They are a great people.
"A red-skin warrior is nothing but a warrior; he is strong, but he is
poor; he is not a wood-chunk, nor a badger, nor a prairie dog; he cannot
dig the ground; he is a warrior, and nothing more. I have spoken."
Of course the tenor of this speech was too much in harmony with Indian
ideas not to be received with admiration. The old man took his seat,
while another rose to speak in his turn.
"The great chief hath spoken; his hair is white like the down of the
swan; his winters have been many; he is wise; why should I speak after
him, his words were true? The Manitou touched my ears and my eyes when
he spoke (and he spoke like a warrior); I heard his war-cry, I saw the
Umbiquas running in the swamps, and crawling like black snakes under the
bushes. I spied thirty scalps on his belt, his leggings and mocassins
were sewn with the hair of the Wallah Wallahs[1].
[Footnote 1: Indians living on the Columbian river, two hundred miles
above Fort Vancouver, allied to the Nez Perces, and great supporters of
the Americans.]
"I should not speak; I am young yet and have no wisdom; my words are
few, I should not speak. But in my vision I heard a spirit, it came upon
the breeze, it entered within me.
"Nanawa is my father, the father to all, he loves us, we are his
children; he has brought with him a great warrior of the pale faces, who
was a mighty chief in his tribe; he has given us a young chief who is a
great hunter; in a few years he will be a great warrior, and lead our
young men in the war-path on the plains of the Wachinangoes[2], for
Owato Wanisha[3] is a Shoshone, though his skin is paler than the
flower of the magnolia.
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