‘I want to say that further you are not a great chief of this country. That you have no following, no power, no control.’ Logan continued, ‘You are on an Indian reservation merely at the sufferance of the government. You are fed by the government, clothed by the government, your children are educated by the government, and all you have and are today is because of the government. If it were not for the government you would be freezing and starving today in the mountains. I merely say these things to notify you that you cannot insult the people of the United States of America or its committees…the government feeds and clothes and educates your children now, and desires to teach you to become farmers, and to civilize you, and make you as white men.’
– Dee Brown
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West. Senator John A. Logan, 1883, to Chief Sitting Bull at Standing Rock Indian Reservation.
