, where Bright Eyes, Mr. Tibbles, and old Standing Bear came to
tell of the wrongs of the Poncas. They were to hold a public meeting.
Wendell Phillips was to speak. I went to that meeting more with a desire
to hear Phillips than from any interest in the Indian. At that time all
I knew about him was what I had learned from the current literature and
romance, and my idea was very far from correct. At that meeting a state
of affairs was shown to exist that seemed astounding and impossible. A
committee was appointed to investigate these statements. They found that
the half had not been told. That committee started measures that
rectified these wrongs done to the Poncas. It commenced suit under the
Fourteenth Amendment to see whether the Indians were citizens. The
Judges of the Supreme Court decided that the Indian was not a person
under the law. Then it tried other channels; to get legislation that
would help the Indian. Senator Dawes soon became interested in this
question, and from that time to the present he has been interested; and
how much the Indian owes to the legislation which has been started and
carried forward by Senator Dawes, but very few people know; but it must
be followed by other legislation before the Indian is safe.

In Boston, Mrs. H.H. Jackson listened to the statement of Bright Eyes
in regard to the wrongs suffered by her people. She came to her and
said, "It is not possible that these things can be true." Bright Eyes
showed her the official documents; she convinced her that it was true.
From that hour that woman's whole soul was in the work. She afterwards
wrote "A Century of Dishonor," and "Ramona," which has preached for the
Indians, and will continue to do so. She gave her life finally for the
Indians, the sickness that caused her death being brought on while
engaged in work for them. This work gets hold of a man, if he has any
blood in his veins and sympathy in his heart, and makes him feel, if he
would stand without condemnation before God in the last day, that he
must do something to redeem his country from dishonor, and deliver this
people from worse than slavery.

Suppose we do not do it. Suppose we allow the Government to care for
them. The Dawes Bill gives them citizenship, but what does the Indian
get? One hundred and sixty acres of land--and he as naked as a babe on
that land. He has had no training in education and systematic work of
any kind; he has no tools--and if he had he would not k