Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1877 — SITTING BULL. [ARTICLE]

SITTING BULL.

He Denounces Gen. Terry as a Liar, Rejects the Terms of the President, and Proclaims His Intention of Living in Canada——An Interesting Account of the Council at Fort Walsh. [From the Chicago Times.] Gen. Terry rose and addressed the Indiana, through the interpreter, as follows: We are sent as a commission by the President of the United States, at the request of the Government of the Dominion of Canada, to meet you. The President has instructed us to say to you that he desires us to make a lasting peace with you and your people. He desires that all hostilities shall cease and that all the people of the United States shall live together in harmony. He wishes this, not for the sake of whites alone, but for your sake as well. He has instructed us to say that if you will return to your country and hereafter refrain from acts of hostility against the United States Government and people, a free pardon will be given you for all acts Committed in the past, no matter what those acts have been. No attempt will be made to punish you or any man among you; what is past shall be forgotten, and that you shall be received in the friendly spirit in which the other Indians who have been engaged in hostilities against the United States, and have surrendered to its military forces, have been received. [Smile by Sitting Bull.] We will now explain to you what the President intends to say when he promises that in case you accept these terms you will be treated in as friendly a spirit as the Indians who have surrendered. These same terms are now offered you. The President cannot and will not consent that you should return to your country armed, mounted and prepared for war. He cannot consent that you should return prepared to inflict injuries similar to those which you have inflicted in the past; but he invites you to come to the boundary of his and your country, and there give up your arms and ammunition. [Spotted Eagle and other Indians laughed outright.] Thence to go to the agency which he will assign you, and there give up your horses, except those required for peaceful pursuits. We ask you to take these propositions into consideration, to take time, to consult together, and to weigh them carefully. When you have done so we shall be glad to meet and receive your answer.

Sitting Bull rose slowly to his feet, threw the robe off his shoulders, and displayed a blue calico shirt which was worn over his leggings. His leggings were made of dark blue cloth, with a dark stripe extending down the side, and around his neck was tied a red-banded handkerchief. Hia first sentences were uttered in a sha , vindictive manner, and his sentimei • n were re-echoed by his followers. The close of each sentence was followe by “How!” from all the Indians in the room, showing how closely they sympathized with him. As I watched the swaying body of the Indian and saw his mobile face light up as he spoke of the great wrongs of his people, and uttered his contempt and hatred for the American nation, I could not but admire the natural oratory which enabled him to speak so strongly. Every thought was expressed in a gesture more powerful than his word a could possibly be framed to read. When he cried, “You came here to tell us lies,” he advanced to the commission, and shook his forefinger at them with force and fury, and stood there until the translation had been made. When he told the commission to take it easy going back home, he essayed the only smile during his speech, and the irony was undoubtedly very fine. He spoke as follows :

For sixty-four years you have kept me and my people, and treated us bad. What have we done that you should want us ? We have done nothing. It is all the people of your side that have started us to do all these depredations. We could not go anywhere else, so we took refuge in this country of the British. It was on this side of the country that we learned to shoot, and that is the reason I came back to it again. Why do you come here ? In the first place I did not give you the country ; but you followed me from one place to another, so I had to leave and come over to this country. I did not give you any country, but you took it away from us. I was born and raised in this country, with the Red river half-breeds, and I intend to stop with them. I was raised hand-in-hand with the Red river half-breeds, and we are going over to that part of the country, and that is the reason why I have come over here.” [Shaking hands with the British officers, he proceeded :] That is the way I was raised in the hands of these people, and that is the way I intend to be with them. You have got ears to hear, and you have got eyes to see, and you see how I live with these people. You see me. Here I am. If you think lam a fool, you are a bigger fool than I am. This house is a medicine house. You come here to fell us lies, but we don’t want to hear them. I don’t wish any such language used to me, that is to tell me such lies in my great mother’s house. Don’t you say two words more. Go back home where you came from. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people. See, these people here were raised w’iththem,” [again shaking hands with the British officers,] that is enough. See me shaking hands with these people. The part of the country you gave me you run me out of. I have now come here to stay with these people, and I intend to stay here. I wish you to go back and to take it easy getting back.

On concluding his speech, Sitting Bull advanced and took Col. McLeod by the hand, and walking past the members of the commission, shook the hands of the other officers of the mounted police in the room, and, addressing a few words to his own people, sat down among them. • The Chief Nine, a Yanktonnai Sioux, who was concerned in the Minnesota massacre, shook hands with the Americans and Canadians. Nine is a finelooking savage He was dressed fantastically, and his face was smeared with black paint. He spoke as follows : I have shaken hands with everybody in the house. I don’t wear the same clothes that these people do. You came over here to tell lies on one another. I want to tell you a few, but you have got more lies than I can say. Sixty-four years ago you got our country and ?romised to take good care of us. Did you? ou ran us from one place to another, killing us, fighting us. I was born and raised with these people over here. I came here to see the council, to shake hands with you all. I wanted to tell you what I think of this. There are seven different tribes of us. They live all over the country. You kept part of us over there, and part of us are kept on this side. You didn’t treat us right over there, so we came back here. These people sitting round here you promised to take good care of them when you had them over there, but you did not fulfill your promises. They come over here to this side again, and here wo are all together. I came unto these people here, and they give me permission to trade with the traders. That is the way I make my living. Everything I get I buy from the traders. I don’t steal anything. For fourteen years I have not fought with your people, and that is what I have to say by waiting in your country. I come over here to these people, and these people, if they had a piece of tobacco, they give me part. That is why I live over here. I have a little powder in my pow-der-horn and I gave you a little fourteen years ago. Since then I have been over in this country. [Shaking hands again.] We came over to this country and I am going to live with these people here. This country over here is mine. The bullets we have over here I intend to kill something to eat with—not to kill anybody with them. That is what the people told me—to kill nothing but what I wanted to eat with the ammunition they give me. I will do so. Flying Bird, an Agolalla Sioux, wrapped in a white blanket strapped at his waist, and displaying a large revolver, advanced and said: These people here God Almightv raised, and together we have a little sense, and we ought to love one another. Sitting Bull here says that whenever you found us out wherever his country was, why you wanted to have it. It was Sitting Bull’s country. There are his people sitting all around me. What they committed I had nothing to do with. I was not in it. The soldiers find out where we live and they never think of anything good. It is always

something bad. [Shaking hands with the mounted police officers.] When Flying Bird ceased speaking the Indians rose to leave, but were stopped by the Canadian officers, to allow Gen. Terry to ask the following questions : Shall we say to the President that you refuse the offers that he has made to you ? Are we to understand from what you have said that you refuse those offers ? Sitting Bull, without rising from the floor, said in reply: I could tell you more, but that is all 1 have to tell you. If we told you more you would not pay any attention to it. That is all I have to say. This part of the country does not belong to your people. You belong on the other side. This side belongs to us. Sitting Bull inquired whether the commission had anything more to say, and was told that they had not The Indians then filed slowly out of the room. During the evening which followed, Col. MacLeod and Maj. Walsh met the Indians in their room and informed Sitting Bull what would be expected of him if he stayed on this side of the line. He was informed that if he went over on Americna soil he would make an enemy of the great mother, which is supposed to mean Queen Victoria. Sitting Bull replied that he was done with wars and intended to remain quietly among his friends. He also said that he intended to move his camp within a few miles of Fort Walsh to remain during the winter. The conference is ended. Whether the result is a diplomatic triumph for Mr. Evarts in compelling Canada to be responsible for the acts of this Sioux cut-throat will probably be determined in the future. Sitting Bull does not desire peace. At present he is suffering chagrin in being driven across the line and in being compelled to stay there. He was driven into Canada by Miles, and he knows that Miles will whip the daylights out of him if he comes across the line. Sitting Bull’s camp is filled with restless spirits, and they will cause plenty of trouble for either Canada or the United States yet. The disposition which the Canadian authorities will make with Sitting Bullis not yet known. The matter will necessarily have to be decided by the Secretary of State of the Dominion. The Canadian officers have an abiding faith that he will remain quiet, as also all the other Indians within their territory.