one of our women cruelly, for pulling a few
suckers of corn out of his field to suck when she was hungry. At another
time one of our young men was beat with clubs by two white men, for
opening a fence which crossed our road to take his horse through. His
shoulder blade was broken and his body badly braised, from the effects
of which he soon after died.

Bad and cruel as our people were treated by the whites, not one of them
was hurt or molested by our band. I hope this will prove that we are
a peaceable people--having permitted ten men to take possession of our
corn fields, prevent us from planting corn, burn our lodges, ill-treat
our women, and beat to death our men without offering resistance to
their barbarous cruelties. This is a lesson worthy for the white man to
learn: to use forebearance when injured.

We acquainted our agent daily with our situation, and through him the
great chief at St. Louis, and hoped that something would be done for us.
The whites were complaining at the same time that we were intruding upon
their rights. They made it appear that they were the injured party, and
we the intruders. They called loudly to the great war chief to protect
their property.

How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right
look like wrong, and wrong like right.

During this summer I happened at Rock Island, when a great chief
arrived, whom I had known as the great chief of Illinois, (Governor
Cole) in company with another chief who I have been told is a great
writer (judge James Hall.) I called upon them and begged to explain the
grievances to them, under which my people and I were laboring, hoping
that they could do something for us. The great chief however, did not
seem disposed to council with, me. He said he was no longer the chief
of Illinois; that his children had selected another father in his stead,
and that he now only ranked as they did. I was surprised at this talk,
as I had always heard that he was a good brave and great chief. But the
white people appear to never be satisfied. When they get a good father,
they hold councils at the suggestion of some bad, ambitious man, who
wants the place himself, and conclude among themselves that this man, or
some other equally ambitious, would make a better father than they have,
and nine times out of ten they don't get as good a one again.

I insisted on explaining to these chiefs the true situation of my
people. They gave their assent. I