Year: 1879

NO One Has Explained to Him-ITis


Heart Made Sick by Broken Promises.


Chief Joseph, headed by the Nez
Perces Indians, whose gallant fight
against overwhelming odds last year is
still alive in public memory, has an arti-
Gle in the North american ReUieU, in
which he argues his case with terse and
simple elOquence. Following is an ex-
tract:


/ have seen the great father (the Presi-
dent), the next great chief (secretary of
the interior), the commissioner chief
(Hayt), the law chief General Butler),
and many other law chiefs Congress
men), and they all say they are my
friends, and that I shall have Justice,
but while their mouths talk all
right do not understand why nothing
is done for my people. l have heard
talk and talk, but nothing is done.
Good words do not last long unless they
amount to something. Words do not
pay for my dead people. They do not
pay for my country, now overrun by
white men. They do not protect my
fathers grave. They do not pay for al
my horses and cattle. Good words will
not give me back my children. Good
words will not make good the promise
of your war chief, General Miles Good
words will not give my people good
health and stop them from dying.
Good words will not get my people
home where they can live in peace and
take care of themselves. l am tired of
talk that comes to nothing. 1t makes
my heart sick when l remember all the
good words and all the broken promises.
There has been too much talking by men
who had no right to talk. Too many
haxya hao1o v,,oIa too
many misunderstanding have come up
between the white men about the Indi-
ans. If the white man wants to live in
peace with the Indian he can live in
peace. There need be no trouble. Treat
all men alike. Give them all the same
law. Give them all an even chance to
live and grow. All men were made by
the same Great Spirit Chief. They are
all brothers. The earth is the mother
of all people, all people should have
equal rights upon it. You might as well
expect the rivers to run backward as
that any man who was born free man
should be contented when penned up and
denied liberty to go where he pleases.
If you tie horse to a stake, do you eX-
pect he will grow fat? If you pen an
Indian up on a small spot of earth. and
compel him to stay there, he will not be
contented nor will he grow and prosper. /
have asked some of the great white chiefs
where they get their authority to say to
the Indian that he shall stay in one
place, while he sees white men going
where they please. They cannot tell
me.


l only ask of the government to be
treated as all other men are treated. If
| cannot go to my own home, let me
have a home in some country where my
people will not die so fast. | would like
to go to Bitter Root valley. There my
people would be healthy; where they
are now they are dying. Three have
died since | left my camp to come to
Washington.


When I think of our condition my
heart is heavy. / see men of my race
treated as outlaws and driven from coun-
try to country, or shot down like ami
mails.


l know that my race must change.
We cannot hold our own with the white
men as we are. We only ask an even
chance to live as other men live. We
ask to be recognized as men. We ask
all men. If the Indian breaks the law,
punish him by the law. If the white
man breaks the law, punish him also.


Let me be a free man-free to travel,
free to stop, free to work, free to trade
where l choose, free to choose my own
teachers, free to follow the religion of
my fathers, free to think and talk and
act for myself-and | will obey every
law, or submit to the penalty.


Whenever the white man treats the
Indian as they treat each other, then we
will have no more wars. We shall be
alike-brothers of one father and one
with one sky above us and one
country around us and one government
for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief
who rules above will smile upon this
land, and send rain to wash out the
bloody spots made by brothers hands
from the face of the earth. For this
time the Indian race are waiting and
praying. / hope that no more groans of
wounded men and women will ever go
to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief above,
and that all people may be one people.
In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat has spoken for
his people.