American fiction -- 19th century; Historical fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction
“Bourdon, you are a pale-face, and I am an Injin. You are strong, and
I am weak. This is because the Son of the Great Spirit has talked with
your people, and has not talked with mine. I now see why the pale-faces
overrun the earth and take the hunting-grounds. They know most, and have
been told to come here, and to tell what they know to the poor ignorant
Injins. I hope my people will listen. What the Son of the Great Spirit
says must be true. He does not know how to do wrong.
“Bourdon, once it seemed sweet to me to take the scalps of my enemies.
When an Injin did me harm, I took his scalp. This was my way. I could
not help it, then. The Wicked Spirit told me to do this. The Son of the
Manitou has now told me better. I have lived under a cloud. The breath
of the dying medicine-priest of your people has blown away that cloud.
I see clearer. I hear him telling the Manitou to do me good, though
I wanted his scalp. He was answered in my heart. Then my ears opened
wider, and I heard what the Good Spirit whispered. The ear in which the
Bad Spirit had been talking for twenty winters shut, and was deaf. I
hear him no more. I do not want to hear him again. The whisper of the
Son of the Manitou is very pleasant to me. It sounds like the wren
singing his sweetest song. I hope he will always whisper so. My ear
shall never again be shut to his words.
“Bourdon, it is pleasant to me to look forward. It is not pleasant to me
to look back. I see how many things I have done in one way, that ought
to have been done in another way. I feel sorry, and wish it had not been
so. Then I hear the Son of the Manitou asking His Father, who liveth
above the clouds, to do good to the Jews who took his life. I do not
think Injins are Jews. In this, my brother was wrong. It was his own
notion, and it is easy for a man to think wrong. It is not so with the
Son of the Manitou. He thinketh always as His Father thinketh, which is
right.
“Bourdon, I am no longer Peter--I must be another Injin. I do not feel
the same. A scalp is a terrible thing in my eyes--I wish never to take
another--never to see another--a scalp is a bad thing. I now LOVE the
Yankees. I wish to do them good, and not to do them harm. I love
most the Great Spirit, that let his own Son die for all men. The
medicine-priest said he died for Injins, as well as for pale-faces. This
we did not know, or we should have talked of him more in our traditions.
We love to talk of good acts. But we are such ignorant Injins! The Son
of the Manitou will have pity on us, and tell us oftener what we ought
to do. In time, we shall learn. Now, I feel like a child: I hope I shall
one day be a man.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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