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JOSEPH LA FLECHE TO A. B. MEACHAM. 681 
679, 8. Another parenthetical remark, at the beginning of the third day’s 
dictation. 
680, 5. ega™ a®¢i", contracted by the speaker, in dictation, to eg a¢i". 
“TRANSLATION. 
My friend, as I think of you to-day, I write you a letter of a few words. My friend, 
I hope that you may hear what I speak. Last winter I told you about one thing. I 
continue to tell you the words which I succeeded in writing to you last winter. As 
God made us here in the land in which we dwell, here we dwell. Before the white 
people came we thought that the land was ours. But the President said that the 
land was sold, and so it was sold. We reserved for ourselves a very small part of the 
land, and that we have for ourselves. But the white people wish to take that from 
us and send us to another land; that is very hard for us! To deprive us of our land 
would be just like killing us. But we wish to live, therefore I write a letter to you. 
And you think “Indians are bad!” Therefore we tell you that we will live as white 
people. This is the very truth which we tell you. And when we live as white 
people, we wish to keep our own land. Therefore we wish to live as white people. 
(Although I wish to tell you all the things which are difficult for us, I can not do it; 
so perhaps on another day I will tell you some again.) . . . . My friend, when 
white people, Americans, who have seen Indians tell you anything, they usually tell 
you what is true about them. And those who have not seen them at all generally 
say, “It is said that Indians are bad.” When they talk together they say, “The In- 
dians are very bad.” Now, my friend, we hope that you may speak what is in your 
heart, and, having God in mind, have pity on us who are Indians! Whether it is 
night or day, we are ever apprehending some trouble. My friend, I wish to make a 
very few remarks upon another matter. You white people say that we are to have 
the white soldiers for agents. But we know about the soldiers. And as we know 
about them, we fear to see them (among us). Wedonot want them. We know about 
them because the first agents that we had were soldiers. They usually act just as if 
they were the only human beings! And when they wished to abuse a man ora woman, 
they usually abused the person in utter defiance of all our ideas and customs. Even 
if they wished to kill them, they usually killed them. In fact, they usually treated 
them just as so many hogs and dogs. Therefore we do not want them (among us 
acain). When the Indians did wrong, they were not usually the first offenders. Even 
when the soldiers did wrong first, they usually concealed their bad deeds, and showed 
to the President the bad deeds of the Indians. . . . . (And, my friend, [add some 
words again. Though there are here and there among us Indians those who speak 
very true and honest words, the President does not, as it were, accept them from us 
as true. He accepts only the words of the agent. That is very hard for us to bear. 
That is the chief thing which gives us trouble.) And though I will repeat one subject, 
still I will say it just as I have done. The President (?) hates us Indians who have 
sold our land to him, and who continue the cultivation of the soil, treating us as if we 
were those Indians called the Sioux. You think that we are just like all Indians; but 
we are unlikethem. Some Indians desire (to act) on the side of the white people, and 
others are not so. The latter are those called Sioux. And when you think that we 
are just alike, we are not so, we are unlike. We Indians are of different nations. You, 
