The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (2 Vol, unabridged) volume 1 and 2

The Great Father

FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA

The United States Government and the American Indians Volumes I and II Unabridged

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS

LINCOLN AND LONDON

Acknowledgments for the use of copyrighted material appear on pp. xxxi-xxxii. Copyright I 984 by the University of Nebraska Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the minimum r�quirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences­ Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Prucha, Francis Paul. The great father. Includes index. I. Indians of North America­

Government relations. I. Title. E93.P9654 323.I'19 707 3

I984 83-16837

ISBN o-8032-366,8-9 {alk. paper) ISBN 0-8032-8734-8 (pbk)

First Bison Book {combined and unabridged Volumes I and II) printing : 1995 Most recent printing indicated by the last digit below: IO

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For the Jesuits of Marquette University, with whom I have lived and worked for many years

When your GREAT FATHER and his chiefs see those things, they will know that you have opened your ears to your GREAT FATHER's voice, and have come to hear his good Councils. Lewis and Clark, in presenting American flags and medals to Oto chiefs, 1 804

Friends and Brothers,-The business part of our Council is closed. But we have seen who are your great men. We stand here to put medals :around their necks . . . . All these medals have on one side of them your GREAT FATHER's face, and on the other side is his pipe, his peace hatchet, and his hand. Friends and Brothers,-You are never to forget that this is a great gift. It comes from your GREAT FATHER himself, who sends it to you by our hands . It is a new heart. Your GREAT FATHER has told us to come up here, and put it in the breast of his great Chippeway children. No bad blood belongs to this heart. It is an American heart, and is full of good bloodi and if you will open your ears and listen well, and never forget your GREAT FATHER's message, it will make you all happy. Thomas L. McKenney at treaty negotiations with the Chippewa Indians, I 826 They [the Indians] look to our government for protectioni rely upon its kindness and its poweri appeal to it for relief to their wantsi and address the president as their GREAT FATHER. John Marshall in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 1 8 3 1 This is a great day for you and for us. A day of peace and friendship between you and the whites for all time to come. You are about to be paid for your lands, and the GREAT FATHER has sent me today to treaty with you concerning the payment . .. . . And the GREAT FATHER wishes you to have homes, pastures for your horses and fishing places. He wishes you to learn to farm and your children to go to a good schooli and he now wants me to make a bargain with you, in which you will sell your lands and in return be provided with all these things. Isaac I. Stevens at a council with Nisqually, Puyallup, and Squaxon Indians, 1 8 5 4

My friends : Your GREAT FATHER whose heart is right, and who loves his red as well as his white children, has heard there is trouble between the whites and Indians on the plains . He has heard that there is war and that blood has been shed. He is opposed to war and loves peace and his heart is sad. He has sent all these big Chiefs to see you and to ascertain what is wrong. . . . Now, if your GREAT FATHER did not love you, he would not send all these big Chiefs so many hundred of miles to hunt you up and converse with you. We are sent here to enquire of you and find out what is the trouble between the white men and you. Nathaniel G. Taylor, president of the Indian Peace Commission, speaking to Si