682 THE GEGIHA LANGUAGE—MYTHS, STORIES, AND LETTERS. 
for your part, O white people, are of various kinds, and weare so too. If on the one 
hand the Dakotas hate us, and on the other hand you dislike us, how can we hope to 
live? That being the case, we wish to live, and so we wish to proceed towards you. 
Even though it is possible for us to fail, still we wish to acquire the privilege of living 
as white people. For only in that way can we prosper. Now, I have told you enough 
about that subject. I will tell you about another matter. We work for ourselves be- 
cause we wish to live. We work for ourselves because we know full well that it is 
good for us. But this season we are in great trouble. Our wheat has been withered 
by the heat; therefore we have not realized from our wheat crop more than thirty or 
forty cents a bushel. Consequently it seems as if we had not accomplished anything 
at all for ourselves. Yet we have different kinds of vegetables; we have cultivated 
them for ourselves; potatoes and corn, for instance. And when we see these white 
persons (who are near us) we think, “They surely prosper!” Therefore we desire (to 
imitate them). It has been just three years since we began to have tools, as we have 
learned that all tools that are your own are life-sustaining. And we know very well 
that we ought to try to work at various occupations, therefore we desire to do this. 
And when we write this letter to you God is, as it were, sitting with us; therefore 
we hope that you will not talk at all about (depriving us of) our land. We wish to 
keep our own, therefore we petition to you. We petition on the one hand to you 
who have aided us Indians, and we petition on the other hand to you who are on the 
other side. Pity us Omaha Indians. We do not refer to all tribes, we refer to our- 
selves alone. 
LE-UyA*HA TO A. B. MEACHAM. (Same date.) 
Kagéha, wib¢aha® cu¢ca¢é ta minke. HKbé ¢i etéetéwa® maja” 
My friend, I pray to you I send to you T will. Who heis soever land 
: : E =p : : r ul Mok 
¢an’di nija mati" ga™¢ai, eb¢éga". Nikaci”ga fe awdna‘a” yi, i’cte 
in the alive to walk he wishes, J think that. Person word I hear them when, asif 
: edie se : of SNS Econ ae ¥ ory 
snia”tvéqti éga™. Ki maja” ¢a" pahan’ga awan'yig¢itai té wa¢éte 
Tam very chilly so. And land the , before — we worked for ourselves the food 
. . 58 . . ey, / , Joe , aT Says 
ar¢a niyaqtia® anyfig¢ita’i ha. Gand’ ¢ tida” éska"b¢éga". Nikaci’ ga 
we lived by means of we worked for ; Andthen that good I think that. Person 
‘ ourselves (2) 
qi”ha-jide ¢i" ctécté maja” ¢an’di nija magi” ga” ¢ai ha. Gate maja™ 
red-skin heis soever land in the alive to walk he wishes a That land 
. is . . . a r v al 
inawa¢é téga® Wakan‘da i"wi’¢ai ¢éga", fe uwib¢a cu¢déa¢e. Eskana 
life-sustaining inorder God told me as, word I tell you I send it to Oh that 
that you. 
wib¢aha" cu¢éa¢é fe té nize ka*b¢éga". Ké, kagéha, céna wib¢aha® 
I pray to you Isend it to word the you re- I hope. Come. friend, enough I pray to you 
z you ceive it 
, y 
cu¢ea¢e. 
I send it to 
you. 
NOTES. 
682, 2 and 3. Nikacitga - - - snia™t’éqti ega". Refers to what the white people 
were talking about. Such talk chilled him, made him shudder. 
682, 4. Gand e uda*, ete. Gand (e) has a good meaning, being prob.=ganyi (W.). 
