The chief was now convinced that the agent and myself had come to entice him into a snare. He rose, and his face took on the warrior’s lionlike look as he said: “I will not go to the agency. I will not die in prison. If I am to die it will be here, as a soldier, on the spot where I was born.”
Even then the agent could have won him by pacific speech, but he too was angry, and he said: “I give you till to-morrow morning to decide. If you do not come to the agency I will send the police and take you.” He then went back to the school.
To Carignan he said, as he got into his wagon: “You had better send all your people up to the post. I am going to arrest The Sitting Bull to-night and it may make trouble,” and in this spirit he drove away.
XIII
THE CHIEF PLANS A JOURNEY
That was a dark night in The Sitting Bull’s camp. The women were weeping and the men, with faces sullen and fierce, gathered in solemn council. Black Wolf, Catch the Bear and The Two Strike loudly advocated resistance, their hot hearts aflame, but the chief kept on smoking his pipe, which is the sign of indecision. He was still the peacemaker and concerned over the welfare of his people.
When he spoke he said: “To fight now is to die. The white man will crush us like flies. I know that for I have seen his armies. The happy hunting grounds are as near to me as to any of you, but I am not ready to die. I have thought deeply over the matter, and I have resolved not to fight, for unless we intend to kill all our children and so leave no one to follow us, the white man will visit his hate on those who remain. If the agent comes with his renegades to arrest me I will resist to the death, but if the soldiers come for me I will go with them, for they have the hearts of warriors and know how to treat a chief. This is my decision; but whatever comes, let no one interfere in my behalf, for to do so would only mean bloodshed, and that will do no good. I am your head—they will visit their punishment on me. I will meet them alone.”
Thereupon he spoke to his “Silent Eaters” and said: “Put sentinels on the hills and keep watch on all that is done at the agency. Let no spy approach us.”
The dance went on after that in a sort of frenzy, as if desperate by need. The cries of those who prayed were heart-breaking to hear. “O Great Spirit, save us; bring the happy land quickly, ere the white man slays us,” this they wailed over and over again, for the days were fleet and the wolves of winter near.
When the chief did not appear as he had promised, then the agent drew a dead line between the agency and the camp, and brought into play the forces of hunger and cold. He sent word to all the Grand River people, commanding them to move up and go into permanent camp near the agency. “Those who do not come will be cut off from their rations.” And to his clerk he said: “That will show the old chief’s followers where they stand.”