I cannot report here the reflection that such a circumstance suggests,——only that he, with the usual solemn face of an Indian in council, seemed the personification of loneliness.
The speeches made by these people evinced more sense than their appearance indicated. They were dependent on the Government, and felt their helplessness. When the usual speeches had been made preliminary to business talk, I said to them that I was gratified at the advancement they had made, considering the circumstances, and that I was willing for them to express their wishes in regard to the expenditure of money in their interest.
They were loth to speak on this matter, because they had never been consulted, and a recognition of their manhood was more than they had expected. After some deliberation, during which they, like bashful boys, asked one another, each nudging his neighbor to speak first, old Joshua at last arose, half hesitatingly, and said, “Maby, I don’t understand you. Do you mean that we may say what we want bought for us? Nobody ever said that before, and it seems strange to me.”
I had consulted the agent before making this experiment, and he had doubted the propriety; not because he was unwilling to recognize their manhood in the premises, but he feared they would betray weakness for useless articles, and thereby bring derision on his efforts to civilize them. Perhaps it might establish a precedent that would be troublesome sometimes.
He exhibited great anxiety when Old Joshua rose, lest he would disgrace his people by asking for beads, paint, and powder, and lead, and scarlet cloth. I can see that agent yet, with his deep-set eyes fixed on the speaker, while he rested his chin on his cane. Old Joshua spoke again, and, though he was considered a “terrible brave on the warpath,” and had passed the better portion of his life in that way, now when, for the first time in his life, he was called upon to give opinions on a serious matter, concerning the investment of money for his people, he appeared to be transformed into a _man_. He _was_ a man. Hear him talk:——
“I am old; I can’t live long. I want my people to put away the old law (meaning the old order of things). I want them to learn how to work like white men. They cannot be Indians any longer. We have had some things bought for us that did us no good,——some blankets that I could poke my finger through; some hoes that broke like a stick. We don’t want these things. We want _ploughs_, _harness_, chick-chick (_wagons_), _axes_, good hoes, a few blankets for the old people. These we want. We have been promised these things. They have not come.”