Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/52

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The Indian Dispossessed

heart is. Here in this land my father and mother and children have died. The father (priest) is the only one who straightens out my heart. That is why my heart is this way. I am getting old now, and I want to die where my father and mother and children have died. That is why I do not wish to leave this land and go off to some other land. I see the church there. I am glad to see it, and think I will stay beside it and die by the teaching of the Father. I see how I have sweat and worked in trying to get food. I see the flour-mill the Government has promised. I have gotten it. I see my friends. I like all that I have (the mills and lands). That is why I cannot go away from here. The President will see the record, and see what we poor old men have said in this council. What the whites have tried to show me I have tried to learn. It is not much, but I have fenced in a small piece of land and tried to raise grain on it. I am showing you my heart. I like my church, my mills, my farm, the graves of my parents and children, and I do not wish to leave my land. That is all my heart, and I show it to you."

"Pierre. I am going to make a short speech. I have only one heart, only one tongue. Although you say, 'Go to another country,' my heart is not that way. I do not wish for any money for my land. I am here, and here is where I am going to be. I think all these young men's hearts are like

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