ages ago some of our children, not finding our hunting-grounds wide
enough for the range-of their arrows, left us. They first wandered in
the south, and in the beautiful prairies of the east, under a climate
blessed by the good spirits. They grew and grew in number till their
families were as numerous as ours, and as they were warriors and their
hearts big, they spread themselves, and, soon crossing the big
mountains, their eagle glance saw on each side of their territory the
salt-water of the sunrise and the salt-water of the sunset. These are
the Comanches, a powerful nation. The Comanches even now have a Shoshone
heart, a Shoshone tongue. Owato Wanisha has been with them; he says they
are friends, and have not forgotten that they are the children of the
Great Serpent.

"Long, long while afterwards, yet not long enough that I should escape
the memory and the records of our holy men, some other of our children,
hearing of the power of the Comanches of their wealth, of their
beautiful country, determined also to leave us and spread to the south.
These are the Apaches From the top of the big mountains, always covered
with snow they look towards the bed of the sun. They see the green grass
of the prairie below them, and afar the blue salt-water Their houses are
as numerous as the stars in heaven, their warriors as thick as the
shells in the bottom of our lakes. They are brave; they are feared by
the Pale-faces--by all; and they too, know that we are their fathers;
their tongue is our tongue their Manitou our Manitou; their heart a
portion of our heart and never has the knife of a Shoshone drunk the
blood of a Apache, nor the belt of an Apache suspended the scalp
of Shoshone.

"And afterwards, again, more of our children left us. By that time they
left us because we were angry. They were few families of chiefs who had
grown strong and proud. They wished to lord over our wigwams, and we
drove them away, as the panther drives away her cubs, when their claws
and teeth have been once turned against her. These are the Arrapahoes
They are strong and our enemies, yet they are a noble nation. I have in
my lodge twenty of their scalps; they have many ours. They fight by the
broad light of the day, with the lane bow, and arrows; they scorn
treachery. Are they not although rebels and unnatural children, still
the children, of the Shoshones? Who ever heard of the Arrapahoes
entering the war-path in night? No one! They are no Crows,