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Show 364 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE INDIANS. the bear, " God made you; go in peace, I will not kill you." And to the birds, " God made you with feathers to protect you in cold air, and wings to fly. How good God has been to you!" And even to the rattlesnake they would say, '' You have rattles and tell us where you are so that we can get out of your way. We will not kill you." I am giving this as the Apaches gave it to me. They believe in God the Father, and in a God Mother; and that God dwells in a place where He can see and understand what they do; that they once dwelt with Him, and that when they die if they have done good they will go back to dwell with their Father and Mother, but if unworthy they are sent away from them in sorrow. They pray in the evening that they may be protected from their enemies and have good dreams, desiring that their dead friends may visit and talk to them. They believe that they once had more power with God than they now have, and acknowledged that they had done wrong in killing their own people; saying that for that reason their prayers were not heard and answered as formerly. They say that Americans do not honor God, but throw His name at their mules and cattle the same as they do clods or rocks, and that it is their duty to destroy the wicked blasphemers from off the earth; that none have a right to live unless they honor their Father's name. They reckon that by killing white men at the ratio they have been that eventually they will exterminate the white race. This was their belief a few years since- Possibly they are beginning to think differently by this time. They say that the cause of their fighting with the Catholic Mexicans is that when Mexico was conquered |