Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/48

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The Indian Dispossessed

they have marked out for me. Now, my friend, when I came here, I saw the white man's fences and how they were made, and I went to work. Ever since that I have worked hard. I am an old man; I have worked till the sweat rolled off me to get food for my children; that is the reason for what I have to say now. . . . I do not wish you, my friend, to have bad feelings at what I have said. The President, when he sees what is written, will see what his children have said, and then he will think in his heart that his children (the Indians) love their country. My friend, I tell you again, I love my country; I want to raise my children, and also raise provisions for them on it. That is why I don't want any white man to come and live inside the reservation. That is what Governor Palmer and Governor Stevens told us, that no white man shall go and live inside our reservation. Now, my friend, you have heard what I have said about my land, and that is why I want to stay here; I cannot find any other country outside; my friend, the white man, has occupied the whole country. I see the whites travelling through the country on all sides, but I stay here on these lands that they promised me I should keep."

The Superintendent responded with another long talk about the places to which the Indians might go. He talked so long that Hom-li ended his speech the next day with the remark: "You make speeches

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