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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 103 rich. The fact is the reservation is almost as you found it. Now. the question is, What is best for you to do ? Will you decide to stay here, go on with the old treaty, and take your chance with the white men around you? You know how well you get along 1 as it is now. You know if you are happy in your hearts. You know the heart of the white people who want this country. You know whether the white man gives up easily or not when he wants to do anything. We white men see all these things, and we want you to see with your own eyes. The President did not tell us what to propose to you. He did not say he would agree to what we would propose. He did not say he would agree to what you would propose. He did not say for us to buy the land. He said to consult with you about it. Some of you have made up your minds. It may be the same mind you always will have. The men who have made up their minds arid spoken it here are rich men. I do not say they have not spoken well. Perhaps I might say the same that you have said were I an Indian. The President has not told us what to say, and some of your people held back their hearts. It leaves us to think for both sides. When we look at one side it seems all right, and that is the side taken by these men here. Then we look at the other side again, and we take every-thing into account; then we think it would be well for you to look around if you could not find another home where you would be less interfered with by white men. If you can find another home where you think you will be happier and better, that your friends also think would be a good country for you, then we would write to the President, and we would recommend to him to have your country sold, so that it would bring the most money; that the money the reservation would sell for should be laid out to make your new home, or enough of it to make every man. a home. We do not know how much money it would be, but it would be more money than you can count. This Palmer and Stevens treaty lasts nine years more. Once in every five years the money grows less that the Government pays you. In nine years it will be all paid, and you people may be just as you are now, for all we know ; you may be better or you may be worse off. But we would recommend to the President that if you find a new home, that every man shall have his land surveyed off to himself, and a deed for it. as a white man has; a paper given to him, so that the land can never be taken from him, so that it cannot be sold for your debts, atrd that each man's land shall belong, riot to the tribe, but to his children when he dies. That is the way the white man's lands are. There is another thing we would write to the President about, that you shall be asked to say how your money shall be expended, and who your agent and your employe shall be. This last thing we talked about; it would be like it is now, agents and employes of all kinds. Sometimes we ask for a man, and we do not get him; we do not always get the officer we want anywhere. What we meant by consulting you was just as we talk among ourselves, to know what is best to do. It is not a law, and it never would be a law. It never would be written in the laws. That is the last thing we talked about. I mean this that you should not be treated like dogs. I know you have hearts, and you have a right to tell your hearts; and when you tell your hearts, if it is good the President adopts: if not, he don't. Mr. Brunot and Mr. Corbett think that kind of a law cannot be made. We might recommend the President to do that way now. What I mean is, we will ask the President to do so. Maybe he will and maybe he will not. Yesterday you said we talked too much at one time. If you want to look into this thing we are ready to go with you. If you wish to try and find a better place, we want to tell you anything we know about it, to go with you and show you we are ready to tell you all we know about this thing from beginning to end. We think this is enough for us to- day. One thing I forgot on the other side. The President proposes to give each man his laud if you stay here, just as Palmer and Stevens agreed to. YOUNU CHIEF. I am an Indian, and you are white people ; all the way from where the sun rises to where it sets, you know exactly how you have grown, how you have increased, and all the Indians in the country know how they were brought up. The Pres-ident in Washington sees how we both have grown up. We want to show him our hearts. I tell you this for the truth, I say I like my country ; I tell you the truth. I grew upon this land ; I do not lie about it. It is true, the way my property has increased in this country. You know that this is a good rich country. You white men know that it is a good country to make anything grow ; that is why I cannot cut this hand in half. If 1 were to cut this in half, how would I grow ? I cannot cut my country in pieces, or where would I raise ray stock ? You know, my friends, we do not try to make slaves of anybody, red men or white men ; that is why we cannot compare this good with bad land anywhere outside of the reservation. If I was to compare this good land with bad land outside, I think I would be wrong. It is true we must talk the truth, in that way the Indian would grow up and the white man would grow up, and be good friends with each other. It is as if you were telling me to compare this laud with any other. If I was to weigh this laud with any other land or any other thing, I think it would outweigh it. It is true. You white men know that anything that is true is good. That is what I have to say. You see where the gun is now ; it is too late to talk more. Council adjourns. KIXTII DAY, AUGUST 12. Council opened with prayer by Thomas K. Cree. DE- co- Tisi, SE. I don't want what I say written down ; I only want to tell you I have |