Welcome to our collection of quotes by Red Cloud. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Red Cloud
Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was one of the most important leaders of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in its invasion of the western territories. He defeated the United States during Red Cloud's War, which was a fight over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana. The largest action of the war was the Fetterman Fight, with 81 US soldiers killed; it was the worst military defeat suffered by the US Army on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn 10 years later.
After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), Red Cloud led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his opponents mistakenly thought of him as the overall leader of the Sioux groups (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota), but the large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, though some individual leaders were renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders, such as Red Cloud.
I hope the Great Heavenly Father, who will look down upon us, will give all the tribes his blessing, that we may go forth in peace, and live in peace all our days, and that He will look down upon our children and finally lift us far above this earth.
There was no hope on earth, and God seemed to have forgotten us. Some said they saw the Son of God; others did not see Him. If He had come, He would do some great things as He had done before. We doubted it because we had seen neither Him nor His works.
Look at me. I was a warrior on this land where the sun rises, now I come from where the sun sets. Whose voice was first surrounded on this land -- the red people with bows and arrows. The Great Father says he is good and kind to us. I can't see it.
The whites, who are educated and civilized, swindle me, and I am not hard to swindle because I do not know how to read and write.
When I was a young man, I was poor. In a war with other nations, I was in eighty-seven fights. There I received my name and was made Chief of my nation. But now I am old and am for peace.
The whites are the same everywhere. I see them every day.
You whites make all the ammunition.
I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
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.
The white man has got the gold out of the land which belonged to the red man.
The Great Spirit will not make me suffer because I am ignorant. He will put me in a place where I shall be better off than in this world.
Even if you live forty or fifty years in this world, and then die, you cannot take all your goods with you.
We do not want riches, we want peace and love.