Three Years on the Plains
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Edmund B. Tuttle >> Three Years on the Plains
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The Indians all expressed themselves to the interpreter as having "big
hearts," "heap good eat," "like much Great Father," and "much good
white squaws."
Mrs. Grant's beautiful gold fan quite took the eyes of the squaws, and
they showed much delight, saying they would get some pretty fans for
themselves. Soon (as there is an end to all things) the party broke up;
the white guests to dream perhaps of some strange play at a theatre,
and the Indians to imagine themselves transplanted to the happy
hunting-grounds they feel sure they are to enter hereafter, when they
have done with hunting the antelope, the deer, and the buffalo, on the
plains.
_Important Interview._
The Secretary of the Interior, Commissioner Parker, General J. E.
Smith, Messrs. Collyer, F. C. Brunot, and the other Indian delegates,
met in a grand council at the Patent Office building. All the Indians
were dressed in full costume, and seemed to be impressed with the
importance of the occasion. Secretary Cox made a long address to the
Indians on behalf of the President, assuring them that if they would go
to their reservations, and keep the peace, all the rations and goods
promised them by the government would be sent to them, and agents also,
to see that they reached them safely.
In regard to giving them arms and ammunition, he said they would not be
given them at present, but after they have kept themselves peaceable on
reservations for a time, these would be furnished.
Red Cloud then shook hands with all, and said:
"I came from where the sun sets. You were raised on the chairs. I
want to sit where the Indian warrior sat."
Sitting down on the floor, Indian fashion, he went on:
"The Great Spirit has raised me this way. He raised me naked. I
make no opposition to the Great Father who sits in the White House.
I don't want to fight. I have offered my prayer to the Great Father
so that I might come here safe and well. What I have to say to you
and to these men, and to my Great Father, is this: Look at me! I
was raised where the sun rises, and I came from where he sets.
Whose voice was the first heard in this land? The red people's. Who
raised the bow? The Great Father may be good and kind, but I can't
see it. I am good and kind to white people, and have given my
lands, and have now come from where the sun sets to see you. The
Great Father has sent his people out there, and left me nothing but
an island. Our nation is melting away like the snow on the side of
the hills where the sun is warm, while your people are like the
blades of grass in the spring when summer is coming. I don't want
to see the white people making roads in our country. Now that I
have come into my Great Father's land, see if I have any blood when
I return home. The white people have sprinkled blood on the blades
of grass about the line of Fort Fetterman. Tell the Great Father to
remove that fort, and then we will be peaceful, and there will be
no more troubles.
"I have yet two mountains in that country,--the Black Hills and Big
Horn. I want no roads there. There have been stakes driven in that
country, and I want them removed. I have told these things three
times, and now have come here to tell them for the fourth time. I
have made up my mind to take that way. I don't want my reservation
on the Missouri home of these people. I hear that my old men and
children are dying off like sheep. The country don't suit them. I
was born at the Forks of the Platte. My father and mother told me
that the land there belonged to me. From the north and west the red
nation has come into the Great Father's house. We are the last of
the Ogallallas. We have come to know the facts from our Father, why
the promises which have been made to us have not been kept.
"I want two or three traders that we asked for at the mouth of
Horse Creek in 1852. There was a treaty made, and the man who made
the treaty (alluding to General Mitchell), who performed that
service for the government, told the truth. The goods which have
been sent out to me have been stolen all along the road, and only a
handful would reach to go among my nation.
"Look at me here! I am poor and naked. I was not provided with
arms, and always wanted to be peaceful. The Great Spirit has raised
you to read and write, and has put papers before you; but he has
not raised me in that way. The men whom the President sends us are
soldiers, and all have no sense and no heart. I know it to-day. I
didn't ask that the whites should go through my country killing
game, and it is the Great Father's fault. You are the people who
should keep peace. For the railroads you are passing through my
country, I have not received even so much as a brass ring for the
land they occupy. [Nor even a shilling an acre for the lands taken
from the red men, he might have said.] I wish you to tell my Great
Father that the whites make all the ammunition. What is the reason
you don't give it to me? Are you afraid I am going to war? You are
great and powerful, and I am only a handful. I don't want it for
that purpose, but to kill game with. I suppose I must in time go to
farming, but I can't do it right away."
Secretary Cox promised that their complaints should be attended to by
the Great Father.
_Another Interview._
The Secretary made a speech, saying that some of the requests made by
the Indians concerning their rations and allowing them traders would be
acceded to, and that government would do all in its power to make them
happy. He announced that they had already received some presents in the
shape of blankets, etc., and would receive more in New York on their
way home. He repeated what the President said concerning Fort
Fetterman. It must remain. They would soon be started on their homeward
journey, which information was received by the Indians with
unmistakable signs of delight.
Red Cloud spoke in reply, evincing most certainly his dissatisfaction
at the determination of the government not to remove Fort Fetterman. He
said there was no necessity for its continuance, and its presence was a
useless burden and expense to the Great Father. He also took exceptions
against the roads running through his country, and intimated that if
trouble arose, it would be the fault of the Great Father.
Red Cloud made another speech, in which he said, "The troops in my
country are all fools, and the government is throwing away its money
for nothing. The officers there are all whisky-drinkers. The Great
Father sends out there the whisky-drinkers because he don't want them
around him here. I do not allow my nation or any white man to bring a
drop of liquor into my country. If he does, that is the last of him and
his liquor. Spotted Tail can drink as much as he pleases on the
Missouri River, and they can kill one another if they choose. I do not
hold myself responsible for what Spotted Tail does. When you buy
anything with my money, I want you to buy me what is useful. I do not
want city flour, rotten tobacco, and soldiers' old clothes dyed black,
such as you bought for Spotted Tail. I only tell you what is true. You
have had a great war, but after it was over you permitted the chiefs
who had been fighting to come back."
Secretary Cox explained the treaty of 1868 to the Indians, and said,
"The best way is to be friendly and deal honestly with each other. The
last treaty made provided for a railroad to be built. The Sioux agreed
not to disturb it, and that it should be built. Now, if the road
interferes with hunting, we will try to make good the damage by feeding
you. We mean that the government shall keep back white men from going
into the Indian country, as well as bad Indians from going into the
white country. This is what the troops are there for. If any of our
people at the forts do not do what is right, the President will punish
them and send better men in their places. The same treaty gives the
lines of the Indian country."
A map was produced, and the Secretary explained the boundaries fixed in
the treaty of 1868. Red Cloud looked on with great interest. He said he
was asked to sign the treaty merely to show that he was peaceable, and
not to grant their lands. He continued, saying, "This is the first time
I have heard of such a treaty, and I do not mean to follow it. I want
to know who was the interpreter who interpreted these things to the
Indians." The names of three were mentioned, and he said, "I know
nothing about it. It was never explained to me."
_Bear-in-the-Grass_ said, "The Great Spirit hears me to-day. I tell
nothing but what is true when I say these words of the treaty were not
explained. It was only said the treaty was for peace and friendship
among the whites. When we took hold of the pen they said they would
take the troops away so we could raise children."
Secretary Cox explained that the treaty was signed by more than two
hundred different Sioux of all the bands.
_Red Cloud_--"I do not say the Commissioners lied, but the interpreters
were wrong. I never heard a word only what was brought to my camp. When
the forts were removed, I came to make peace. You had your war houses.
When you removed them, I signed a treaty of peace. We want to
straighten things up."
_Secretary Cox._--"I have been very careful so that no mistake may be
made, and that our words should be as open as daylight, so we may
understand what binds the Sioux and ourselves: We are trying to get
Congress to carry out our promises, and we want the Indians to do their
part. We simply say that this is the agreement made as we remember. We
have copies printed. We will give one to Red Cloud so it can be
interpreted to him exactly what it is."
_Red Cloud_ said, "All the promises made in the treaty have never been
fulfilled. The object of the whites is to crush the Indians down to
nothing. The Great Spirit will judge these things hereafter. All the
words I sent never reached the Father. They are lost before they get
here. I am chief of the thirty-nine nations of Sioux. I will not take
the paper with me. It is all lies."
The Secretary distributed copies of the treaty to the interpreting
agents and traders present, and adjourned the council till next day, in
order that meantime the provisions of the treaty be explained to the
Indians.
_Final Interview._
They appeared to be much depressed, having reflected over the
proceedings of the day before. They reluctantly came to the meeting
next morning, the earnest persuasion of the interpreter, agent, and
traders having induced them to do so. They stated that their refusal to
attend might result to their injury. The night before Red Shirt was so
much depressed in spirits that he wanted to commit suicide, saying that
he might as well die here as elsewhere, as they had been swindled.
_Further Explanations._
Commissioner Parker opened the proceedings by saying the Indians were
asked to come up because it was thought they ought to have something to
say before they went home. Secretary Cox said to them he was very sorry
to find out that Red Cloud and his people have not understood what was
in the treaty of 1868; therefore he wanted him to come here, so that
all mistakes might be explained and be dismissed. It was important to
know exactly how matters stood. This government did not want to drive
them. The Secretary then explained, at some length, the provisions of
the treaty, the limits of the hunting-grounds, the reservation, etc. He
understood that Red Cloud and his band were unwilling to go on the
reservation, but wanted to live on the head-waters of the Big Cheyenne
River, northeast of Fort Fetterman. This was outside of the permanent
reservation, but inside the part reserved for hunting-ground. The
Secretary was willing to say, if that would please them, he would make
it so, and have their business agents there; this would still keep
white people off the hunting-ground. The government would give them
cattle and food and clothing, so as to make them happy in their new
home. The Secretary said he would write down the names of the men in
whom the Indians have confidence, and want for their agent and traders.
He desired to find out whether they were good men, and could be trusted
by the government. He was sorry the Indians felt bad on finding out
what was in the treaty; but the best way was to tell it all, so there
might not be any misunderstanding.
Red Cloud, having shaken hands with the Secretary and Commissioner
Parker, seated himself on the floor, and said:
"What I said to the Great Father, the President, is now in my mind.
I have only a few words to add this morning. I have become tired of
speaking. Yesterday, when I saw the treaty, and all the false
things in it, I was mad. I suppose it made you the same. The
Secretary explained it this morning, and now I am pleased. As to
the goods you talked about, I want what is 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 me. My hair is
straight. I was free born on this land. An interpreter who signed
the treaty has curly hair. He is no man. I will see him hereafter.
I know I have been wronged. The words of my Great Father never
reach me, and mine never reach him. There are too many streams
between us. The Great Spirit has raised me on wild game. I know he
has left enough to support my children for awhile. You have stolen
Denver from me. You never gave me anything for it. Some of our
people went there to engage in farming, and you sent your white
children and scattered them all away. Now I have only two mounds
left, and I want them for myself and people. There is treasure in
them. You have stolen mounds containing gold. I have for many years
lived with the men I want for my superintendent, agent, and
traders, and am well acquainted with them. I know they are men of
justice; they do what is right. If you appoint them, and any blame
comes, it will not be on you, but on me. I would be willing to let
you go upon our land when the time comes; but that would not be
until after the game is gone. I do not ask my Great Father to give
me anything. I came naked, and will go away naked. I want you to
tell my Great Father I have no further business. I want you to put
me on a straight line. I want to stop in St. Louis to see Robert
Campbell, an old friend." Red Cloud then pointed to a lady in the
room, saying, "Look at that woman. She was captured by Silver
Horn's party. I wish you to pay her what her captors owe her. I am
a man true to what I say, and want to keep my promise. The Indians
robbed that lady there, and through your influence I want her to be
paid."
Secretary Cox replied to Red Cloud that the treaty showed how the land
was to be paid for. They were to be given cattle, agricultural
instruments, seeds, houses, blacksmith-shops, teachers, etc., and food
and clothing. The land is good in two ways: one is to let the game grow
for the hunt; the other, to plow it up and get corn and wheat, and
other things out of it, and raise cattle on it. The reason why so many
white men live on their land is that they treat it in this way. He
would correct Red Cloud in a remark made by him. "The whites do not
expect to take their goods with them into the other world. We know as
well as the Indians do that we go out of the world as naked as when we
came into it; but while here in the world we take pleasure in building
great houses and towns, and make good bread to eat.
"We are trying to teach them to do the same things, so that they may be
as well off as we are. Here [pointing to Commissioner Parker] is the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who is a chief among us. He belonged to
a race who lived there long before the white man came to this country.
He now has power, and white people obey him, and he directs what shall
be done in very important business. We will be brethren to you in the
same way if you follow his good example and learn our civilization."
_Red Cloud_ responded, "I don't blame him for being a chief. He ought
to be one. We are all of one nation."
_Secretary Cox._--"Those Indians who become chiefs among us do so by
learning the white man's customs, and ceasing to be dependent as
children. I was glad to hear Red Cloud say he would not go away angry,
General Smith will see that you get good presents. But these are small
things compared with the arrangements that will be made to make you
prosperous and happy. Some of the Peace Commissioners will go to your
country to see that you are well treated. I do not want you to think
the days coming are black days. I want you to think they will be bright
and happy days. Be of good spirit. If you feel like a man who is lost
in the woods, we will guide you out of them to a pleasant place. You
will go home two days from now. One day will be spent by General Smith
in New York to get you the presents."
_Red Cloud_ replied, "I do not want to go that way. I want a straight
line. I have seen enough of towns. There are plenty of stores between
here and my home, and there is no occasion to go out of the way to buy
goods. I have no business in New York. I want to go back the way I
came. The whites are the same everywhere. I see them every day. As to
the improvement of the red men, I want to send them here delegates to
Congress."
Secretary Cox said he would be guided by General Smith as to the route
homeward. He was not particularly anxious the Indians should go to New
York. This ended the interview. The Indians shook hands with the
Secretary and Commissioner Parker, and then hurried from the room,
followed by the crowd of persons who had gathered at the door.
_Little Swan's Speech._
Little Swan, a Sioux chief, said to the President about the Indian
situation:
"What my Great Father asks for, peace, is all very well. If I had
my own way, it would be all right, and there would be no more
fighting; but I saw in the Congress, when I went there, on
Thursday, that all the big chiefs there did not agree very well. It
is the same with my young men. They are not all of one mind; but I
will do my best to make them of one mind, and to keep the peace. I
am a bad young man, too, and have made much trouble. I did not get
to be a big chief by good conduct, but because I was a great
fighter, like you, my Great Father."
These words were really delivered. The allusion to Congress and to the
President hit the nail on the head; at least, it is thought so.
_Spotted Tail in New York._
On the 14th of June, the four lords of the desert, Spotted Tail, Swift
Bear, Fast Bear, and Yellow Hair, had a busy day. They began in the
morning with a visit to the French frigate, Magicienne, where they were
received by Admiral Lefeber and his staff, and a salute was fired in
their honor. They were conducted to the admiral's state-room and
regaled upon cakes and champagne. The latter they enjoyed immensely,
but Captain Poole wisely limited them to one glass each, not desiring
to witness a scalping scene on his frigate. After this repast, the red
men were conducted all over the ship. The admiral then had one of the
fifteen-inch guns loaded with powder, and each one of the Indians
pulled the lanyard in turn. This was royal sport for the Indians, and
as each gun was fired they looked eagerly for the splash of the ball
which they thought was in the cannon. It was impossible to explain to
them that the gun was loaded with powder only, as when they visited the
Brooklyn navy-yard a shotted gun was fired for their especial
edification, and their delight was then to watch for the ball striking
the water.
After the visit to the frigate, the Indians returned to the Astor
House, where a crowd of five or six hundred people was assembled. The
private entrance on Vesey Street was besieged by an excited multitude
anxious to get a peep at the "red-skins," but they were disappointed,
as the stage drove up to the Barclay Street entrance.
Although they had been to a certain extent amused by what they have
seen in New York, still, they were all anxious to get back home.
Captain Poole says that the crowds which dogged their footsteps
wherever they went annoyed them considerably, and it is owing to this
that they have departed so abruptly. Many invitations were sent them,
including one from James Fisk, Jr., to visit his steamers, and one from
the officers of the turret ship Miantonomah. Spotted Tail, however,
declined to accept either, being tired of Eastern life. He also refused
to take a trip up the Hudson, saying that he and his brethren all
wanted to go home.
Before the Indians' departure from Washington, President Grant handed
four hundred dollars to Captain Poole, and directed that each chief
should choose presents to the value of one hundred dollars. They were
accordingly taken to an up-town store, where each filled a large trunk
with articles of various kinds. Combs, brushes, umbrellas, blankets,
and beads seemed particularly to please their fancy. Swift Bear wanted
to take about a dozen umbrellas, but was dissuaded from it by Captain
Poole.
They took a Pacific Railroad car on the Hudson River Railroad, at eight
o'clock in the evening.
_Red Cloud in New York._
Red Cloud changed his mind, and came on to New York to attend a great
meeting of friends of the red men, at Cooper Institute. On the evening
of June 16th, the party were treated to a grand reception, at which it
was supposed that no less than five thousand were present. Among other
things, Red Cloud said:
"I have tried to get from my Great Father what is right and just. I
have not altogether succeeded. I want you to believe with me, to
know with me, that which is right and just. I represent the whole
Sioux nation. They will be grieved by what I represent. I am no
Spotted Tail, who will say one thing one day, and be bought for a
fish the next. Look at me! I am poor, naked, but I am chief of a
nation. We do not ask for riches; we do not want much; but we want
our children properly trained and brought up. We look to you for
that. Riches here do no good. We cannot take them away with us out
of this world, but we want to have love and peace. The money, the
riches, that we have in this world, as Secretary Cox lately told
me, we cannot take these into the next world. If this is so, I
would like to know why the Commissioners who are sent out there do
nothing but rob to get the riches of this world away from us. I was
brought up among traders and those who came out there in the early
times. I had good times with them; they treated me mostly always
right; always well; they taught me to use clothes, to use tobacco,
to use fire-arms and ammunition. This was all very well until the
Great Father sent another kind of men out there,--men who drank
whisky; men who were so bad that the Great Father could not keep
them at home, so he sent them out there."
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