They Fence Their Neighbors Away

Sioux chief Sitting Bull responds to different visions of land ownership in this speech excerpt.

Subject

History
Social Studies

Language

English — US

Available in

Updated

September 1, 2022

Save

Cite this resource

Your free Facing History account gives you access to all of this Reading’s content and materials in Google Drive.

Get it in Google Drive!

Get everything you need including content from this page.

The following is an excerpt from Sioux chief Sitting Bull’s speech at the Powder River Council in 1877.

Behold, my brothers, the spring has come; the earth has received the embraces of the sun and we shall soon see the results of that love! Every seed has awakened and so has all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves, to inhabit this land. Yet hear me, my people, we have now to deal with another race—small and feeble when our fathers first met them, but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possessions is a disease with them … They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own, and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. They threaten to take [the land] away from us. My brothers, shall we submit, or shall we say to them: “First kill me before you take possession of my Fatherland.”¹

1Text available from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Facing History & Ourselves, “They Fence Their Neighbors Away”, last updated September 1, 2022.

Lesson

Students learn about the debate within the women’s rights movement over the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.

Five black women officers sitting for a portrait

Lesson

Students explore some of the limitations of Reconstruction's transformation on US democracy and learn about groups who demanded that the promise of equality be made a reality.

Seated portrait of women's voting rights advocate Susan B. Anthony.

Lesson

Students learn about the responses to Johnson’s policies by Republicans in Congress and examine the fourteenth amendment that overturned Presidential Reconstruction.

Photo of page 1 of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution

Lesson

Students reflect on the revolutionary changes that occurred because of the landmark legislation and amendments passed during the Reconstruction era.

A studio portrait shows African American members of the General Assembly from 1887 to 1888

Lesson

Students learn about the period of violence in the South from 1873-1876 and examine its role in influencing elections and ending Republican control of Southern state governments.

A picture of one hand holding down another hand on top of a gun and a pile of papers

Lesson

Students explore the legacies of the Reconstruction era today, reflect on the idea of democracy as a continuous process, and consider how they can best participate in the ongoing work of strengthening our democracy.

Demonstrators march down Pennsylvania Avenue with signs for Black Lives Matter

Lesson

Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction.

Black and white photo of the house committee

Lesson

Students examine the factors that led many northerners to turn against federal policies passed during the Reconstruction era that protected freedpeople.