Year: 1870

AT the Indian council recently held in
| Washington, Secretary Cox addressed


the red men, impressing upon them the
desire of the Government for peace, and


promising to protect them in all their


rights if they ceased to make war on the


settlers. Red Cloud spoke in reply. He


said:


Il came from where the sun sets.


You were raised on chairs. / want to


sit as | sit where the sun sets. Here the


Indian warrior sat upon the floor, in In


dian fashion, and proceeded. The Great


Spirit has raised me in this way. He


raised me naked. run no opposition


to the Great Father who sits in the White


House. l don't want to fight. I have


offered my prayer to the Great Father


so that | might come here safe and we'll


What | have to say to you, and to these


men and to my Great Father is this :


Look at me. was raised where the sun
rises, and l come from where he sets.
Whose voice was first heard in this land?


It was the red people who used the bow.
The Great Father may be good and
kind, but l can't see it. am good and
kind to the 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
they haveleft 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 spring when summer
is coming. l 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 to my home The white
people have sprinkled bloOdon the blades
Ofgrass around 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 trouble. / have
got two mountains in that country
Black Hill and Big Horn. I want no
roads there. There have been stakes
driven in that country, and want them



l have told these things three times,
and l now have come here to tell them
for the fourth time. l have made up my
mind to talk that way. | don't want
my reservation on the Missouri. Some
of these people here are from there, and
| know what l say. What hear is 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.
My father and mother told me that the
land there belonged to me. From the
North to the West the red nation has
come into the Great Fathers 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. want two
or three traders that we ask for.


At the mouth of the 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 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 among my nation. Look at
me. Here am poor and naked. l was
not raised with arms. I always want to
be peaceable. The Great Spirit has
raised you to read and write, and has
put papers before you but he has not
raised me in that style. The men whom
the President sends US, soldiers and all,
have no sense and no heart. | know it
to-day. l didn't ask that the whites
should go through my country killing


dA4lCy anu IL ID LlAC NItNell dIlACA > lduAL
You are the people who should keep
peace. For the railroads you are pass
ing through my country have not re-
ceived even SO much as brass ring for
the land they occupy. l wish you to tell
hat to my Great Father. You whites |
make all the ammunition. What is the |
reason you don't give it to me Are you
afraid l am going to war You are great |
and powerful, and I am only handful. |
do not want it for that purpose, but to
Kill game with. suppose l must, in
inle. go to farming, but can't do it |
right away.