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Show 96 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. We are not in a hurry; if we go slow we will not fall down; if onr eyes are open, au< l we see everything, we will make no mistakes. You have known for a Jong time what this council would be called for; so far you have not given us your hearts. If you have any questions to ask we will hear them. If you have anything you want to say now we will hear you. Think well and talk slow, and do nothing in the dark. We are now ready to hear you ; that is all for the present. HOWLISH WAMPO. I have heard and understand all that you have said, and what your business is. We had a council with Governor Stevens^ aud heard him talk in Walla- Walla, and he made a treaty with us and said there would be as much money as their mule^ could pack come here for us. He pointed out this reservation and said. " There is so much laud for you." I don't know what has become of the money he promised us Indians for the land. He said, " All your chiefs are to have good h'ouses with windows houses like other white chiefs." I don't see any such as he promised us. I got up and moved on this reser-vation. He told me that we were to stay here " twenty years." He said, " You are to have an agent to take care of you, and after twenty years you must look out for yourselves." I came here and have been here eleven years. Of all that was promised I have seen none. It must have been lost. I heard what you said about our lands, and I understood what you said. We like this country and don't want to dispose of our reservation. I look at this land, this earth ; it is like my mother, as if she was giving me milk, for from it I draw the food on which I live and grow. I see this little piece of land ; it is all I have left; I know it is good land. This reservation was marked out for me. The people that are on this reservation are working, are doing their own work for themselves. I understand that you are asking me for my land. I say I like my land, and I don't know whether you will fulfill your promise if I accept your promises for my laud. I did not see, with my own eyes, the money that was promised me before. All the stock I have had to feed on this land here. That is why I say this little piece of land, all I have here, I want left for me. The large country I gave Governor Stevens, and you have not paid for it. The white man has settled on it. I feel that I have here a small piece of land left, this that I live on now. The whites have all the land outside, and the other reservations are all full of people who belong on. them. The Nez Perce" are living on their reservation, and the Indians at Simcoe are on their reservation. The Indians below live on Warm Spring reservation. I see that they are all living on their own reservations, and feel just as I do living on mine. The same I said before I say again, I cannot let my reservation go. That is what I have to say now to your commissioners. WENAP- SNOOT. You come to see my heart. I want you to see it ; it is good. Listen well to me and keep what I say. You have talked this long; now I want you to hear the Indian words. I have now looked at your hearts for over two days. This is the way my heart is : I am going to open my heart truly. What are we hunting for ? We are hunting for good, not for bad. We will hear each other's words, and will keep them on both sides ; then we can compare our hearts. I wish you would pay good attention to my words. It is as if we were searching into the person who has the care of us now he who has taken care of our breaths and our bodies. I do not know if we will find our bodies, and our forefathers' bodies, in the search. That will lead us so as to make us both good and happy. We can-not cheat our own bodies and our own breaths. If we deceive ourselves, then we will be poor and miserable ; only from the truth can we grow ourselves and make our children grow. Where is all that Governor Stevens and General Palmer said ? I am an Indian, and am afraid of the same thing happening again. I am very fond of this land that is marked out for me. I see that ; and the balance of the Indians have no more room for their stock than they need, and don't know where I'd put them if 1 had to confine myself to a small piece of ground. Should I take only a small piece of ground, and a white man sit down beside me, I fear there would be trouble all the time. I arn not well to- day and cannot speak much more. HOM- LI. I have no desire to talk to- day, but will talk to- morrow. These men who want to speak can say what they want to- day. We talk in friendship, and are in no hurry. I am no little boy, and don't jump at what you offer me. TENALE TEMANE. I have heard what you said to me. There is my friend Mr. Brunot ; he has just come here; I heard him with my ears and with my heart, and what I heard him eay he talked straight. When he talked of God, of Him who made the ground on which we stand, my heart was glad, and I thought he talked straight; this is why I thought we were going to have a straight talk. The whites talked to me some time ago, and 1 came over here. The land was marked out for me and I came upon it. We have been here eleven years ; and since I saw this reservation, I have been on it ever since. I looked and saw with my eyes, there is so much laud they have marked out for me. Now, my friend, when I came here, I saw the white man's fences and how they were made, and 1 went to work. Ever since that I have worked hard. I am an old man ; I have worked till the sweat rolled off me to get food for my children; that is the reasou for what I have to say now. I never opened my lips to say that I was going to throw away or give away my lands ; I see with my own eyes, and I have grown tired in working on this land ; 1 have only one heart ; it is just what I have said now ; I have worked hard for my children that are growing up. My friend's, the whites who are living about me have farms, and work till they get tired for |