Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-06-10
AN INDIAN COUNCIL.
Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and other
Indian Delegates I'm Grand COun-
cil-Red Clouds sSpeech-lIeW Wants
to RecIine where the Sun Sets.
WASHINGTON. JUNO Z. ls1

WASHINGTON, June 7, 1870.
| The Secretary of the Interior, Com
missioner Parker, General Smith, and
Messrs. Colyer and Brunei met Red Cloud
and the other Indian delegates to-day in
grand council The Indians were rugged
out in their full 6nery and seemed to be
impressed with the Importance Of the
council. Secretary Cox made a long ad-
dress to the Indians in behalf Of the
President, assuring them that if they
would 90 to their reservations and keep
the peace, all the rations and goods
promised would be sent by the Govern
ment, and an agent sent to them to see
that they got everything. In regard to
giving them arms and ammunition, the
Secretary said that they would not be
given to them at present, but, after they
have kept themselves peaceably on the
reservations for time, these would be
furnished, ..,.~a
SPEECH OF RED CLOUD.
After Secretary Cox's speech, Red
Cloud shook hands with those at the
table in the council room, and deliv-
cred the following grafton:
came from where the sun sets. You
were raised on chairs. | want to set
where the sun sets. Here the Indian
warrior sat down upon the floor, Indian
fashion, and proceeded.] The Great
Spirit has raised me this way. He raised
me naked Irun no opposition to the
Great Father who sits in the White
House. | don't want to fight. | have
offered my prayer to the Great Father,
so that might come here safe and well.
What / have to say to you and these
men, and to my Great Father, is this:
Look at me. was raised where the sun
rises, and / come from where he sets.
Whose voice was first heard in the land2
1t was the red people who raised the bow,
The Great Father may be very good and
kind, but can't see it. | 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 is
land. Our nation is melting away like
snow on the sides of the hill where the
sun is warm; while your people are like
the blades of grass in spring, when the
summer is coming. | don't want to see
the white people making roads in our
country. Now that / have come into
my Great Fathers land, see if have
any blood when | 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; then we will live peace
ful and there will be no more troubles
have got two mountains in that coun-
try-Black Hill and Big Horn. l want
no roads there. There have been stakes
driven in that country, and | want them
removed have told these things three
times, and now have come here to tell
them for the fourth time. have made
up my mind to talk that way | don't
want any reservation. On the Missouri,
the home of these people, i hear that my
children and old men are dying off like
sheep. The country don't suit them.
was born at the forks of the Platte,
and 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 hoese. We
are the last of the 0gallallas We have
come to know the facts from our Father
why the promises which have been made
to us have not been kept. 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 J
made the treaty [alluding to General
Mitchell, who performed thatservice for
the Government told me the truth. /
Goods which have been sent out to me |
have been stolen all along the road, and |
only handful would reach me to go 4
among my nation.
Look at me here. ] am poor and naked. /
/ was not raised with arms ! always |
want to be quiet and rpeaceables The /
Great Spirit las 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, sol
diers and all, have no sense aud no
heart / know it to-day. didn't
ask that whites should go through
my country killing game, and it is the
Great Fathers fault. You are the peo-
pie who should keep peace For the
railroads you are passing through my
country l have not 1even received so
much as brass ring for the land they /