Ciarán Hinds credited as playing...
James McLaughlin
- 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.
- Silas Groves: [enters and shuts door] Good afternoon. Agent McLaughlin? Colonel Groves. War Department. Special Envoy for General Crook. Where's the rest of it? Yeah, General Crook's ordered a 50% cut in rations of flour, bacon and sugar to take effect immediately. When a new treaty needs to be ratified, it's our experience that hunger concentrates the Indian mind. This is my wife Susan. Susan? Do you find that hunger concentrates your mind?
- [SPEAKS LAKOTA]
- Silas Groves: We don't encourage the use of the old language on the reservation. Thank you, dear.
- James McLaughlin: Where's the rest of it?
- Silas Groves: Yeah, General Crook's ordered a 50% cut in rations of flour, bacon and sugar to take effect immediately. When a new treaty needs to be ratified, it's our experience that hunger concentrates the Indian mind.
- James McLaughlin: [woman enters carrying tea service] This is my wife Susan. Susan? Do you find that hunger concentrates your mind?
- [Groves doffs his hat and speaks Lakota]
- Susan McLaughlin: We don't encourage the use of the old language on the reservation.
- James McLaughlin: Thank you, dear.