d a story of struggle and
achievement, but in the speeches made by the chiefs each coup stick was to
become a pledge of peace.

Now, following the ancient custom, while still seated, an Indian woman
belonging to the Blackfoot tribe and wearing the full costume of her
people, together with two Cheyenne maidens, dressed in the costume of
their particular tribe, entered the council lodge carrying wooden bowls
filled with meat and bread. This they served to the chiefs with a wooden
fork. This to them answered as a ceremony of communion. When all had
partaken, Chief Plenty Coups took the two long-stemmed pipes with red
sandstone bowls containing emblematic decorations the whole length of the
stems--pipes that had been filled by the medicine men and placed on the
ground before the standing place of the great chiefs in the centre of the
lodge. Chief Plenty Coups then lighted one pipe and passed it to the
chiefs at his left, and lighting the other he smoked it himself for the
first, and then passed it on to the right, each chief in turn smoking the
pipe, then passing it on to his brother chief, until all had smoked the
council pipe. When the pipes were returned to Chief Plenty Coups they
were again filled and lighted, smoked by the Great Chief, and passed on to
the others. And this became the Pipe of Peace.

These Indian councils were the legislative halls of the tribes; thither
all matters of importance were brought by the chiefs and the warriors.
Here all tribal problems were discussed. Here the destiny of any
particular tribe was settled. Here the decision to make war was reached.
In these council lodges, around the blazing fire, the Indians have uttered
speech more eloquent than a Pitt or a Chatham in St. Stephens or a Webster
in a Senate hall, an oratory that aroused the disintegrated Indian tribes
and far separated clans into such a masterful and resistful force that the
Indian against odds many times mightier than himself has been able to
withstand the aggressions of civilization.

When questions of such moment made the necessity, chiefs of all the tribes
attended and entered into solemn council. Then the council meant war.
The day finally dawned when the Indian as a race was conquered by the
white man. The ranks of the chiefs became thinner and thinner until in
this day only a few of the great warriors remain. These representatives
of former greatness and prowess gathered from their peaceful wigwams from
ma