this country. * * * You have got ears, and you have got eyes to see with them, and you see how I live with these people. You see me. Here I am. If you think I am a fool, you are a bigger fool than I am. This house is a medicine house. You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. I don’t wish any such language used to me—that is, to tell me lies in my Great Mother's house. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people. See these people here. We were raised with them” (again shaking hands with the British officers). “That is enough, so no more. * * * The part of the country you gave me you ran me out of. * * * I wish you to go back, and to take it easy going back.”
The-one-that-runs-the-Ree, a Santee chief, said: “You didn’t treat us well, and I don't like you at all. * * * I will be at peace with these people as long as I live. This country is ours. We did not give it to you. You stole it away from us. You have come over here to tell us lies, and I don’t propose to talk much, and that is all I have to say. I want you to take it easy going home. Don't go in a rush.”
Nine, a Yankton, said: “Sixty-four years ago you got our country, and you promised to take good care of us and keep us. You ran from one place to another killing us and fighting us. * * * You did not treat us right over there, so we came back over here. * * * I come in to these people here, and they give me permission to trade with the traders. That is the way I make my living. Everything I get I buy from the traders. I don’t steal anything. * * * I am going to live with these people here.”
So profound a contempt did the Indians feel for this commission that they allowed a squaw to address it.
A squaw, named The-one-that-speaks-once, wife of The-man-that-scatters-the-bear, said: “I was over at your country. I wanted to raise my children there, but you did not give me any time. I came over to this country to raise my children, and have a little peace” (shaking hands with the British officers); “that is all I have to say to you, I want you to go back where you came from. These are the people that I am going to stay with and raise my children with.”
The Indians having risen, being apparently about to leave the room, the interpreter was directed to ask the following questions: “Shall I say to the President that you refuse the offers that he has made to you? Are we to understand that you refuse those offers?” Sitting Bull answered: “I could tell you more, but that
