We never did the white man any harm; we don’t intend to…We are willing to be friends with the white man…The buffalo are diminishing fast. The antelope, that were plenty a few years ago, they are now thin. When they shall all die we shall be hungry; we shall want something to eat, and we will be compelled to come into the fort. Your young men must not fire at us; whenever they see us they fire, and we fire on them.
– Tall Bull
Cheyenne Dog Soldiers chief, to U.S. Army General Winfield Scott Hancock. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, by Dee Brown. Chapter 7.