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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 105 friend. I am not telling it with a bad heart. I want to know, if I was to go away from' here, where I could find as good a piece of land as large as this is ? My friends, I tell you now, I wish you would not talk too strong about getting my land. I like my land ; will not l; t it go. That is what makes me talk so. I am showing you my heart about this reserva-tion. You have been asking me for my heart. This is my heart. WENAI'- SNOOT. My friends, I want you to open your ears and eyes and listen to what I . say, and to keep it. Another day we are, as it were, looking for something that is good ; and that is right, because we are looking for what is both straight and true for both you aiid me. We see very well the way in which our bodies were brought up on both sides. Our red people were brought up here, and some one had to teach them as they grew. I see myself that those who were taught by others grew up well. I believe the man who understands and follows the way in which he was taught grows up well. I learn from the way in which I was brought up, and I am going to have my children taught more, and they will grow up better than I am. That is why I think I am the same as a child taught by my father. ^ When my father and mother died I was left here, and they gave me rules, and gave me this land to' live on. They left me to take care of them after they were buried. I was to watch over their graves. That is why I would not like to part with my country and to leave it. What I tell you is that I do not wish to part with my land. I have said I have felt tired working since I came on this reservation. I have been so tired that the sweat has dropped off me on the ground. I am sick, and can't say much more. WAT- CHK- TE- MANE. I am going to speak now. You chiefs, whites, listen to me. You are my friends. Mr. Meadiam, Mr. White, and Mr. Conoyer, the father, is my friend. I want you to listen to what I have to say. Here is the way my heart is. Here in this land my father and mother and children have died. The father ( priest) is the only one who straightens out my heart. That is why my heart is this way. I am getting old now, and I want to die where my father and mother and children have died. That is why I do not wish to leave this land and go off to some other laud. I see the church there. I am glad to see it, and think I will stay beside it and die by the teaching of the father. I see how I have sweat and worked in trying to get food. I see the flour- mill the Government has promised. I have gotten it. I see my friends. I like all that I have, ( the mills and lands.) That is why I cannot go away from here. The President will see the record, and see what we poor old men have said in this council. What the whites have tried to show me I have tried to learn. It is not much, but I have fenced in a small piece of land and tried to raise grain on it. I am showing you my heart. I like my church, my mills, my farm, the graves of my parents and children, and I do not wish to leave my land. That is all my heart, and I show it to you. PIERRE. I am going to make a short speech. I have only one heart, only one tongue. Although you say '' go to another country," rny heart is not that way. I do not wish for any money for my laud. I am here, and here is where I am going to be. I think all these young men's hearts are like mine. I think a great deal and have but little to say. What I have said will go on paper to Washington. Then they will think over what we Indians have said. That is all I have to say. I will not part with my lands. And if you should come again I will say the same again. I will not part with my lands. YOUMA- HOWLISH. I heard the talk at the council at Walla- Walla. I heard where the reservation was marked out for us. I heard it with my ears and my heart ; and I came here and found this piece of laud marked out. I came inside of it; 1 came here ; and we have worked here. That is why my children have been growing here from that time till now, and I have been teaching them that there is so much land marked out for them within the bounds of this reservation. That is why, my friends, I tell you that I love my country, and I do not want to dispose of this reservation. I see my father here within that graveyard, and my children, and I am guarding them. That is why I do not want to take my body away from here. I am getting old, and when I die I want my body to be buried beside them. I will show you, my friends, that much of my heart. LALLES. You are my friends. We are not going to look at these papers long at this time. We see three different propositions before us. You must look over these propositions by looking at this paper. WT e see the propositions that are made. The same one who made the earth to grow makes our body to grow. I wish, to be slow in looking over this paper, tc find out about this land on which we have grown. I want to understand the words our hearts would bring. We will understand everything plainly. We will both look at it. DEKOTISAW ( Umatilla.) So many days I have listened to my people, and I was glad to listen to Mr. Bruuot. He said he would listen to the poor Indian. Here I am, a poor Indian; I am truly called an Indian. This Indian is opening his heart to you. This is how my heart is. By the law this body came into being; by the law your body came into being. The law- makers' laws are all in your heart. The law- makers have the money ; that is why my heart is this way. We will not make any laws or talking about the parting of the land, either of us. We hold hard to the books that raise our children. The only way things can be right is to go straight on the earth. Neither of our bodies will be always here. We vshould not talk different from what is straight law. That is why, for myself and my children, I open my heart to yon. Swrmi. I have not much to say. Hear me well this time. The ground is right by the |