"We were and are a peaceful people. We even welcomed the wasichu [white man]. Only when we saw them building roads, forts, killing off the game, committing buffalo genocide, when we saw them ripping off our land for gold, only then did we realize that what they wanted was our land. They took away our pride, our customs, our MEDICINE. Then we began to fight. For our earth, for our children. That started what the whites call the Great Indian Wars of the West. I call it the Great Indian Holocaust" (2).

- Leonard Crow Dog (Medicine Man) -