St. Paul daily globe., 1889-07-22
SIOUX ORATORY.
Chief Calls Address to the Com
missioners at Standing ROCK.

Chief Calls Address to the Com
missioners at Standing Rock.
Yankee Blade.
The Sioux warrior is, perhaps, one OF
the noblest specimens .of dark brown
aboriginal depravity this side of the
realms Of the sweet by-and-by.
Clothed as he usually is, in the mYs-
tical splendor of wild turkey feathers
and pale red Ochre, he stands unr1valed
as living symbol of picturesque
treachery and cOpper-colored aSsaSSlna-
tion.
He has never read Emerson or Brown
ing, and his utteranceS are character
lied by clearness and vigor unobscure
by rhetorical flOuriShes, unhampered by
any vague philosophy from the Concord
school.
He speaks plainly and to the point,
using his own peculiar style of deadly
gesture, acquired in years of practice
with the scalping knife and whisky bot
tie.
At Standing Rock recently the COM
missiOnerS were compelled to witness
one of those strange flights of savage
elOquence that we read of in the history
of the mobile red man" of the defunct
and obscure past.
After spending two hours over the
government dinner, which was served
with Sioux trimmings, Chief Gall ap-
preached the commissioners with
"a step that none had known
But be was stepping to throne"
But there wasn't any throne there.
The government had forgotten to send
one.
1t was evident that the chief had
something to say, and that something
would not be in favor of the United
States. 1t is hard to treat with an Indian
after he has been filled up at your ex-
pense. If you ever have any business
to transact with LO don't put it off till
after dinner.
The Sioux stepped in front of the
commissioners, and, with a superb
gesture swept the remnants of baked
dog from his mouth and then Grated:
"Chief Pratt and pale-faced liars from
the East: You have come here to-day
to ask the red man to give you land,
but you will get left. You have kept
us here too long already. While you
have been telling what you are going
to do for us the weeds are growing in
our sorghum fields and pale blue chinch
bugs eating up our oats.
sin our land here, where the coyote
and the prairie dog make their home,
and the tenderfoot comes to look for
gold. you want to string your barbed-
wire fences and put up notices to keep
Off the Grass" but the red man loves
freedom-he needs it in his business
he needs it more than he needs civiliza-
tiOn and advice.
"YOu come among us and get our land,
and when we go away we have nothing
left but regrets and an appetite for
strong drink.
"Go back to your people and tell
them that the red man is onto their
racket-that he has quit doing business
on the William Penn system.
''You ask us to wash off our war paint
and cultivate the acquaintance of civil
iZation, the Jersey COW and the real
estate agent--to exchange our tOma-
hawks and Scalping knives for cigars
and lawn mowers, and our cremating
stake for peanut rOaster; but
the Sioux warrior says No.
He knows his business, and il
the paleface attempts to come here, to
acquire his land, he will forsake the do
mestic felicity of his fireside, and own
those plains, where, in days gone by,
he has chased the buffalo and the regu-
lar soldier; he will 90 forth in search of
gore, and again display to the white
man that shifting panorama of abb
original felicity and lurid aspect of Cir
caSsian war-Wahr
He was then led away, and Man.
Afraid-of-His-Wiyes a dark, maroon
cOlored warrior, with one suspender
and four wives, took the stand to cham.
plOn the dropping cause of the United
States.