I have spoken."
All the Indians acknowledged that the talk was good and full of wisdom:
but they were too proud to work. An old chief answered for the
whole tribe.
"Nanawa Ashta is a great chief: he is a brave! The Manitou speaks softly
to his ears, and tells him the secret which makes the heart of a warrior
big or small; but Nanawa has a pale face--his blood is a strange blood,
although his heart is ever with his red friends. It is only the white
Manitou that speaks to him, and how could the white Manitou know the
nature of the Indians? He has not made them; he don't call them to him;
he gives them nothing; he leaves them poor and wretched; he keeps all
for the pale faces.
"It is right he should do so. The panther will not feed the young of the
deer, nor will the hawk sit upon the eggs of the dove. It is life, it is
order, it is nature. Each has his own to provide for and no more. Indian
corn is good; tobacco is good, it gladdens the heart of the old men when
they are in sorrow; tobacco is the present of chiefs to chiefs. The
calumet speaks of war and death; it discourses also of peace and
friendship. The Manitou made the tobacco expressly for man--it is good.
"But corn and tobacco must be taken from the earth; they must be watched
for many moons, and nursed like children.
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