- Jason McCord: There's something you don't understand, Wateekah. All men are brothers. The color of their skin doesn't have anything to do with the side that he fights on.
- Chief Wateekah: We shall see... brother!
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Five minutes ago... he laughed... cried... and wrote a letter home.
- [breaks off end of arrow in soldiers back]
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Just a dirty little piece of wood now... with blood on it. Why couldn't they leave it on a tree... let it keep growing?
- Corp. Johnny Macon: I had this tattoo put on my arm to remind me that, while I may not get everything I want, it's worth trying for. It's worth getting hurt for. And this is worth getting hurt for.
- Chief Wateekah: First we will test the eagle against the hawk. You, man who walks with his head in the sky, you will be the eagle. And our best warrior will be the hawk.
- [the hawk and the eagle, both southpaws, are atop elongated pogo-like sticks, swinging]
- Chief Wateekah: Your hair curly like buffalo. You are buffalo soldier.
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Your hair is long like a woman. Are you a woman soldier?
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Can't we fake it? Make it look real?
- Jason McCord: How do you fake bleeding to death, Johnny? They want a dead man. They won't settle for a stand-off.
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Then it better be me.
- Jason McCord: Why you?
- Corp. Johnny Macon: Because what I have to live for is a court martial and a firing squad.
- Jason McCord: [Flashback to another time] They're talking about you. I just saw their smoke signals.
- Corp. Johnny Macon: We didn't see any smoke.
- Jason McCord: How could you? Look at this cul-de-sac. It's a natural trap.
- Jose - Bartender: What is your pleasure, Senor? Food for your body or liquid for the soul?
- Jason McCord: First, I want to get some water for this.
- Jose - Bartender: Rosa. Quel Linda Rosa, what a beautiful rose, Senor.
- Jason McCord: [He kneels beside a rock-covered grave that has a makeshift cross, a rifle half-buried in the ground] Burgundy. It's the colour of a dark red rose, Johnny. Red as blood.
- Chief Wateekah: Renegades? Is Sitting Bull a renegade? Is Crazy Horse a renegade? No, we are all leaders who know what must come. One day soon, all the Indians, the Blackfoot, the Sioux, the Cheyenne, we will all join together and we will drive the White Man from our lands. Then those who do not fight with us will be the renegades.
- Chief Wateekah: Their skin is much like ours, McCord. Why do they not fight on our side?
- Jason McCord: They're trying to earn the new freedom they were given by President Lincoln.
- Chief Wateekah: They have to earn the right to be free.
- Jason McCord: They want to, Wateekah, because it gives them dignity in their own eyes.
- Jason McCord: There was a time when everybody called you the Leader of the Apaches, the Great Orator. Now they call you the Butcher.
- Chief Wateekah: The battle has made my heart of stone, with no soft place in it. Your chiefs gave you half a sword and call you half a man. But we who fought at Bitter Creek know different.
- Jason McCord: I wish you had testified at my trial.