white
people killed by the Sioux when they came up the river in small boats. It
was not until I was about twenty years old that they began to build the
railroad along the Platte River going west, and there were also emigrant
wagons going west driving large herds of cattle. The Indians killed the
white people as they came up the river because we felt they were driving
away our game; they had guns and powder and knives, which we did not have.
We also wanted what they had in the boats, and we did not like to see them
go through our country. When I first saw the people emigrating through
our country and then bringing iron horses there I began to be afraid. I
was about twenty-five or thirty years old when they began to run the iron
horse along through the country, and I also heard that they were going to
move the Indians to some hot country, and that the white people would fill
up all the land north and west and south of us; we felt that we ought to
fight the white people, and we began to kill the men who were building the
railroad. The white people began to kill the game when they came into the
country. There was then plenty of buffalo on the east side of the
Missouri River; soon they swam over to the west side, and we then
understood that the President had given them the privilege of killing all
the game, and soon the buffalo were all gone. The white man then went
into the Black Hills, and killed the game. The killing of the game caused
a change in our food. We were accustomed to eating buffalo meat and other
wild game; we loved that and we were all full of health as long as we had
it. The change of food has compelled us to eat bread instead of wild
meat, and that is the reason why the Indians are all dying off. When I
think of those old days my heart is full of sorrow. My father, who was
then the chief, was sent for by the President of the United States, and
when he came back he said that the Indians must adopt the white man's mode
of living, and that we must send our children to school. The news that my
father brought was received by some with favour, others entirely refused
to send their children to school, and said that they would rather fight
than let their children go to school. And it looked as though there would
be a general uprising. I remember the first group who went off to school,
and it caused great trouble. From that time on we had trouble with the
United States soldiers. While we were carrying