All
else is gone. I have heard old men say that, in time, even these
bones are not to be found. It is so with trees; it may be so with
men. But it is not so with hunting-grounds. They were made to last
forever.
"Brothers, you know why we have come together on this prairie. It
was to count the pale-faces, and to think of the way of making their
number less. Now is a good time for such a thing. They have dug up
the hatchet against each other, and when we hear of scalps taken
among them, it is good for the red men. I do not think our Canada
father is more our friend than the great Yankee, Uncle Sam. It is
true, he gives us more powder, and blankets, and tomahawks, and
rifles than the Yankee, but it is to get us to fight his battles. We
will fight his battles. They are our battles, too. For this reason
we will fight his enemies.
"Brothers, it is time to think of our children. A wise chief once
told me how many winters it is since a pale-face was first seen
among red men. It was not a great while ago. Injins are living who
have seen Injins, whose own fathers saw the first pale-faces. They
were few. They were like little children, then; but now they are
grown to be men.
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