White chief

“ The Great White Chief has shown his power, and proven to us that our Korinos have lied to us. They must be destroyed. Let the people return to the village, and proceed with the feast. We shall be guided by the White Chief. ”

“ They had loved the whites, but those whites had now killed their chief because he had returned to his own people to fight for his kindred and nation—the chief who had loved them much, and made them rich and strong. They were now feared by their enemies, and respected by all; their prairies were covered with thousands of horses, and their lodges were full of the wealth derived from the whites. For this the white chief had killed him, and a war of extermination was denounced against them. The fort and its inmates were within their grasp ”

“ Hopothlayohola, the great red chief, turning from McIntosh as if disdaining him, addressed the commissioners of the Government:
"Our great father, your head chief at Washington, sent us a talk by you, which is pleasant to hear, because it promises the red man much—his friendship, his protection, and his help; but in return for this he asks of us much more than we are willing to give even for all his promises. The white man's promises, like him, are white, and bring hope to the red man; but they always end in darkness and death to him. ”

“ No doubt there will be fine times among the Americans."
"And there flies a white flag down at the river's edge—has that something to do with it?"
"Oh, the boat came in last evening. It is one of the great men up at the North, I think in the fur com [309] pany. But he has much influence over the Indian tribes, and somehow there is a whisper that there may be disaffection and another union such as there was in Pontiac's time, which heaven forbid! He is called the White Chief."
"The White Chief!" Jeanne stopped short in a maze of astonishment. ”

“ Shoz-Dijiji asked many questions and learned many things that night. With the braves he laughed at the white fools who fed the Apaches between raids while the blood of other white men was scarce dry upon them, and, who, while feeding them, sought to cheat them out of the bulk of the rations the Great White Chief had sent them; thus increasing their contempt for the whites, arousing their anger against them, and spurring them on to further outbreaks. ”

“ They are women. There are three chiefs—the white chief, the Spanish chief, and myself. The Spanish chief and myself are men. We do bad toward each other sometimes, stealing horses and taking scalps, but we do not get mad and act the fool. The white chief is a child, and like a child gets mad quick. When my young men, to keep their women and children from starving, take from the white man passing through our country, killing and driving away our buffalo, a cup of sugar or coffee, the white chief is angry and threatens to send his soldiers. ”

“ He has broken the Comanches; the Kiowas and Pawnees—all bend the neck to him. Ferocious leaders have been sent out from Washington with orders to gather all your race into certain small lands and there teach them the white man’s way. Whether they wish to do so or not does not matter. They must go or be blown to pieces by his guns. My friend, that is what they mean to do with you. They want you to come to the mouth of Grand River and to the Standing Rock, there to give up your hunting and learn the white man’s way. The great war chief of the whites has said it. ”

“ CHIEF RED CLOUD: I think this a great and good thing. Good things have come to us from the white man. When the white man came across the ocean we heard he was coming because there was land over here, and he brought us food to eat. The coming of this man to make these pictures, to be preserved in Washington and to be shown in great cities, means good to us, because the generations to come will know of our manners and customs. It is good, besides, to meet all these chiefs who are as brothers to one another. ”

“ Still resenting the presence of the whites on the plains, and still failing to appreciate the protection of the Great White Father at Washington, they were moved to many acts of violence under such indomitable leaders as Chief Joseph, Looking Glass, and White Bird to command their movements. ”

“ They have the firmest belief in their own superior courage. “You white people,” said a native chief, “are very good for building houses and ships, for buying and selling, for making cattle fat, and for growing beans and cabbages; you are like the rats, always at work; but as to fighting, you are like them also, you only know how to run.” ”

“ Deluded old Joseph! Vain was your effort; nor would a Chinese wall have long been an effectual barrier against the encroachments of the whites, who had seen and coveted the beautiful valley of the "Winding Waters." Ere long white settlers established homes inside the boundaries of the aged chief, in spite of his remonstrance. And the United States Government, instead of protecting him in his rights, coolly claimed that it had bought all the Nez Perces country outside of Lapwai reservation from Chief Lawyer and others. ”

“ Red Jacket was one of fifty chiefs who visited President Washington at Philadelphia, then the seat of government, in 1792. While there the President presented him with a silver medal, on which Washington, in military uniform, was represented as handing a long peace-pipe to an Indian chief with a scalp lock decorated with plumes on the top of his head, while a white man was plowing with a yoke of oxen in the background. This last figure was probably intended as a hint for the Indians to abandon war and the chase, and adopt the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. ”

“ The great white war chief has gone with his young men beyond Pah-sap-pah. There the warriors will strike him and destroy him. My brother's people are there."
The hate came back into the Indian's face with a flash. ”

“ Wlien he found out how fond the white men were of her, how she was regarded as their leader, and how a white man had made her his wife, the chief became their friend, seeing that they had all the rations and horses they required. ”

“ We shall keep them until your chief sends word that he will do as I say, and keep his men from raiding on this side of the river. The country here belongs to the Great White King, and if your people do wrong again, the Great White King will send men with big medicine to punish you. ”

“ Appalled and terrified, the white men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around them. A nod from the chiefs might be the onset of destruction. At this portentous moment, Farmer's Brother interposed. He replied not to his brother chief, but with sagacity truly aboriginal, he caused a cessation of the council, introduced good cheer, commended the eloquence of Red Jacket, and before the meeting had reassembled, with the aid of other prudent chiefs, he had moderated the fury of his nation to a more salutary view of the question before them. ”

“ An agent who had won the distinction of a militia general desired to impress the Indians. Dressed in uniform with chapeau, epaulets and dangling sword, he said: "Your Great Father thinks that one reason why he has had so much trouble with the Indians is that he has always sent to them civilians. This time he said, 'These red men are warriors; I will send to them a warrior,' and he sent me." An old chief arose, drew a long breath, and said: "I have heard ever since I was a boy that white men had their great warriors. ”

“ It was not until years afterward, during a conference between the colonists and the Indians, that the story was told of what had passed that fatal night at the Quaker's door. A chief, who had himself been a leader of the gang in the attack on the white settlement, declared that when he saw the latch-string out, the sign of fearless confidence made him change his mind. He held a short parley with his followers, and the substance of it was:
"These people are no enemies. See, they are not afraid of us. They are protected by the Great Spirit." ”

“ The great chief, himself, died in 1807, at the age of sixty-four years, saying to a white friend with his last breath: "Have pity on the poor Indian; if you have any influence with the great Englishmen, endeavor to do all the good that you can for the poor Mohawks." ”

“ There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people at the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. ”

“ The squaws brewed tizwin. In a group sat the warriors and the chiefs. Go-yat-thlay was still boasting about the exploit of his little Shoz-Dijiji.
“He will make a great warrior,” said he to Cochise, hereditary chief of the Cho-kon-en and war chief of all the Apaches. “I knew it from the first, for when he was taken from the wagon of his people he did not cry, although Juh dragged him out by one leg and held him with his head down. He did not cry then; he has never cried since.”
“He is the child of the white man,” growled Juh. “He should have been killed.” ”

“ After the wrong was consummated, when Joseph was permitted to go to Washington and talk to our wise men, he said, "I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. ”

“ The power of the United States was such, that unless they conquered that great nation, they must perish; that he would lead them instantly against the whites on one condition, and that was, that they should first put all their women and children to death, and then resolve, that having crossed the Mississippi, they would never return, but perish among the graves of [Pg 129] their fathers rather than yield them to the white-men. ”

“ That night the warriors drank deep of the tizwin the women had brewed, and as little Black Bear lay in his blankets he heard the shouting, the wild laughter, the fighting and dreamed of the day when he, too, should be a warrior and be able to sit up and drink tizwin and dance and fight; but most of all he wanted to fight the white man, not his own people.
Stealing the brains of the warriors was the tizwin until their actions were guided only by the stark brutish germ of savagery. Thus it came that Juh, seeing Go-yat-thlay, bethought himself of Shoz-Dijiji and his hate. ”

“ And so Geronimo sent runners to the four tribes, summoning Nanáy and Victorio and Loco, Hash-ka-ai-la, Co-si-to and Juh; and they all came and with Geronimo and the warriors of the Be-don-ko-he and the Cho-kon-en they sat before the wigwam of Cochise and while some beat upon hides stretched over sticks they all chanted songs that would fill the spirits of the white-eyed men with fear and drive them from the body of their war chief. ”

“ Her milk-white skin, her chestnut hair, her cornflower dress were bright and pure in colour as the sunlight itself. One pigeon floated down with outspread quiet wings and alit on her bare head, and she laughed as she shook it off: a careless laugh, a free gesture, which brought the blood to Lucian’s face. Then Farquhar’s hand fell on his arm, and he saw what he had not seen before, what Dolly, with her back turned, still did not see: the figure of a young man in a grey suit in the act of leaning a bicycle against the wall, a bicycle which unkindly refused to stand. ”

“ Shoz-Dijiji no kill until he find his people. If they on war trail Shoz-Dijiji fight with them. Shoz-Dijiji a war chief. White warriors kill. Apache warriors kill. That is right.”
“But you must not kill white people at all.”
“All right—you go tell white warriors they must not kill Apaches. They stop, Shoz-Dijiji stop. Now you go get pony for Shoz-Dijiji. Big talk no good now—no can eat—no can ride. ”

“ Some day there will be so many that we cannot kill them all; then what will become of the Apaches?”
“You have listened to the talk of Nanáy,” replied Shoz-Dijiji. “He is getting old. He does not know what he is talking about. The more white-eyes there are the more we can kill. Nothing would suit Shoz-Dijiji better. I hate them and when I am a great warrior I shall kill and kill and kill.”
“Yes,” said Gian-nah-tah, “that will be great medicine, if it does not happen that there are more white-eyes than we can kill. If there are we are the ones who will be killed.” ”

“ Shoz-Dijiji had been taught to look upon the white man not only as a deadly enemy, but as a coward and a liar; even as a traitor to his fellow whites, for it was not unknown to this little Apache boy that there were many white men who made a living selling rifles and ammunition to the Indians while their own troops were in the field against them. It was no wonder Shoz-Dijiji held the whites in contempt, or that to be called white was the bitterest insult that could be placed upon him. ”

“ Nan-ta-do-tash headed the izze-nantans who were preparing big medicine for use against the enemy, and with his own hands he prepared a phylactery for Shoz-Dijiji, calling down many blessings upon it.
The feast and the war dance aroused the braves to the highest pitch of excitement, to which the women added by their savage denunciation of the enemy and their demands upon their braves to go forth like men and slay the hated white-eyes; and when the dance was over the squaws accompanied the war party for several miles out of camp toward the point the chiefs had chosen for attack upon the morrow. ”