- Sitting Bull: I have wanted peace. I have prayed for peace. There have been battles. But when the white soldiers win a battle, they call it victory. When the Indians win, they call it massacre.
- [first lines]
- Sitting Bull: These are the Black Hills of Dakota. The Sioux Indians named this land. It is their word for "friendly." There are seven warrior tribes in the Sioux Nation. And I have prayed the Dakota and its hills would be too rough for the white man and his plows. But, once again, the white man comes. I watch their coming with a sad heart. There are few now, but I know that many will come for they seek the white man's treasure... gold.
- Sitting Bull: See, Crazy Horse, the wagons come without scouts ahead. These men come to our land as if they owned it.
- Crazy Horse: They are like white man's cattle; full-bellied, stupid, and slow.
- Crazy Horse: When the deer run, does the wolf pack hide?
- Sitting Bull: A wise leader eats when he can. He builds strength for the day when he must fight... to live.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Those people use this fort to buy their supplies in. They lie in their teeth about where they're going. They go into Sioux territory, slaughter their game, foul their water, and shoot every Indian they see if he's old or harmless enough. The treaties, they don't mean anything to them. They're just words on paper.
- Gen. Wilford Howell: Admitting every word of that to be true, it's outside your province as a soldier. We are all here to obey orders.
- Col. Custer: And orders seem to be something of a stumbling block for you. Major, you've been a burr under my saddle ever since you came west. You were an aide to General Grant when I first knew you, a colonel! Now you seem to be traveling downwards in rank.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Well, we seem to be traveling in the same direction, Colonel Custer. You used to be a general.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: May I speak freely?
- President Ulysses S. Grant: Go ahead.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: You don't settle Indian troubles by shooting Sitting Bull's son in the back.
- President Ulysses S. Grant: I know that. I suppose you have a plan to make the Indian grow flowers around his teepee?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: That man and his bunch were in Sioux territory. My orders were to ride patrol for just such a violation of the Indian treaty.
- Col. Custer: An officer, Major, is supposed to be able to exercise a certain amount of initiative. Now, as a member of my regiment, I issued you your orders. I did not set them in concrete.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: And my head isn't set in concrete either.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: You speak English?
- Sam: No, Sir. I never learned that lingo.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: What do you think you're speaking now?
- Sam: Long Knife.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: What's your name?
- Sam: Black Slave Who Escaped from White Heathen. That's in Sioux.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Sitting Bull alone is holding these people in check.
- President Ulysses S. Grant: Why?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Maybe it's because he knows that the next war will be the end of his people.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: So, you're really leaving?
- Charles Wentworth: Yup. Let's say the uh, second best man has won.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Well, I thought you newspapermen lived by a code.
- Charles Wentworth: Code of honor? You've got that wrong. If you think I've taken dishonorable advantage of you over Cathy, we can settle that one too.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Let's skip that. There's something else I had in mind. What about a newspaperman never running out on a story?
- Charles Wentworth: What story?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: The biggest story you've ever had a chance to cover?
- Charles Wentworth: Are you serious?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: President Grant's coming out here.
- Charles Wentworth: Grant?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: To sit under a tree and hold a counsel for peace with Sitting Bull.
- Charles Wentworth: So that's it. You're forgetting Parrish. I could telegraph that story in without interrupting a single plan for the wedding.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Yes, you could. But that information is top military secret. Telegraph it and you'll see me put against a wall in front of a firing squad. Do what you think's best.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Sam, there's no sense riding a dead horse any longer. You've been a good friend. If you want to put a feather in your hair and join your Indian friends, it's all right. I'll understand. You can leave tonight.
- Sam: I guess I've got some of that horse blood you've been talking about, Captain.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish, Sam: You mean you're not giving up?
- [Sam shakes his head "no"]
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish, Sam: Good. Good.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Great chief, will you listen to the words of my chief?
- Sitting Bull: Speak.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Move your braves across the little river. My chief too has many soldiers. They will come and they'll stop on their side. But neither army must strike a blow while you come to the great white chief with the big counsel.
- Sitting Bull: I will say "yes" to this meeting.
- [They share a peace pipe]
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: What is your plan, Sitting Bull?
- Sitting Bull: My braves will hold their arrows, but your chief must come here. He will meet me between the two armies in the open country.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: You mean bring the president here?
- Sitting Bull: If this meeting fails, then both armies will come together. The chiefs in the middle will die first. This is the Indian way.
- Kathy Howell: The man I marry has to do more than just love me. He has to place our future together, our happiness, above everything else.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: All I need is a chance.
- Kathy Howell: A chance? You've got a thousand chances. Why you could be commanding a regiment right now. Is it discipline that galls you? Or lack of action? What?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Maybe I've got a few plans that don't suit these blue-bellied patriots that like to go around slaughtering Indians just to keep their name in print.
- Kathy Howell: This Indian thing has become an obsession with you. Why don't you have Washington handle it? Or quit the army altogether?
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Quit? And then what?
- Kathy Howell: Anything. Dig ditches if you like.
- [He laughs]
- Kathy Howell: Yes, I'd dig them with you so long as you dug the best and the straightest. Oh, Bob, I'd... I'd help you get a start anywhere on Earth but you've got to fight your way to the top. To be the best in anything you tackle.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: It's gotta be the best, huh?
- Kathy Howell: The man I marry? Yes.
- Kathy Howell: They'll be no honeymoon, Bob. Our engagement is finished.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Well, good. Good. I don't like long engagements either. When do we get married?
- Kathy Howell: We're not getting married. I've made up my mind. We're through.
- Sitting Bull: [Counseling his tribe] When a man draws his arrow on enemy, he must shoot. When I dip my fingers in the war paint, it will mean war. But this I counsel you, gather all the nations together before you draw the first arrow. It will seem easy to drive back the men who want the yellow stones, but if we fight them, we must fight the long knifes. The soldiers. So, this I counsel you. Send runners to all the nations of the Sioux, to the Cheyenne, to the Croix, who have been our enemies. Send runners to all our cousins. Send them now, Crazy Horse. Gather all our armies . We will make sure our voice strong before we fit the arrow.
- Sitting Bull: Oh, great spirit. Now I come to ask for strength. The war paint is ready. Give us strength and courage. If the battle must come, it will be the last fight.
- Gen. Wilford Howell: It doesn't make sense.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: It's what Sitting Bull wants. I couldn't change his mind.
- Gen. Wilford Howell: You can't ask a President of the United States to come out here and sit under a tree with an Indian.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Grant's a soldier. He'll understand. Can you send a message to him right away, sir? Tonight?
- Gen. Wilford Howell: Of course. It's almost hopeless.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Maybe. But it could save us a war.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Are you looking for a war out here, Mr. Wentworth?
- Charles Wentworth: My papers say that the West is a tinderbox.
- Major Robert 'Bob' Parrish: Yeah? Well, maybe I can cheat you out of a war. See how good you are at another contest some time.