Sitting Bull (1954)

Douglas Kennedy: Col. Custer

Quotes 

• 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 : 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.