THE INDIANS TRY TO LEAVE THE WHITES.
When they were in the mountain tops, Sacajawea overheard some Indians
talking.
They said: "We do not want to go across the mountains with the whites.
We want to go down to the plains and hunt buffalo.
We are hungry here.
On the plains are many buffalo.
We must hunt them now for our winter food.
We do not care for the white men's goods.
Our fathers lived without their goods.
We can live without them.
We will go off to-night and leave them.
They will meet death in the mountains.
In the Spring we can come back and get their goods."
Sacajawea went to Captain Lewis.
She told him what she had heard.
He called the chiefs together.
They smoked a pipe together.
Sacajawea slipped a piece of sugar into Cameahwait's hand.
As he sucked it, she said, "You will get this good thing from the white
men if you are friends with them."
gone land word keep prom ise yes
Then Captain Lewis said, "Are you men of your word?"
The Indians said, "Yes."
He said, "Did you not promise to carry our goods over the mountains?"
The Indians said, "Yes."
"Then," he said, "why are you going to leave us now?
If you had not promised, we would have gone back down the Missouri.
Then no other white man would come to your land.
You wish the whites to be your friends.
You want them to give you goods.
You should keep you promise to them.
I will keep my promise to you.
You seem afraid to keep your promise."
The chiefs said, "We are not afraid.
We will keep our promise."
They sent out word to all their men to keep their promise.
Captain Lewis thanked Sacajawea.
If she had not told him, the Indians would have gone off in the night.
The whites would have been left in the steep Rocky Mountains with no
horses and no way of getting food.
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