Red Cloud quotes

Red Cloud was a prominent Oglala Lakota leader and one of the most important Native American statesmen of the nineteenth century. Known for his leadership during Red Cloud's War, he successfully resisted U.S. military presence on Lakota land. He later worked to secure better conditions for his people through negotiation and diplomacy. Here are 10 of his quotes:

We do not want riches, we want peace and love.

Red Cloud

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.

Red Cloud

The white man has got the gold out of the land which belonged to the red man.

Red Cloud

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.

Red Cloud

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.

Red Cloud

The whites are the same everywhere. I see them every day.

Red Cloud

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.

Red Cloud

Even if you live forty or fifty years in this world, and then die, you cannot take all your goods with you.

Red Cloud

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.

Red Cloud