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Show 92 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. The money Las been paid for the that was promised. Nine years more and the money will all have been paid and you will be left to stand alone to take care of your-selves. When you made the treaty Indian law ruled all the country. There were then 3,300 Indians ; to- day, on this reservation, there are but 837, just one- fourth as many people represented in this treaty as there was in that one. Some of the people who belonged to that treaty have never been on the reservation nor had any bene-fits of the treaty. Those who are here now have had all the benefits of the money. We are not here now to inquire whether you have had the full benefit of these moneys or not ; you know for yourself. Your country shows for itself. It is not the business ot the commission to inquire how that money was spent. It is our business to look out how the remainder shall be applied. We believe in a God, and we have taken an oath to do you justice while our term of office lasts. I am your superintendent, Mr. Couoyer your agent, Mr. White your neighbor. He has been your trader. His office only con-tinues during the council. Our present business with you is to talk about what is best for you. We are not authorized, and do not come here to take sides as against you, but, as the officers of the Government, to council with you, and represent the Gov-ernment and to represent you. Mr. Brunot came from Washington, directly from the President. Here are the three commissioners. First is Mr. Brunot, after the President. He comes from the President, and he stands here to hear all that is said, to see all that is written, and he has Mr. Cree, his own secretary, who writes down all the words that are said, and he will take them to the President that he may see if the commissioners' hearts are right whether they are honest, just, and impartial. HOM- LI. What do you mean by the reservation showing for itself what was done with the money ? INTERPRETER. The mills, and houses, and what you see, is what is meant. Mr. MEACHAM. We have talked about the other treaty. Then there were a great many Indians and few white people in all this country. The country has changed, and the people have changed. Then it was a wild country, with wild people in it ; now it is a settled country and no wild people. The Indian law that ruled the country is dead and gone. It has been the same story for two hundred years. At that time, Indian law ruled from one ocean to the other. The home of Mr. Bruuot used to be an Indian home, but there is no Indian home within a thousand miles of it now. Then the red man was as the leaves on the trees in number, but where are they now ? Their bones are mixed with the ground for three thousand miles. There is no wigwam in all that country. Where they had their camp- fires, there are now great cities and rail-roads, and telegraphs, and great farms. And the wr hite man melts the rock, and makes iron. The canoes have left the river, and the white man's steamboats are on it. This will be the case all over the country some time, and that time will soon come when all these red men who now hear my voice will go to the Father's Spirit, and but few oi your boys will be here to speak for you, and they will only know the history of their fathers by tradition and the white man's books. The white man for a thousand years has been making books, and there are no people who ever lived but what his books tell about. To know all that ever happened in this country, things that occurred before we were born, our fathers wrote them down in books, just as the secretaries are doing now. Mr. BRUNOT. While we wait, I want to say a word. Do you know the reason why so many of the Indians are gone, why so many whites are everywhere, and have so much more power than the Indians ? I will tell you. The Indians are gone because they tried to be Indians always. Some of you here are trying to be Indians still. All such will soon be gone like their fathers ; but if the Indians listen to the white man's teaching and become like the white man, instead of getting fewer every day they will increase like the white man. and will have become like the white man, and can make a history for themselves. These chiefs know that and some of them are trying to be white men. The wild men must come and do the same thing. UMAriNE. My friend Meecham, I won't say what you say to me is right or wrong ; what you have to say I will listen to ; say what you have to say ; I do not want to be told what I am to say. 1 have my owrn mind ; it is deep down yet ; I have not given expression to it. So, also, your hca/ t is deep down yet, you are keeping back what is in your heart ; so am 1. We will understand each other when our hearts are opened. Mr. MKECHAM. If it takes from now till Christmas, every man shall have a chance to talk his heart, and shall be heard. We are here to conduct and keep order, not to do all the talking. When the time comes, AVO will ask you to talk and we will talk about the matter we came here to talk about. Things that will make bad hearts we will not talk about. We have only begun to show our hearts; we will show them down to the bottom. We leave nothing in the grass ; we have nothing hid ; we will talk every-thing that all can hear. UMAPINE. My heart is this way ; you thought over it ; you wished for this reserva-tion ; you wished for Grand Rond'e, for Walla- Walla Valley and Umatilla ; you wished for it. ' What kind of a heart was it that wished for all ' these places ? Speak plain and all will hear it. |
