wagons, and a thousand machines that I know not the use of. I see that you are able to clothe yourselves even from weeds and grass: in short, you can do almost what you choose. You whites have the power of subduing almost every animal to your use. But you are surrounded by slaves: everything about you is in chains, and you are slaves yourselves. I fear if I should exchange my pursuits for yours I too should become a slave. Talk to my sons: perhaps they may be persuaded to adopt your fashions, or at least recommend them to their sons; but for myself I was born free, was reared free, and wish to die free.”[1]
The chief of the Pawnees, in a council at Washington in
1822, said: —
“My Great Father [the President]! The Great Spirit made us
all; he made my skin red and yours white; he placed us on this
earth, and intended we should live differently from each other.
He made the whites to cultivate the earth and feed on domestic
animals; but he made us to rove through the uncultivated woods
and plains, to feed on wild animals, and to dress with their skins.
He also intended that we should go to war, to take scalps, to plunder
horses from and triumph over our enemies, to cultivate peace at
home, and promote the happiness of each other.”
He frankly added that he did not wish “good people,”
i. e. missionaries, sent among them to change their habits
and make them live and work like white people. They
preferred much their own wild freedom and customs, and
having lived so long without what the white man called
“work,” preferred to continue so, till at least the game
became extinct, and life became so precarious that they
might be compelled to admit the “good people” among
them. In the mean time they would hunt the buffalo, the
beaver, deer, and other wild animals, and gladly barter for
them with the whites; but they did not wish to “follow the
white man's road.” These strong pleadings for a life
conformed to the free air and scenes and habits of Nature by
no means fail of responsive yearnings not only from those
- ↑ Morse's Report, Appendix.
