ettes.

"Speak! You that were a chief, you whose people sleep in the
dust,--what have you to say in your defence? The tribes are met
together, and the chiefs sit here to listen and to judge."

The rebel sachem drew himself up proudly and fixed his flashing eyes
on Multnomah.

"The tongue of Multnomah is a trap. I am brought not to be tried but
to be condemned and slain, that the tribes may see it and be afraid.
No one knows this better than Multnomah. Yet I will speak while I
still live, and stand here in the sun; for I go out into the darkness,
and the earth will cover my face, and my voice shall be heard no more
among men.

"Why should the Willamettes rule the other tribes? Are they better
than we? The Great Spirit gave us freedom, and who may make himself
master and take it away?

"I was chief of a tribe; we dwelt in the land the Great Spirit gave
our fathers; their bones were in it; it was ours. But the Willamettes
said to us, 'We are your elder brethren, you must help us. Come, go
with us to fight the Shoshones.' Our young men went, for the
Willamettes were strong and we could not refuse them. Many were slain,
and the women wailed despairingly. The Willamettes hunted on our
hunting-grounds and dug the _camas_ on our prairies, so that there was
not enough for us; and when winter came, our children cried for food.
Then the runners of the Willamettes came to us through the snow,
saying, 'Come and join the war-party that goes to fight the
Bannocks.'

"But our hearts burned within us and we replied, 'Our hunting-grounds
and our food you have taken; will you have our lives also? Go back and
tell your chief that if we must fight, we will fight him and not the
Bannocks.' Then the Willamettes came upon us and we fought them, for
their tyranny was so heavy that we could not breathe under it and
death had become better than life. But they were the stronger, and
when did the heart of a Willamette feel pity? To-day I only am left,
to say these words for my race.

"Who made the Willamettes masters over us? The Great Spirit gave us
freedom, and none may take it away. Was it not well to fight? Yes;
free my hands and give me back my people from the cairns and the
death-huts, and we will fight again! I go to my death, but the words I
have spoken will live. The hearts of those listening here will
treasure them up; they will be told around the lodge-fires and
repeated in the war-dance. The words I speak will go out among the