Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-04

1
| filled by my telling it to YOU
| He was SILENT again for a long time. and
| began to thinR that he would say nothing
| further on the subject. but at last he said:
That which is to be will be. Man was
! bern only to die. No man lives forever.
Why, then, should l. fear thak which fear
VIII not drive AWAIT 1t was many years
| ago, when the earth was new and mys-
ferrous beings Inhabited the air and rode
upon the wind. and mighty rocks with hui
man voice, held conversation with man.
t n.no. Even the great Lakota nation at
! that time was in its youth, and in those
Gays they heard the words of the Great
Mystery, and they prospered and became
| great nation. It was then that the voice
Oh rock was heard saying: Listen, o We
| who are called Lakota; open your ears
that We may hear my voice Forget not the
| words or wisdom spoken unto you by the
ancient fathers; cease not to instruct the
youth III ali tnlngS that were intruSted unto
you' let the young men sit in silence and
give respectful attention to the words of
.ne ola men of the nation; let not your
youEs women go about with their faces
lifted up to the tree tops, rather let their
eyes look In modesty upon the ground, and
~ the presence of young men let them hide
| me tt,eir races from view lest they set fire
.ue hearts OF the young men to their own
uhoolhg And unto the strong ones of the
La'lon say: Hearken unto my voice and
,et my words rest in your hearts: shut not
your eyes upon the aged and infirm, and
er'se no, your ears that We hear not the
cry Oh the fatherless child for the Great
Mystery has given these feeble ones into
ny ny care, shlrk not thy duty and thou shalt
- Out DAY shall come when Lakota
snai no longer remember the words of
MiSooIn spoken unto them by the ancient
aa.ners. IN that day there shall come
ceiVe you with soft words and strange d..
wees; But De courageous, oh, Lakota and
tre1nble hot with fear, for there shall sit
1 nie IN your midst in that day who shall be
IKE unto strong bull and all Jakota
sinai! be gathered unto him as the con
quering bull gathereth the herd; SO shall he
sit IN the midst Of his people. But woe
ha an toIioW mat day when the Fish shall
near the words of this prophecy from the
mouth of the Sitting Bull" The ola
proPnet paused for a moment, and then
Tieb. - VI, ~ is possible that you are the
ho'a Is at hand. hope not
Opposed to rrcntfes.
I had listened with careful atten,io, -
all that he had said. and IT nuzgIed ,ra
not a little. Was this really an ancient
prophecy so strangely coincidental with
present facts, or was that part of the
prophecy which referred to the Fish an
ti,'erpoiatlon introduced by Sitting RulI
Ioi some purpose known only to himself?
10 aa1e ,i l inquired concerning the matter
OF Black Moon. Four Horns and other oil
chiefs, each of whom confirmed Sitting
Duh version of the prophecy
e a!,er lew moments passed in silent re-
nection 1 asked the old prophet why he
was opposed to making a treaty of De,no
with the white men As was aIwavs biS
custom, he weighed the question carefully
n9iofe he answered. At length he said;
sdnes ause treaty of peace has always
II the white man was sincere in his pro
fesslon of a desire for peace his desire is
aifeady accomplished without the mockerv
OF treaty OF peace. The only condition
required 1s that he stay in his own COIN
try, where, Though he live thousand
years, ne viii never hear the whir of an
indian arrow nor the report of an Indian
iHie' Let MN stay away from my coun-
try and he has peace already. l am on
pcsed to treaties of peace because they
mean only that the white man shall take
reaceful possession of the Indians in
herltance. while the Indians become mis-
cradle beggars In the lend of their faith
ers Beggars! worse than beggars! de-
oased remnants of once proud race, trad
ms IN the virtue, of their wives and daugh-
ttrs that they may receive a pittance of
moidy Hour or damaged bacon from the
hand OF the man who is growing rich on a
treaty of peace.
There is no thing more precious than
the ground we walk upon. Out of the
ground proceed all things necessary for
the life of man Do we want food? Out
OF the ground cometh all kinds OF Juicy
fat meats. Are We thirsty? The ground is
reservoir from which we take up water
and crink. Are. we naked? From the
81 ound we receive the warm fur of the
buffalo, the beaver and the mink, and
from out OF the ground we get the skin of
the deer, the antelope and the elk. And
the ground Is beautiful to look upon, and,
Ike loving mother, invites her weary
children to lie down and rest on ner broad
bosom, and when we die we 20 down to
the ground which first gave us birth
Yes, the ground is precious above all
things. Then ask not again why am OPP
pc sed to treaties of peace l love INV ma
tive lard, ard would preserve all of Il
Tor my people. Is my land better than the
u n m 10 hat flnx,
their own to harass me for the little 1
have left for my people? No. But they
would you'd. rob my people Of the land their
them. But he added, Il suppose it is 70
be; we can but perish
The Custer Battle
I asked him to tell me about the Custer
battle, and after long silence he said
L know very little about that battle; it
was all so sudden, SO unexpected, and so
quickly finished, that l had not time to
realize what was happening until 1t was all
over and we were hurrying around the base
OF the Big Horn mountains in our fight
toward the north We were not on the
warpath we were living peacefully in our
own country, We were not seeking the life
OF any man, our wives and our little ones
were with us in the village, with no thought
of impending danger, and our ponies were
grazing untethered in the hills. We were
in the full enjoyment of that peace which
the white man loves so well to talk about.
1t Is true that visitors in our village from
Red Cloud had seen soldiers in the Indian
country away to the south, and Rain-in-
the-F'ace, with other warriors, had gone in
that direction to watch them, but no alarm
was felt. Why should we apprehend dan
ger? We were invading mans country,
we were waging war against no nation.
Our camp widely scattered up and
down the west bank of the Little Big Horn
river SO widely were scattered that an
alarm beginning at any given point would
not become general for good while. Thus
it happened that though an alarm vas
given at two different points, it did not
reach the main village until the soldiers
had crossed the river and began firing into
the tepees at the upper end of the camp.
By the first volley they wounded one old
man and killed a pregnant woman, de-
stroying with one bullet two innocent lives
They did not tell us that they came there
to make treaty of peace. They Aid not
ask us whether or not We wanted to make
peace, or II we wanted to fight or run
away. They asked no questions whatever,
but simply began shooting down our wives
and little ones. Under these circumstances
what should we do? Well, Indians are after
all only men, and being taken so complete
ly by surprise, and not knowing the num-
Der of the attacking force, we fled pre-