Father! I thank the Great Spirit for protecting us through the various
paths which we have trod since I was last at this place. As I am told
you are about to retire from public business, I have come to pay my last
address to you as the Great Chief of the Fifteen Fires, and am happy to
find that I have arrived here in time to address you once more as father,
and to advise with you on the business of our nation. You have always
told us that the land which we live upon is our own and that we may make
such use of it as we think most conducive to our own comfort, and the
happiness of posterity.
Father! I wish, whilst I am able to do business, to provide for the
rising generation. Our forefathers thought that their posterity would
pursue their tracks, and support themselves by their hunts, as they did
in the extensive forests given them by the Great Spirit, and by them
transmitted to us. But the great revolution among the white people in
this country has extended its influence to the people of my color. Turn
our faces which way we will, we find the white people cultivating the
ground which our forefathers hunted over, and the forests which furnished
them with plenty, now afford but a scanty subsistence for us, and our
young men are not safe in pursuing it. If a few years have made such a
change, what will be the situation of our children when those calamities
increase?
Father! To those points I wish to draw your attention, and once more to
have your candid and friendly advice on what will be the best for the
present race, and how we can best provide for posterity. Your people have
a different mode of living from ours; they have trades and they have
education, which enables them to take different pursuits, by which means
they maintain themselves, provide for their children and help each other.
Father! I am also told that your people have a strong place for their
money, where it is not only safe, but that it produces them each and
every year an increase without lessening the stock. If we should dispose
of part of our country and put our money with your's in that strong
place, will it be safe? Will it yield to our children the same advantages
after our heads are laid down as it will at present produce to us? Will
it be out of the reach of our foolish young men, so that they cannot
drink it up to the prejudice of our children?
Father! You know that some of our people are fond of strong drink, and I
am sorry to observe that your people are too apt to lay that temptation
before them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account