Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri / Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch

by Edwin Thompson Denig

SPEECH OF LE CHEF DU TONNERRE TO THE GENTLEMAN IN CHARGE OF FORT UNION, JANUARY, 1850

“My friend, my Father, look at me. You see standing before you one of the poorest of his nation, but one who has a good heart and open hand. Our Great Grandfather, the Earth, is the parent of us all—Indians and whites. When Wakoñda created man he made two sorts; one clothed, comfortable, rich, plenty to eat, and endowed with wisdom; these were the white men. The other he produced naked, in a cold climate, poor, ignorant, obliged to hunt for their meat, to labor, to starve, to suffer, to die; these were the red men.

“Who receives the profits of their labor? The whites. Who protects them from their enemies? Themselves. When your Great Grandfather across the sea sent you to reside with Indians, what did he say? Did he pour no good words into your ears? Did he not tell you, you will behold a poor, naked, starved nation, have pity on them? I believe he did, he was a chief, a man of sense, a rich man, and no doubt said, ‘Give away a portion of your good things to the Indian, let him feel something soft on his back. He is not an animal, his body is not covered with hair like the buffalo, but he is a man like yourself and requires clothing to protect himself from the cold. Are you not aware Indians freeze to death?’[40]

“When this big fort was built, when the first whites opened the road tip the Missouri, they found us with bone knives, stone axes, clay pots, stone arrow points, bone awls, and nothing but the bow and arrow to kill game; they had pity on us, and exchanged for our skins iron arms and utensils.[41] In this they did well; they bettered the Indian; they made themselves rich. They had sense. They also gave us good words, and I have recollected them; they have been handed down to us when children, and all good Indians remember. I was told if you meet a white man give him your hand, take him to your lodge, give him to eat, let him have lodging, show him the road. I have done so.

“If you meet him while on the warpath, do not steal his horse or rob him of his property. If others steal his horses, bring them back; if any of the fort property is damaged, pay for it. I have done so. I was told to hunt, make robes, trade the skins for blankets, arms, and ammunition. All this I have continued to do from my youth to the present time. My part has been fulfilled. Yet you see me before you still a poor man. I stand nearly alone in the village, like an aged tree whose tops are dead. The bones of my friends and relatives are piled around the fort or scattered over the plains. All the good, all the wise, all the handsome, all the brave were rubbed out by the smallpox. Young men are growing, but they are not like those of the old stock.

“The road to the fort gates has been swept free of grass by the feet of my people in coming to trade. Each year we have loaded your boats with the skins of our animals, and I now bring a few more. The 10 robes laid before you are a present, for which I desire nothing. I wish to make your heart glad and to have my name remembered on the large books.[42] I know very well you are a chief and will have pity on me. Let me feel something soft over my shoulders.[43] Bestow some glittering mark on my back,[44] cover my bare head[45] and let something gay[46] appear there, that my young men may know that I am respected at the fort.

“My leggings[47] are worn out and the cold enters, and my breech flap no more covers what is beneath. My body[44] and neck[48] are laid bare in hunting skins in this cold weather. I lack some mark[49] of my standing with the fort to make my young men listen to my words to be good to the whites and hunt. If you wish many robes, recollect the young men are hunters and can not kill buffalo without ammunition.[50] The women have hard work dressing skins; their arms are sore; some beads and vermilion[51] would give them strength; and the tobacco[52] you will no doubt furnish me will be smoked by all my people in talking over matters for the good of the fort and in the councils for hunting. I know you are a chief and good father to your red children and will never refuse them what they ask. Remember our hardships, dangers, and exposures in hunting for you. Open your heart and lengthen your measure and reduce,[53] if ever so little, on the prices of trade. Indians suffer for everything; even the tobacco chewed and spit out by the whites is picked up and smoked by them. Your store is large; let your heart be so also. Let me be able to sing your praise;[54] your name is in the clouds; your father was a chief; you will be greater than he. Listen to the words of your poor friend. I have spoken.”

The Sioux make better speeches and use more figures than the Assiniboin, but none of the many we have heard among both and other nations are as replete with metaphor as is represented by fiction writers. Either the Indians treated of by them were of a superior order or the speeches have been liberally interpreted. The foregoing presents their style as it now exists among all the upper Missouri tribes, though subjects of more importance, such as war, peace, or religious rites, are accompanied by a proportionate earnestness of oratory and boldness of gesture. They do not pride themselves on making fine or flowery speeches, but bold, pointed, and sensible ones, and, if begging be the object, will descend to the grossest flattering of their auditor, and vainness of their own merits.