due and belongs to me.
The red people were raised with the bow and arrow, and are all of
one nation; but the whites, who are educated and civilized, swindle
me; and I am not hard to swindle, because I cannot read and write.
We have thirty-two nations (or bands), and have a council-house the
same as you have. We held a council before we came here, and the
demands I have made upon you from the chiefs I left behind me are
all alike. You whites have a chief you go by, but all the chief I
go by is God Almighty. When he tells me anything that is for the
best, I always go by his guidance. The whites think the Great
Spirit has nothing to do with us, but he has. After fooling with us
and taking away our property, they will have to suffer for it
hereafter. The Great Spirit is now looking at us, and we offer him
our prayers.

"When we had a talk at the mouth of Horse Creek, in 1852, you made
a chief of Conquering Bear and then destroyed him, and since then
we have had no chief. You white people did the same to your great
chief. You killed one of our great fathers. The Great Spirit makes
us suffer for our wrong-doing. You promised us many things, but you
never performed them. You take away everything. Even if you live
forty years or fifty years in this world and then die, you cannot
take all your goods with you. The Great Spirit will not make me
suffer, because I am ignorant. He will put me in a place where I
will be better off than in this world. The Great Spirit raised me
naked and gave me no arms. Look at me. This is the way I was
raised. White men say we are bad, we are murderers, but I cannot
see it."

[Red Cloud did not use this slang phrase,--no Indian speaks so,--and
the interpreters spoil much of the beauty of idiom in translating what
the Indian says. He meant, "I did not so understand it."]

"We gave up our lands whenever the whites came into our country.
Tell the Great Father I am poor. In earlier years, when I had
plenty of game, I could make a living; I gave land away, but I am
too poor for that now. I want something for my land. I want to
receive some pay for the lands where you have made railroads. My
Father has a great many children out West with no ears, brains, or
heart. You have the names to the treaty of persons professing to be
chiefs, but I am chief of that nation. Look at