Here I was again puzzled to find out how the white people reasoned, and
began to doubt whether they had any standard of right and wrong.

Communication was kept up between myself and the Prophet. Runners were
sent to the Arkansas, Red river and Texas, not on the subject of our
lands, but on a secret mission, which I am not at present permitted to
explain.

It was related to me that the chiefs and head men of the Foxes had
been invited to Prairie du Chien, to hold a Council for the purpose of
settling the difficulties existing between them and the Sioux.

The chiefs and head men, amounting to nine, started for the place
designated, taking with them one woman, and were met by the Menonomees
and Sioux, near the Wisconsin and killed, all except one man. Having
understood that the whole matter was published shortly after it
occurred, and is known to the white people, I will say no more about it.

I would here remark, that our pastimes and sports had been laid aside
for two years. We were a divided people, forming two parties. Keokuk
being at the head of one, willing to barter our rights merely for the
good opinion of the whites, and cowardly enough to desert our village
to them. I was at the head of the other division, and was determined to
hold on to my village, although I had been ordered to leave it. But, I
considered, as myself and band had no agency in selling our county, and
that, as provision had been made in the treaty, for us all to remain
on it as long as it belonged to the United States, that we could not be
forced away. I refused therefore to quit my village. It was here that I
was born, and here lie the bones of many friends and relations. For
this spot I felt a sacred reverence, and never could consent to leave it
without being forced therefrom.

When I called to mind the scenes of my youth and those of later days,
when I reflected that the theatre on which these were acted, had been
so long the home of my fathers, who now slept on the hills around it, I
could not bring my mind to consent to leave this country to the whites
for any earthly consideration.

The winter passed off in gloom. We made a bad hunt for want of guns,
traps and other necessaries which the whites had taken from our people
for whisky. The prospect before me was a bad one. I fasted and called
upon the Great Spirit to direct my steps to the right path. I was in
great sorrow because all the whites with whom I was acquainted and had
bee