Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical SketchDenig, Edwin Thompson
History
Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri: Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch
Denig, Edwin Thompson
Assiniboine Indians; Indians of North America -- Missouri River Valley
Amidst all this clamor and disturbance the chief stood firm and, being
supported in office by the fort, all hostile demonstrations were for
the time averted. At this juncture, in January, 1853, Mr. Culbertson
arrived from St. Louis with orders from the superintendent to supply
the amount due the Indians as per treaty from the merchandise of the
fur company in this country. The nation therefore being called together
and placed in order in the interior of the fort, the goods as per
invoice laid in front of them, the Crazy Bear rose and said:
“My children and friends: The clouds that have hitherto obscured the
sky are brushed away and a fine day appears before you. The time has
arrived when all the turbulent and discontented must be convinced that
the whites have but one tongue; that our great father, the President,
is rich and powerful. But a few days since most of you were violent
in your reproaches against myself and the whites. If you have any
more abuse left, heap it on now, disburden your hearts at once of all
complaint, make the pile of your abuse as large as the pile of goods
before you. The whites have kept their word and your heads should hang
in shame.
“When you were invited to the treaty you were afraid to go, some to
leave their wives, others their children, others to cross the warpath
of the Blackfeet. I went. I appeared among nations in your name and am
the cause of the present smiling pile of goods being laid before you.
“When I returned from the treaty after an absence of three moons and
repeated to you the words of our Great Father, what was my reception?
How was I listened to? When, by some accident the goods promised did
not arrive, how did you act? What now do you think of yourselves?
“I hold in my hands the words of our Great Father. They are scored
on my heart, were poured into my ears, did not run out, and now is
the most fitting time to repeat what I have so often told you without
being believed. Your Great Father does not want your lands; he seeks
your welfare. You are a few poor miserable beings; he is rich, his
people are numerous as the leaves of the cottonwood. He desires to
stop the bloody wars heretofore existing between Indian tribes, to
make all one people, to enable all to hunt and visit together in peace
and friendship. He wishes you to refrain from all depredations on
whites, respect your chief as a chief, and listen to his words. For
this he sends you these presents which will be repeated every year for
15 years, unless by your misconduct you incur his displeasure. I have
heard the words; they are true. I have seen his soldiers and know he
has the power to punish those who have no ears.
“A great deal of what you do and say is foolishness, the work and talk
of children, not of men. Last fall in despite, you raised war parties,
made threats against myself and the whites, gave me trouble. You now
see the rashness of your proceedings. Who gives you these goods?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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