“My friends,—I don’t know that we do all that the Great Spirit wishes us to do; there are some Indians, I know, who do not; there are some bad Indians as well as bad white people; I think it is very difficult to tell how much the Great Spirit wishes us to do.”
The reverend gentleman said—
“That, my friends, is what we wish to teach you; and if you can learn to read this good book, it will explain all that.”
The chief continued—
“We believe the Great Spirit requires us to pray to Him, which we do, and to thank Him for everything we have that is good. We know that He requires us to speak the truth, to feed the poor, and to love our friends. We don’t know of anything more that he demands; he may demand more of white people, but we don’t know that.”
The reverend gentleman inquired—
“Do you not think that the Great Spirit sometimes punishes the Indians in this world for their sins?”
War-chief.—“Yes, we do believe so.”
Rev. Gentleman.—“Did it ever occur to you, that the small pox that swept off half of your tribe, and other tribes around you, a few years ago, might have been sent into your country by the Great Spirit to punish the Indians for their wickedness and their resistance to his word?”
War-chief.—“My Friends, we don’t know that we have ever resisted the word of the Great Spirit. If the Great Spirit sent the small pox into our country to destroy us, we believe it was to punish us for listening to the false promises of white men. It is white man’s disease, and no doubt it was sent amongst white people to punish them for their sins. It never came amongst the Indians until we began to listen to the promises of white men, and to follow their ways; it then came amongst us, and we are not sure but the Great Spirit then sent it to punish us for our foolishness. There is another disease sent by the Great Spirit to punish white men, and it punishes them in the right place—the place that offends. We know that disease has been sent to punish them; that disease was never amongst the Indians until white men came—they brought it, and we believe we shall never drive it out of our country.”