“My friends, I am sorry that you have mistaken us so much, and the
object of our visit to your country. We are not officers—we are not
sent by any one—we are two poor men travelling to see the Sioux and
shake hands with them, and examine what is curious or interesting
in their country. This man who is with me is my friend; he is a
_Sa-ga-nosh_ (an Englishman).
(‘How! how! how!’)
(All rising and shaking hands with him, and a number of them taking out
and showing British medals which were carried in their bosoms.)
“We have heard that the Red Pipe Quarry was a great curiosity, and we
have started to go to it, and we will not be stopped.” (Here I was
interrupted by a grim and black-visaged fellow, who shook his long
shaggy locks as he rose, with his sunken eyes fixed in direst hatred on
me, and his fist brandished within an inch of my face.)
“_Pale faces!_ you cannot speak till we have all done; you are our
_prisoners_—our young men (our soldiers) are about the house, and you
must listen to what we have to say. What has been said to you is true,
you must go back. (‘How! how!’)
“We heard the word _Saganosh_, and it makes our hearts glad; we
shook hand with our brother—his father is our father—he is our Great
Father—he lives across the big lake—his son is here, and we are glad—we
wear our Great Father the sag-a-nosh on our bosoms, and we keep his
face bright[29]—we shake hands, but no white man has been to the red
pipe and none shall go. (‘How!’)
“You see (holding a red pipe to the side of his naked arm) that this
pipe is a part of our flesh. The red men are a part of the red stone.
(‘How, how!’)
“If the white men take away a piece of the red pipe stone, it is a hole
made in our flesh, and the blood will always run. We cannot stop the
blood from running. (‘How, how!’)
“The Great Spirit has told us that the red stone is only to be used for
pipes, and through them we are to smoke to him. (‘How!’)
“Why do the white men want to get there? You have no good object in
view; we know you have none, and the sooner you go back, the better.”
(“How, how!”)
_Muz-za_ (the iron) spoke next.
“My friends, we do not wish to harm you; you have heard the words of
our chief men, and you now see that you must go back. (‘How, how!’)
“_Tchan-dee-pah-sha-kah-free_ (the red pipe stone) was given to us
by the Great Spirit, and no one need ask the price of it, for it is
_medicine_. (‘How, how!’)
“My friends, I believe what you have told us; I think your intentions
are good; but our chiefs have always told us, that no white man was
allowed to go there—and you cannot go.” (“How, how!”)
_Another._—“My friends, you see I am a young man; you see on my
war-club two scalps from my enemies’ heads; my hands have been dipped
in blood, but I am a good man. I am a friend to the whites, to the
traders; and they are your friends. I bring them 3000 muskrat skins
every year, which I catch in my own traps. (‘How, how!’)
“We love to go to the Pipe Stone, and get a piece for our pipes; but we
ask the Great Spirit first. If the white men go to it, they will take
it out, and not fill up the holes again, and the Great Spirit will be
offended.” (“How, how, how!”)
_Another._—“My friends, listen to me! what I am to say will be the
truth.—(‘How!’)
“I brought a large piece of the pipe stone, and gave it to a white man
to make a pipe; he was our trader, and I wished him to have a good
pipe. The next time I went to his store, I was unhappy when I saw that
stone made into a dish! (‘Eugh!’)
“This is the way the white men would use the red pipe stone, if they
could get it. Such conduct would offend the Great Spirit, and make a
red man’s heart sick. (‘How, how!’)
“_Brothers_, we do not wish to harm you—if you turn about and go back,
you will be well, both you and your _horses_—you cannot go forward.
(‘How, how!’)
“We know that if you go to the pipe stone, the Great Spirit looks upon
you—the white people do not think of that. (‘How, how!’)
“I have no more to say.”
These, and a dozen other speeches to the same effect, having been
pronounced, I replied in the following manner:
“_My friends_, you have entirely mistaken us; we are no officers, nor
are we sent by any one—the white men do not want the red pipe—it is not
worth their carrying home so far, if you were to give it all to them.
Another thing, they don’t use pipes—they don’t know how to smoke them.
‘How, how!’
“_My friends_, I think as you do, that the Great Spirit has given that
place to the red men for their pipes.
‘How, how, how!’
“I give you great credit for the course you are taking to preserve and
protect it; and I will do as much as any man to keep white men from
taking it away from you.
‘How, how!’
“But we have started to go and see it; and we cannot think of being
stopped.”