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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 95 care of me or ray fathers, nor do I ask any man to come and give me or my people advice now. Mr. BRUXOT. There is a man here to- day who is one of the men who made the law that, was read yesterday ; he belongs in this country ; he has been to Washington for a long Time, mid has now come back to see his white and Indian friends. This man is Mr. Corbett, and lie will say a few words to the Indians, which they ought to hear and keep in their hearts. Mr. CORBKTT. My friends, I haye come to the council to hear what you have to say to the proposition of the President at Washington. We have observed you for a long time, that you have been at peace with the white man. While the white man has Wen settling about you, coming near your reservation, and committing small depre-dations against you, you have been peaceful. Perhaps some of you have committed some wrong against the white man. You ought all try and commit no depredations against white men if you would keep peace. The white man, on his side, should treat the Indian with justice and observe his rights. We have given you this country for the reservation. Make it your own. The white man has no right here without your consent, but we desire to maintain peace between you and the white man. Look-ing forward to the great future, we desire to make a treaty with you to prevent war. There are a great many white men coming to this country and settling all about you. They are crowding near the lines of the reservation. We fear they may do you some wrong, and you may do them some wrong in return. Our hearts are with you, and we desire to protect you and prevent this. In thinking of this we have deemed it best to come and see you and learn if you might not think it best to move to some other reservation or some other part of the country. If you do not all desire to move to other reservations, a portion of you might want to live upon a part of the land upon this reservation. If you should choose, each one, to take a piece of this reservation, each one might own it himself, and no one could take it from you. A portion of those who now have farms might have those farms to themselves, and the remainder of the reservation might be sold to white men for your benefit. The Government at Wash-ington would sell it to the white man and give you all they receive for it. They do not desire to cheat you ; they want you to have all your rights. If you get all the whites pay for the land you could take a portion of the money you receive to pay to- Indians on some other reservation, on' which you might want to live. You could choose what reserv ation each of you would like to go to. The whites will, perhaps, in the course of time, want to build railroads through your reservations, when the Presi-dent thinks it necessary. The railroads will bring more white people into the coun-try. They may settle about the reservation, and we may not be able to prevent their committing some wrong. If they should commit wrong on the Indians, we fear you would commit some wrong against them in retaliation. Then the white people and the Indians might have a great war. There are great numbers of white people, and we fear they would exterminate the Indian. This we wish to prevent. Our hearts are with the Indians, and, as law- makers, we wish to protect them. We want them to understand fully the danger that surrounds them. The President will do all he can to protect them ; but there are some bad white men as well as bad Indians. We want you to think of it, and decide whether it would be better to get away from the roads and the railroads that may some time be built through the country. If we give you all the land is worth, and you are able to find some other home equally good, will it not be better in the future ? We have made the law in such away that you may choose which you prefer, whether you would all prefer to leave the reservation for some other place, or only a part of you. This we wish you to think of, and to think it over and over in your minds what is best for you under the circumstances. I have come here to see that justice is done you, so that when I go back to Washington we can make another law that will protect you. Mr. Bruuot has also come to see that you have justice done you, so as to be sure no wrong is done toward you, that you may feel kindly in your heart to the President and those in Washington, so that when your council is closed you will have no wrong to complain of, and that your hearts may be contented and happy. I wish to say further that Mr. Brunot visits all the reserva-tions in the United States, he with others who are appointed by the President for that purpose, to see that justice is done to the Indians. We have no doubt but the com-missioner appointed here will do you justice, and not wrong. But the President does-here the same as he does with other reservations when they go to make a treaty; he sends n man from Washington, who can come back and tell him all about the treaty. He also sends a secretary to takedown in writing just the same as the commissioner has taken down in writing, so that there may be no mistake in their treaties either here or elsewhere; so that, the Indians cannot, say they did not agree to do so and so, neither can they be wronged ; so that whatever you do you will know it is reported at Washington just as it is received. Mr. MfiAOHAM. This is our third day in council. The two days before we Lave been making our hearts ready for the great talk ; so far we have done all the talking, but wo have made no propositions; when we get all ready we intend to make some propositions. |