“The greatest event in my life, leaving behind the story that I have told,
is to be found at the time the Indians received allotments of land, and
were given a home so they could not roam around; and above all, the time
when I found religion and became a Christian. I was baptized and
confirmed in the Episcopal Church. I married my wife under the holy bonds
of matrimony, and am trying to live an upright life. In the roaming life,
I fought, I took many scalps, and killed many Indians. Now, put alongside
of that the fact that I live in my own home, own my land, have my own
family, and am a church member. I like the last life better than the
first. In the former life while we lived to ourselves, we were always
fighting; in the life now we have peace. The one thing now that is
killing me off is our mode of life. There is too much confinement;
instead of fighting the enemy, I am fighting disease. The white people
know about everything, but if they can kill that foul disease,
consumption, I shall feel very thankful. As I told you before, I think of
the buffalo time, the meat, and the hides, and the desire for it seems
almost like a disease, and this is especially true with the old men.”
When asked about his belief concerning the Indian’s hereafter, before he
became a Christian, he replied: “There was no definite Supreme Being that
we believed in. There were a great many gods that we had faith in. I
prayed to my own god; then we all heard that after we died we would meet
in some good country where we would all be happy. No matter if we had
lots of gods, we would all meet in that country. Now, while I cannot read
the Bible, nor can I understand the Bible, yet we have preachers in our
own language and they tell us that there is one God, and also His Holy
Son, and we shall all meet in heaven, and I believe in that. A great many
of the Sioux are followers like I am, but like a great many other people,
there are many who do one thing and feel another. In the old days the sun
was my god, the sun was my fathef’s god, and I then thought the sun was my
father and the earth was my mother. I sang and danced to the sun; I have
my breast and arms tattooed with the sun, and I pierced my body through
offering sacrifices to the sun. Now I look back upon those old Indian
customs as foolishness. It is like a man coming out of darkness into
light. I was then in the dark; I am now going into the valley of light,
learning every day.”