12/31/14
Dear Readers: I published this about 6 months ago and think it it worth repeating, especially the last sentence.
It seems that 135 years later, nothing has changed in Washington!
Dear Readers: I published this about 6 months ago and think it it worth repeating, especially the last sentence.
It seems that 135 years later, nothing has changed in Washington!
"At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bring
my friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came.
I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are some
things I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannot
understand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it did
General Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government has
something wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs are
allowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many different
things. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; the
Next Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief;
the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they all
say they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while all
their mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done for
my people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good words
do not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not pay
for my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun by
white men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay for
my horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children.
Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, General
Miles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can live
in peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comes
to nothing."