248 The " Dreamers " of the Columbia River Valley. 



angry at this, and he took away their wings and commanded that the 

 lands and fisheries should be common to all who lived upon them. 

 That they were never to he marked off or divided, but that the 

 people should enjoy the fruits that Cod planted in the land and the 

 animals that lived upon it, and the fishes in the water. God said he 

 was the father, and the earth was the mother of mankind ; that nature 

 »vas the law ; that the animals and fish and plants obeyed nature, and 

 that man only was sinful. This is the old law. 



I know all kinds of men. First there tuere my people (the Indians) 

 God made them first. Then he made a Frenchman (referring to the 

 Canadian Yoyageurs of the Hudson Bay Company), and then he made 

 upriest (priests were with these expeditions of the Hudson Bay Com- 

 pany). A long time after that came "Boston man" (Americans 

 came in 1796 into the river in the ship Columbia from Boston). And 

 then "King George men" (English soldiers). Bye and bye came 

 "black man" (negroes), and last he made a Chinaman with a tail. 

 He is of no account, and he has to work all the time. 



All these are new people; only the Indians are of the old stock. 

 After awhile, when God is ready, he will drive away all the people 

 except the people who have obeyed his laws^ 



Those who cut up the lands or sign papers for lands will be defrauded 

 of their rights, and will be punished by God's anger. 



Moses was bad. God did not love him. He sold his people's houses 

 and the graves of their dead. It is a bad word that comes from Wash- 

 ington. It is not a good law that would take my people away from me 

 to make them sin against the laws of God. You ask me to plough the 

 ground ! Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom ? Then 

 when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. 



You ask me to dig tor stone ! Shall I dig under her skin for her 

 bones ? Then when I die I can not enter her body to be born again. 



You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like 

 white men, but how dare I cut off my mother's hair ? 



It is a bad law and my people can not obey it. I want my people 

 to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again; their 

 spirit- will come to their bodies again.- We must wait here, in the 

 homes of our fathers, and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our 

 mother. 



