HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 285 



brief friendship sought to protect me from their 

 own tribe. 



From Montana to New Mexico, from Arizona 

 to the Everglades of Florida, I have always 

 found the Indian responsive to kindness. For 

 his deep distrust of the Government there has 

 been too much good reason. From Comanche 

 and Shoshone, from Navajo and Hopi, I have 

 carried pleas to official Washington. The Flor- 

 ida Seminoles who have received the least consid- 

 eration while meriting the most, have long re- 

 fused to ask anything of the Government, except- 

 ing to be let alone. For years I have sought to 

 call public attention to their needs and the effort 

 has not been without fruit. 



Thirty years after the council with the Co- 

 manches and Kiowas I thought to visit my friends 

 of the former tribe. 



Not a familiar face, not a familiar place did 

 I find. The only inhabitants that were un- 

 changed were the few prairie dogs that were left. 

 Where the council met were the stations of two 

 great railroad systems. Where I had camped 



