nor must they fight any more against the people of the United States,
nor steal their cattle or horses.

Spotted Tail said, "He was glad that the Great Father was going to
treat them right," but did not commit himself to any policy for the
future. He was too good an Indian to make any professions in advance.
Spotted Tail has of late years committed no offense except killing Big
Mouth in a drunken brawl last winter.

The citizens of Washington have now and then seen Indian delegations at
the Capitol. But these lusty fellows, such as Red Cloud, Swift Bear,
and others, at once attracted attention.

Their large size and well-developed muscle, tall and graceful in
action, especially when speaking in their native eloquence, mark them
as objects of surprise and wonder. Their faces were painted in red,
yellow, and black stripes. Their ears were pierced, men and women, for
large ornaments of silver and bear's teeth. They wore magnificent
buffalo robes, ornamented and worked with beads, horse-hair, and
porcupine quills. Red Cloud wore red leggins beautifully worked and
trimmed with ribbons and beads, and his shirt had as many colors as the
rainbow. His robe--made to tell by characters his achievements in
battle--was quite rich, and worked with seal-skins. His moccasins
pronounced the handsomest ever seen there.

The squaws were ugly, wore short frocks, turned in their toes walking,
and had flat or pug-noses.

It was said as a reason for Red Cloud's not bringing his squaws with
him, "that Congressmen left their squaws at home!"

Red Cloud said that the pale-faces are more than the grass in numbers.
He had come to see the Great Father, and to see if the peace-pipe could
not be smoked on the big waters of the Potomac.

The appearance on the balcony of the hotel of the whole party, watching
the crowds of pale-faces going to and from the Capitol, created much
curiosity, and the Indians remarked to one another that the
horse-thieves in the Indian country had a good many brothers in
Washington! The negroes were especially attentive, and spoke of them as
quite inferior to the colored community. They were assured that Indians
never scalp negroes; which is really true, I found, in my interviews
with different tribes on the plains. The reason I can only guess at:
the curly hair of a negro would not ornament the saddle-bow of an
Indian, in the shape of a scalp token of victory.

_Meeting at the Bureau._

Long before the Indians