thirty years they were trying to entice us to sell them our land.
Finally the outbreak gave them all, and we have been driven away from
our beautiful country.

"They are a wonderful people. They have divided the day into hours, like
the moons of the year. In fact, they measure everything. Not one of them
would let so much as a turnip go from his field unless he received full
value for it. I understand that their great men make a feast and invite
many, but when the feast is over the guests are required to pay for what
they have eaten before leaving the house. I myself saw at White Cliff
(the name given to St. Paul, Minnesota) a man who kept a brass drum and
a bell to call people to his table; but when he got them in he would
make them pay for the food!

"I am also informed," said my uncle, "but this I hardly believe, that
their Great Chief (President) compels every man to pay him for the
land he lives upon and all his personal goods--even for his own
existence--every year!" (This was his idea of taxation.) "I am sure we
could not live under such a law.

"When the outbreak occurred, we thought that our opportunity had come,
for we had learned that the Big Knives were fighting among themselves,
on account of a dispute over their slaves. It was said that the Great
Chief had allowed slaves in one part of the country and not in another,
so there was jealousy, and they had to fight it out. We don't know how
true this was.

"There were some praying-men who came to us some time before the trouble
arose. They observed every seventh day as a holy day. On that day they
met in a house that they had built for that purpose, to sing, pray, and
speak of their Great Mystery. I was never in one of these meetings.
I understand that they had a large book from which they read. By all
accounts they were very different from all other white men we have
known, for these never observed any such day, and we never knew them to
pray, neither did they ever tell us of their Great Mystery.

"In war they have leaders and war-chiefs of different grades. The common
warriors are driven forward like a herd of antelopes to face the foe. It
is on account of this manner of fighting--from compulsion and not from
personal bravery--that we count no coup on them. A lone warrior can do
much harm to a large army of them in a bad country."

It was this talk with my uncle that gave me my first clear idea of the
white man.

I was almost fifteen years old when m