CHIEF TWO MOONS: I feel that I am engaging in a great work in helping to
make this historic picture of a great Indian council. I have led the
Cheyennes in so many battles, and my life has been so full, that I felt
when I came here that I was an old man, but since meeting the chiefs and
having a share in the great council and recalling my old life for this
record, I feel like a young man again. It is a great day for all of us,
because there are no more wars between us, and we meet in peace and hold
this great council of the chiefs and smoke the pipe of peace. I am glad
at heart that this great picture is to be made of us, as we are assembled
here, because our old chiefs are fast dying away, and our old Indian
customs soon will pass out of sight. This record will survive for our
children, and their children will reap the benefit. I am glad we are
here, but my heart is sorry to say farewell.
CHIEF RED CLOUD: I think this a great and good thing. Good things have
come to us from the white man. When the white man came across the ocean
we heard he was coming because there was land over here, and he brought us
food to eat. The coming of this man to make these pictures, to be
preserved in Washington and to be shown in great cities, means good to us,
because the generations to come will know of our manners and customs. It
is good, besides, to meet all these chiefs who are as brothers to one
another. We have never met them before; we shall never see their faces
again, and it is, therefore, I think, a great and good thing to have this
last council of the chiefs.
MOUNTAIN CHIEF: I think it was one of the greatest things that ever
happened when we had this great council. It will be remembered forever.
As for myself, it will not be very long until I go to the happy hunting
grounds, but I have left this record for the coming generations. While I
was sitting in the council I was thinking of the past when we used not to
see each other’s faces, except with the firing of guns, and now we have
met the different tribes in council to talk with one another in the sign
language. It shows that the Government is greater than the Indian. I
think it was a great thing to bring these chiefs together, and so long as
I live I am going to tell this story to my children and my grandchildren.
I think that Chief Two Moons and Chief Plenty Coups were the two greatest
men in the council. They impressed me more than any others by their
appearance. Two Moons was not dressed up, but he showed that he was a
man. I feel as I sit talking here with you that we are brothers together.
And I say farewell to all the chiefs with a sad heart.
CHIEF WHITE HORSE: This council of all the chiefs seems to me to be a
wonderful idea. I have met a good many whom I have never seen before, and
it was a great surprise to me, and my heart felt glad. These different
tribes of Indians have been enemies to each other for generations back,
but we have now been at peace with each other for many years. But now we
all meet here and see each other. I think your idea of taking notes and
making a record of our lives and taking pictures of us, of our Indian
costumes and our manners, is a great thing. I am old enough now and do
not expect to live very long, but I am very glad that this record is to be
made, and put on file in the Great Father’s house at Washington. Another
thing I would like to say: we all speak different languages, and we are
all as helpless as a child, and we want you to help us in our needs during
our last days. My trip here was the first time I have ever been on an
iron horse, and there are a great many lessons that I learned from my ride
here. When I came here and saw all the Indians speaking different
languages and looking different, and I saw all that was going on and heard
their speeches by sign language, I thought it was one of the most
important events in my life. The first lesson I got while riding on the
iron horse was to see the coaches filled with white people, and when I
went in they all looked at me and looked as though I was a great curiosity
to them. When I first saw the white people I felt backward—they looked at
me so hard. I felt backward, but I finally felt more at ease, for I
thought, I am going to die anyway. I looked over the white people and
their dress, and I looked over the ceiling of the coach, and I thought
these are all wonderful things. I looked out of the window and the train
was going so fast that it seemed to me I was on the wings of a great bird.
We travelled so fast I could not see the things very near the coach. When
we used to travel on our ponies it took us many days to come over to this
place. But on the train it took us one half day to come to Miles City,
and that was one of the things that made me fear. It seems impossible how
the trains go so fast, and this thought came to my mind: This is of the
white people, who are so educated they can make the iron horse draw things
across the country so fast. My wish is that the Indians will come to be
like the white people, and be able to invent things, but the thought comes
to me that this will be impossible. As we came along, flying as a bird, I
looked out of the window, saw a country over which I had once hunted, and
the thought of the buffalo came back to me, and I cried in my heart. When
I get home I expect to stay there, and never leave my country again. I
shall never see this land any more. I expect to die at home. When I get
home I shall tell my people of the journey I had on the train, and what I
saw, and of my visit to this great country, of the speeches that we made,
of the pictures that were taken, and I know when I tell them they will be
glad.
[An Indian Communion]