arly on the subject. Speaking
of the Great Spirit, he said, "We worship him not as you do. We differ
from you in appearance, and manners, as well as in our customs; and we
differ from you in our religion. We have no large houses, as you have, to
worship the Great Spirit in: if we had them to-day, we should want others
to-morrow; for we have not like you a fixed habitation--we have no settled
home except our villages, where we remain but two months in twelve. We,
like animals, rove through the country; whilst you whites reside between
us and heaven. But still, my great Father, we love the Great Spirit--we
acknowledge his supreme power--our peace, our health, and our happiness
depend upon him, and our lives belong to him--he made us, and he can
destroy us.

"My great Father,--some of your good chiefs, as they are called
(missionaries), have proposed to send some of their good people among us
to change our habits, to make us work for them, and live like the white
people. I will not tell a lie--I am going to tell the truth. You love your
country--you love your people--you love the manner in which they live, and
you think your people brave. I am like you, my great Father; I love my
country--I love my people--I love the manner in which we live, and think
myself and warriors brave.[22] Spare me then, my Father; let me enjoy my
country, and pursue the buffalo and the beaver, and the other wild animals
of our country, and I will trade their skins with your people. I have
grown up and lived thus long without work--I am in hopes you will suffer
me to die without it. We have plenty of buffalo, beaver, deer, and other
wild animals--we have also an abundance of horses--we have every thing we
want--we have plenty of land, _if you will keep your people off it_. My
Father has a piece on which he lives (Council bluffs), and we wish him to
enjoy it--we have enough without it--but we wish him to live near us, to
give us good council--to keep our ears and eyes open, that we may continue
to pursue the right road--the road to happiness. He settles all
differences between us and the whites, between the red-skins
themselves--he makes the whites do justice to the red-skins, and he makes
the red-skins do justice to the whites. He saves the effusion of human
blood, and restores peace and happiness in the land. You have already sent
us a father (Major O'Fallon); it is enough--he knows us, and we know
him--we keep our eye constantly upon him, and sin