it is
order, it is nature. Each has his own to provide for and no more. Indian
corn is good; tobacco is good, it gladdens the heart of the old men when
they are in sorrow; tobacco is the present of chiefs to chiefs. The
calumet speaks of war and death; it discourses also of peace and
friendship. The Manitou made the tobacco expressly for man--it is good.

"But corn and tobacco must be taken from the earth; they must be watched
for many moons, and nursed like children. This is work fit only for
squaws and slaves. The Shoshones are warriors and free; if they were to
dig in the ground, their sight would become weak, and their enemies
would say they were moles and badgers.

"Does the just Nanawa wish the Shoshones to be despised by the Crows or
the horsemen of the south? No! he had fought for them before he went to
see if the bones of his fathers were safe; and since his return, has he
not given to them rifles and powder, and long nets to catch the salmon,
and plenty of iron to render their arrows feared alike by the buffaloes
and the Umbiquas?

"Nanawa speaks well, for he loves his children: but the spirit that
whispers to him is a pale-face spirit, that cannot see under the skin of
a red warrior; it is too tough: nor in his blood; it is too dark.

"Yet tobacco is good, and corn too. The hunters of the Flat Heads and
Pierced Noses would come in winter to beg for it; their furs would make
warm the lodges of the Shoshones. And my people would become rich and
powerful; they would be masters of all the country, from the salt waters
to the big mountains; the deer would come and lick their hands, and the
wild horses would graze around their wigwams. 'Tis so that the pale
faces grow rich and strong; they plant corn, tobacco, and sweet melons;
they have trees that bear figs and peaches; they feed swine and goats,
and tame buffaloes. They are a great people.

"A red-skin warrior is nothing but a warrior; he is strong, but he is
poor; he is not a wood-chunk, nor a badger, nor a prairie dog; he cannot
dig the ground; he is a warrior, and nothing more. I have spoken."

Of course the tenor of this speech was too much in harmony with Indian
ideas not to be received with admiration. The old man took his seat,
while another rose to speak in his turn.

"The great chief hath spoken; his hair is white like the down of the
swan; his winters have been many; he is wise; why should I speak after
him, his words were true? The Manitou touc