Woman Walks Ahead (2017)
Michael Greyeyes: Sitting Bull
Photos
Quotes
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Sitting Bull : She's from New York.
Catherine Weldon : I thought you liked New York.
Sitting Bull : Too many people with too much. Too many people with nothing at all. Your society values people by how much you have... ours by how much we give away.
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Sitting Bull : Soft. Feel. We used to use the buffalo's brains to soften the hide. Every animal has exactly enough brains to tan its own hide. Never too much. Never too little.
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Catherine Weldon : You're not good at keeping still, are you?
Sitting Bull : Shoot me, then I will be still.
Catherine Weldon : What would be the point of shooting you? Bullets don't seem to have any effect.
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Catherine Weldon : I want to speak to him.
Chaska : So, speak to him. He speaks English well enough. When he wants to.
Catherine Weldon : [to Sitting Bull] Excuse me. I have traveled many miles from the east...
[clumsily pantomimes]
Catherine Weldon : across many... rivers and hills... for the honor of speaking with you.
Sitting Bull : You got a train from New York, right? Did you get a Pullman?
Catherine Weldon : [chagrined] Yes.
Sitting Bull : Nice. They gave me free cigars too.
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Sitting Bull : [to Weldon] To find our way on the open prairie, we stop sometimes and look, remember. With people too. You stop sometimes and look and remember. It's called cantognake. To place and hold in your heart. This moment. Our power returning. Young again. Hold it in your heart.
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Sitting Bull : You'll never be free on the prairie if you don't ride.
Catherine Weldon : Freedom's in the head.
Sitting Bull : And in the feet.
Catherine Weldon : Oh... my feet are just fine.
Sitting Bull : Try these.
[pulls out a pair of moccasins]
Sitting Bull : My old ones, soft buckskin.
Catherine Weldon : [struggles to remove her heels] Uh!
Sitting Bull : You got big feet for a woman.
Catherine Weldon : You got small feet for a man.
Sitting Bull : [speaks Lakota] Sihathánka, it means "big feet." Maybe that could be your Indian name.
Catherine Weldon : They called George Catlin "Mystery Spirit Painter." Think of something like that.
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Catherine Weldon : You think you could wear your feathers?
[shakes his head]
Catherine Weldon : Why not?
Sitting Bull : Same reason you don't wear your wedding dress.
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Sitting Bull : I would like to speak.
Silas Groves : No, no... he got... No, you won't.
James McLaughlin : [quietly to General Crook] He's not a registered member of any tribal council. We have the power to say no.
General Crook : [quietly in response] Power?
[laughs]
General Crook : You wanna speak, Bull? You go ahead.
James McLaughlin : General...
General Crook : [interrupts] Let the man speak, for Christ's sake. This is a free land.
General Crook : [to Sitting Bull] What do you have to say, my old friend?
[Sitting Bull speaks Lakota]
Susan McLaughlin : [translates Sitting Bull's words] Since the white man came... and broke up the grassland... with his ploughs... the earth has turned to dust.
Susan McLaughlin : In this dust, there is the body of Crazy Horse...
Susan McLaughlin : American Horse...
Susan McLaughlin : Spotted Tail...
Susan McLaughlin : Black Kettle...
Susan McLaughlin : Sword...
Susan McLaughlin : Two Moons...
Susan McLaughlin : Rain in the Face.
Susan McLaughlin : When the wind blows...
Susan McLaughlin : it blows our heroes in our faces.
Susan McLaughlin : our diplomats...
Susan McLaughlin : our doctors...
Susan McLaughlin : our priests...
Susan McLaughlin : our dead children.
Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull pauses] The Great Spirit speaks to us in clouds of dust.
Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull rises] You cannot sell...
Susan McLaughlin : pieces of the earth...
Susan McLaughlin : because the earth belongs to God.
Susan McLaughlin : [Sitting Bull in Lakota and Susan overlap] We must tell these people to go home...
Susan McLaughlin : back to Washington, and not hurt the earth any more.
Susan McLaughlin : [overlapping speech ceases] Enough. Enough.
[Sitting Bull grasps a fistful of soil and allows it to run through his fingers]
Susan McLaughlin : We will give no more of our land away.
Susan McLaughlin : [holds a speck of dust between his thumb and forefinger] Not even this much.