“Some of our chiefs have got lazy, and instead of cultivating their lands themselves, employ white people to do so.  There are now eleven families living on our reservation at Buffalo; this is wrong, and ought not to be permitted.  The great source of all our grievances is, that the whites are among us.  Let them be removed, and we will be happy and contented among ourselves.  We now cry to the governor for help, and hope that he will attend to our complaints, and speedily give us redress."[21]

This melancholy hostility to the missionaries is not confined to a particular tribe or nation of Indians, for all those people, in every situation, from the base of the Alleghanies to the foot of the Rocky mountains, declare the same sentiments on this subject; and although policy or courtesy may induce some chiefs to express themselves less strongly than Red-jacket has expressed himself, we have but too many proofs that their feelings are not more moderate.  On the fourth of February, 1822, the president of the United States, in council, received a deputation of Indians, from the principal nations west of the Mississippi, who came under the protection of Major O’Fallon, when each chief delivered a speech on the occasion.  I shall here insert an extract from that of the “Wandering Pawnee” chief, more as a specimen of Indian wisdom and eloquence than as bearing particularly on the subject.  Speaking of the Great Spirit, he said, “We worship him not as you do.  We differ from you in appearance, and manners, as well as in our customs; and we differ from you in our religion.  We have no large houses, as you have, to worship the Great Spirit in:  if we had them to-day, we should want others to-morrow; for we have not like you a fixed habitation—­we have no settled home except our villages, where we remain but two months in twelve.  We, like animals, rove through the country; whilst you whites reside between us and heaven.  But still, my great Father, we love the Great Spirit—­we acknowledge his supreme power—­our peace, our health, and our happiness depend upon him, and our lives belong to him—­he made us, and he can destroy us.

“My great Father,—­some of your good chiefs, as they are called (missionaries), have proposed to send some of their good people among us to change our habits, to make us work for them, and live like the white people.  I will not tell a lie—­I am going to tell the truth.  You love your country—­you love your people—­you love the manner in which they live, and you think your people brave.  I am like you, my great Father; I love my country—­I love my people—­I love the manner in which we live, and think myself and warriors brave.[22] Spare me then, my Father; let me enjoy my country, and pursue the buffalo and the beaver, and the other wild animals of our country, and I will trade their skins with your people.  I have grown up and lived thus long without work—­I am in hopes you will suffer me to die without it.  We have plenty