The governor adjourned the council to the next day, urging them to talk and agree among themselves as to the reservation.
The following day the governor called on the chiefs to speak their minds freely.
Big Canoe, a Pend Oreille chief, made a long and sententious speech, in which he deprecated making any treaty, or parting with any of his country, and thought the whites and Indians could live together in the same land:—
“Talk about treaty, when did I kill you? When did you kill me? What is the reason we are talking about treaties? We are friends. We never spilt the blood of one of you. I never saw your blood. I want my country. I thought no one would ever want to talk about my country. Now you talk, you white men. Now I have heard, I wish the whites to stop coming. Perhaps you will put me in a trap if I do not listen to you, white chiefs. It is our land, both of us. If you make a farm, I would not go there and pull up your crops. I would not drive you away from it. If I were to go to your country and say, ‘Give me a little piece,’ I wonder would you say, ‘Here, take it.’ I expect that is the same way you want me to do here. This country you want to settle here, me with you.... You tell us, ‘Give us your land.’ I am very poor. This is all the small piece I have got. I am not going to let it go. I did not come to make trouble; therefore I would say, I am very poor....
“It is two winters since you passed here. Every year since, my horses have gone to the Blackfeet. Here this spring the Blackfeet put my daughter on foot. She packed her goods on her back. It made me feel bad. I was going on a war-party as your express passed along. Then I think of what I heard from you, my father, and take my heart back and keep quiet. If I had not listened to your express, I should have gone on war-parties over yonder. We drove one band of horses from the Blackfeet. I talked about it to my Indians. I said, ‘Give the horses back, my children.’ My chief took them back. You talked about it strong, my father. My chief took them back. That is the way we act. When I found my children were going on war-parties, I would tell them to stop, be quiet; tell them I expect now we will see the chief; I expect he will talk to the Blackfeet again.”
Governor Stevens: “I will ask you, my children, if you fully understand all that was said yesterday? I ask you now, can you all agree to live on one reservation? I ask Victor, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays? I ask Alexander, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Koo-te-nays? I ask Michelle, are you willing to go on the same reservation with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles? What do you, Victor, Alexander, and Michelle, think? You are the head chiefs. I want you to speak.”
Victor: “I am willing to go on one reservation, but I do not want to go over yonder” [Pend Oreille country].
Alexander: “It is good for us all to stop in one place.”
Michelle: “I am with Alexander.”
Governor Stevens: “The Pend Oreilles and Koo-te-nays think it well to have all these tribes together. Perhaps Victor might think so by and by, if the place suits. Alexander and Michelle wish to live together, their people on one place,—they have a thousand people, the land ought to be good. Each man wants his field. The climate ought to be mild....