Post by hconroy on Mar 19, 2015 18:31:43 GMT -5
Here is Big Shadows's speech at Horse Creek. This must have been quite a picture. Too bad an artist was not present to record it.
I am very proud of my ancestor!
Sept. 11, Thursday (published in the Missouri Republican on Nov. 9, 1851) Editor B. Gratz Brown
Big Robber, a Crow Chief, very elegantly dressed, as fine a specimen of a man, large, well-developed, and symmetrical, with as intelligent a face I ever saw, was introduced, and addressed the commissioners. He made the most sensible speech I heard from the Indians. He said:
"Father the Crows are a small nation, and these that are with me here have been selected to come and see you, and do whatever is most for the good of the Crow people. We live a great way off, many days from here, and we have little to do with the whites, but are willing to be at peace with them. As to making peace with the other Indian Nations here, I have but little to say. We do not come into their country to war with them, but we are not afraid of them if they come into ours. But, Father, if you desire us to make peace with them, we are willing to do it, for we think it would be for the good of all to be at peace and have no more war. I am but a young man-our old men are home. We listen to our old men. They told us to come here to see what we could do for the good of our people and they told us that what we did they would abide by and sustain it, both with the whites and the Indians.
Father, I have not two hearts, what I propose expect to perform, and my people will sustain me. Father, all nations have a big chief-my people have theirs, he is only a child yet but in the future he will be a great chief, for his people will sustain him. Hereafter if any wrongs are done on any person in his country he will see that the guilty are punished. Our young men, Father, will go to war sometimes, in defiance of the wish and orders of the old men, and they will commit wrong; but we hope we will be able to restrain them hereafter.
Father, I want all the red men here to see me and understand what I have told you-that if hereafter, it is performed, they may know who it was that promised; and if it is not fulfilled, that they may laugh at the Crows and the men who spoke. The sun, moon, and earth are all witnesses of the truth I have spoken and that all I have promised will be fulfilled."
When Big Robber had concluded Mountain Tall, another Crow Chief, stepped forward and said:
"Father, this man Arra-tu-resash, or the Big Robber, is the man we have selected to be the Chief of the Crow Nation. What he has promised you he will perform, and the nation will sustain him and we hope that you Father, and all the whites, will sustain him."
The commissioners saluted him as Chief of the Crows, and presented him with the usual presents to distribute among his people.
I am very proud of my ancestor!
Sept. 11, Thursday (published in the Missouri Republican on Nov. 9, 1851) Editor B. Gratz Brown
Big Robber, a Crow Chief, very elegantly dressed, as fine a specimen of a man, large, well-developed, and symmetrical, with as intelligent a face I ever saw, was introduced, and addressed the commissioners. He made the most sensible speech I heard from the Indians. He said:
"Father the Crows are a small nation, and these that are with me here have been selected to come and see you, and do whatever is most for the good of the Crow people. We live a great way off, many days from here, and we have little to do with the whites, but are willing to be at peace with them. As to making peace with the other Indian Nations here, I have but little to say. We do not come into their country to war with them, but we are not afraid of them if they come into ours. But, Father, if you desire us to make peace with them, we are willing to do it, for we think it would be for the good of all to be at peace and have no more war. I am but a young man-our old men are home. We listen to our old men. They told us to come here to see what we could do for the good of our people and they told us that what we did they would abide by and sustain it, both with the whites and the Indians.
Father, I have not two hearts, what I propose expect to perform, and my people will sustain me. Father, all nations have a big chief-my people have theirs, he is only a child yet but in the future he will be a great chief, for his people will sustain him. Hereafter if any wrongs are done on any person in his country he will see that the guilty are punished. Our young men, Father, will go to war sometimes, in defiance of the wish and orders of the old men, and they will commit wrong; but we hope we will be able to restrain them hereafter.
Father, I want all the red men here to see me and understand what I have told you-that if hereafter, it is performed, they may know who it was that promised; and if it is not fulfilled, that they may laugh at the Crows and the men who spoke. The sun, moon, and earth are all witnesses of the truth I have spoken and that all I have promised will be fulfilled."
When Big Robber had concluded Mountain Tall, another Crow Chief, stepped forward and said:
"Father, this man Arra-tu-resash, or the Big Robber, is the man we have selected to be the Chief of the Crow Nation. What he has promised you he will perform, and the nation will sustain him and we hope that you Father, and all the whites, will sustain him."
The commissioners saluted him as Chief of the Crows, and presented him with the usual presents to distribute among his people.