second to Red Cloud as a
bold warrior. All have distinguished themselves in various ways, and
their buffalo-robes are worked and stained with figures and various
objects, all of which tell the history of each one, describing minutely
from childhood the first game they killed, whether a bird, antelope, or
deer, and so on to some fight with an enemy,--all of which, clear as
mud to me, is plain to them as a book. It is said that Red Cloud had
prepared the following speech to make to his "Great Father," the
President; but he changed his mind, and made another:

"Thousands of miles away, where the sun's last light falls on the
big hills, I have left my people, to come and look my Father in the
face. As that light makes us see all things around us clearly, so
may the Great Spirit make our talk plain, that we may understand
each other, and that our councils shall be as brothers who have met
to smoke the pipe of peace. Father, I have heard that you are great
and good. Listen to me, my Father, and let your ears hear one of
your children, who comes from the wigwams of his people, with truth
in his heart, and no lies upon his lips. I have made many treaties
with your Commissioners, and they have promised many times, but
have never kept their promises; and I have now come to see my Great
Father myself, so that we can understand each other, and make no
promises that we do not mean to keep. They have told you that I am
a murderer; but I do not understand it in that way. You, Great
Father, have driven me away from my country,--the only country I
had to raise my children on. Tell me, Father, could any living man
on this earth stand such a thing as this? Suppose I should go to
your country, tear down your fences, and steal your cattle and your
hogs, would you stand by and have no word to say? No, Father, I
know you would not. In all the troubles of my people, the white man
has been the first aggressor. Father, we are not cowards. We know
that you are great, and that you can crush us with your mighty
power. But we believe that you are good, and that you will protect
your children, when they come to you for what they believe is
theirs. We ask you to listen to us, to do by us as a good father
should do by his children, and to let us carry back to our brothers
and our people the assurance that the Great Spirit has smiled upon
us,