I did not know how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can se the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all among the crooked gulch as plain as I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was burried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautifull dream.

The nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead.

Black Elk, Oglala Holy Man
...on the aftermath of the Massacre at Wounded Knee

Many of our young men volunteered and many gave their lifes for you. You were willing to let them fight in the front ranks of France. Now we want to tell our troubles to you-I do not mean we are calling on your governments. We are tired of calling on the governments of palefaced peoples in America and Europe. We have tired that and found it was no use. They deal only in fine words...We have a little territory left=just enough to live and die on. Don't you think your governments ought to be ashamed to take that away from us by pretending it is part of theirs?

Deskaheh
Cayuga Chief of the Younger Bear clan, 1925