Sitting Bull, Tatanka Iyotake, counciled restraint until the nations could reconcile a path forward. Unfortunately, it did not come to pass and the warriors had the blood lust to drive them. The depredations were so awe fully felt by a people dependent upon the earth. When the earth, the Land, is confined by greed and the lust to possess there can be no freedom. The nations were not conquered by might of arms, but the means to exist. We all face that reality to this very day. The damned Reservation was expanded and we included without our ever knowing it!

  21. The article made me sad, but the comments gave me hope. There are aware and thoughtful people still. We are just quieted by the bombast and noise of a world intent on killing itself. We must speak up!

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