"Five hundred years later, Native peoples are still fighting to protect their lands and their rights to exist as distinct political communities and individuals. Most US citizens' knowledge about Indians is inaccurate, distorted, or limited to elementary-school textbooks, cheesy old spaghetti westerns, or more contemporary films like Dances with Wolves or The Last of the Mohicans."

"Lt. John Dunbar is about to discover the frontier...within himself."

"The journey begins this November. Discover it for yourself."

"Inside everyone is a frontier waiting to be discovered."

"I'll bet someone back east is going, 'Now why don't he write?"

"He He, Put that in your book!"

"Please don't hurt my mules!"

"Somebuddy poked me in my butt...was dat you?"

"You are the only white man I have ever known. I have thought about you a lot. More than you think. And I understand your concern. But I think you are wrong. The white man the soldiers are looking for no longer exists. Now there is only a Sioux named Dances With Wolves... Let us smoke a while."

"[in Lakota, showing Dunbar an old Spanish Conquistador's helmet] The white men who wore this came around the time of my grandfather's grandfather. Eventually we drove them out. Then the Mexicans came. But they do not come here any more. In my own time, the Texans. They have been like all the others. They take without asking. I don't know if we are ready for these people. But I think you are right. I think they will keep coming. When I think of that, I look at this helmet. Our country is all that we have, and we will fight to keep it."

"Dances With Wolves. I am Wind In His Hair. Do you see that I am your friend? Can you see that you will always be my friend?"

"We will shoot some arrows into the white man. If he truly has medicine, he will not be hurt. If he has no medicine, he will be dead."

"[to his army captors who are interrogating him, in Lakota] My name is Dances with Wolves. I will not talk to you anymore. You are not worth talking to."

"It was hard to know how to feel. I had never been in a battle like this one. This had not been a fight for territory or riches or to make men free. This battle had no ego. It had been fought to preserve the food stores that would see us through winter, to protect the lives of women and children and loved ones only a few feet away. I felt a pride I had never felt before."

"I had never really known who John Dunbar was. Perhaps because the name itself had no meaning. But as I heard my Sioux name being called over and over, I knew for the first time who I really was."

"Nothing I have been told about these people is correct. They are not thieves or beggars. They are not the bogeymen they are made out to be. On the contrary, they are polite guests and I enjoy their humor."

"[voiceover] Many times I'd felt alone, but until this afternoon I'd never felt completely lonely."

"The strangeness of this life cannot be measured: in trying to produce my own death, I was elevated to the status of a living hero."

"[voiceover] It seems every day ends with a miracle here. And whatever God may be, I thank God for this day."

"Susan Traylor - Rawhide"

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Young Norman"

"Edie McClurg - Mrs. Burns"

"Emily Lloyd - Jessie Burns"

"Brenda Blethyn - Mrs. Maclean"

"Tom Skerritt - Reverend Maclean"

"Brad Pitt - Paul Maclean"

"Craig Sheffer - Norman Maclean"

"Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding."

"[narrating] Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise. Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters."

"[narrating] That was the only time we fought. Perhaps we wondered after which one of us was tougher. But if boyhood questions aren't answered before a certain point, they can't be raised again. So we returned to being gracious to one another, as the church well suggested."

"The world is full of bastards, the number increasing rapidly the further one gets from Missoula, Montana."

"[narrating] As time passed, my father struggled for more to hold on to, asking me again and again: had I told him everything. And finally I said to him, "maybe all I really know about Paul is that he was a fine fisherman." "You know more than that," my father said; "he was beautiful." And that was the last time we ever spoke of my brother's death."

"[narrating] In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing."

"The Burns family ran a general store in a one store town and still managed to do badly. They were Methodist, a denomination my father always referred to as Baptists who could read."

"[narrating] My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him, all good things - trout as well as eternal salvation - came by grace; and grace comes by art; and art does not come easy."

"In my family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in Missoula, Montana where Indians still appeared out of the wilderness to walk the honky tonks and brothels of Front Street."

"[narrating]My father looked at me for a long time, just looked at me and this was the last he and I ever said to me about Paul's death. Indirectly though, he was present in many of our conversations. Once for instance, my father asked me a series of questions that suddenly made me wonder if I understood even my father, whom I felt closer to than any man I have ever known, "you like to tell true stories" he asked and I answered, "Yes, I like to tell stories that are true." Then he asked, "after you have finished your true stories sometime, why don't you make up a story and the people to go with it, only then will you understand what happened and why. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us.""

"Percy White Plume - Big Warrior"

"Robert Pastorelli - Timmons"

"Charles Rocket - Lt. Elgin"

"Michael Spears - Otter"

"Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse - Smiles A Lot"

"Jimmy Herman - Stone Calf"

"Tantoo Cardinal - Black Shawl"

"Bill Nunn - Bottom Hammer"

"Coati Mundi - Roberto"

"Charlie Murphy - Eggy"

"Leonard L. Thomas - Rod"