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Page 285

Members of the great Siouan family of Indians were to be found in almost every quarter of the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Their activities were somewhat limited towards the south so they were seldom seen south of the Red River. They were found north beyond the limits of the present boundary between the United States and Canada.

Of this widely scattered family the Osage in many respects are fair representatives. They wandered long distances from their home on the Osage and Gasconade rivers. If one may believe their traditions they went into the south as far as Mexico where they obtained coffee and went into the far north on hunting trips. Without doubt they frequently reached the foot hills of the Rockies.

Their predatory habits never left them so they were often found visiting the trading posts established along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Thus very early they came in contact with white men. Unless De Soto saw them, they were first seen by the French with whom they have had no little experience. Whether it was due to their knowledge of the country or merely a desire to wander, they were frequently engaged on long hunting trips made by the French traders. Marquette met them when he was on the Mississippi River and its tributaries and on his map he located them in the vicinity of what is now Jefferson City, Missouri. To them he gave the name "Ouchage" which is not wholly unlike the name applied to themselves which is "Whashaah," or "Wa-sha-shee."²

Early in 1688 a French Canadian trader is known to have gone overland to the Rio Grande which no doubt took him through their territory and by 1694 the French Canadian traders were among the Osages.³ A few years later, 1719, Du Tisnet was sent by Bienville to explore the western wilderness and in his travels he met these Indians on one of their rivers which he named Osage. The next year Renault with his lieutenant, La Motte, and five hundred negro slaves arrived at Fort Chartres and at once sent out exploring parties in all directions seeking precious ores. They opened lead mines in the vicinity of Potosi and established intimate commercial relations with the Osages. These explorations were followed up in 1722 by Bourg-

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mont who was sent to check Spanish aggressions as well as to open trade. Two years later he had a number of Osages to accompany him on his expeditions.

It was the policy of the French to intermarry with the Indians. This helps to account for so much French interest among them and the frequent finding of French names. The influence of the French Catholics may account for the partial failure of the Protestant missionaries among the Osages. At any rate the Catholic religion was more readily accepted by them if one may judge by the results.

When the English interests were pushed west as a result of the French and Indian War it was but logical that the French activities would be somewhat limited. In 1766 a young man, Matthew Clarkson, was sent by a Philadelphia commercial firm whose western headquarters were at Fort Chartres. Clarkson met Osages here and at Kaskaskia. From them and the old French traders he learned something of their customs and manners.⁴ Trade with them was somewhat divided between the French and English (American) traders. The knowledge of the white man began to grow among the Osages.

Soon after the purchase of Louisiana a treaty was signed between the Osage tribes and the United States at Fort Clarkson on the Missouri River. This was done November 10, 1808. This treaty afforded a basis for many others that followed in rather rapid succession. It was a very good piece of work on the part of the commissioners and could it have been carried out as intended the Osages today might have a somewhat different history. By its provisions a store was established for them and protection guaranteed but for all this compensation was made by their cession of lands. They agreed to accept as their eastern boundary a line running due south from Fort Clarkson to the Arkansas River.⁵

Peace could not be kept with their white neighbors who soon began to come in and with the Indians living to the west. Settlement of their troubles was the old story of treaties with provisions for peace, rewards of money and privileges but duly paid for with contracting boundaries. In 1819 they were compelled to cede that portion of their land which is now northwestern Arkansas. Soon afterwards the Osages were hard pressed by incoming Indians from the east and by the ever increasing number of whites. Serious quarrels resulted and a great land adjustment had to be made. They were forced to cede to the United States all their lands and accept a reservation, which, however, lay within their accustomed territory. This was done by the treaty of 1825 and by its provisions they were to occupy a strip of land extending west from a north and south line twenty-five miles west of the boundary of Missouri. The southern boundary of this reservation was nearly that of the present Oklaho-

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ma-Kansas state line. Gradually they were forced on to this reservation which they occupied for many years. At this time, 1825, the Osages probably numbered eight thousand souls.

Such is a brief survey of their early relations with the white man. For more than a century and a half they had felt the invasion and aggression that was sure to result in their defeat and the white man’s supremacy. This long contact with that which is called civilization by the white men but considered slavery by the Indians had left an indelible imprint. Their traditions were contaminated by the white man’s institutions and their religion suffered as a consequence. No longer could they go to their morning prayers in an open field and loudly lament and howl to their gods, Meh-Woh-kun-dah, Me-em-pah-Woh-kun-dah, Groh-Woh-kun-dah and Moi-neh-ka-Woh-kun-dah.⁶ Neither could they mourn for their dead as they formerly had done. Even they were told it was wrong to offer their accustomed prayer with the first whiff of tobacco smoke which was, "Tobacco, I smoke to thee, god; give me a good path, make me a good warrior."

The great outdoors was closing in on the Osage. He was no longer able to hunt everywhere he wished. He always had numerous enemies and had fought them for one of two reasons—either because he merely wished to or was compelled to do so. Now he was compelled to forego his choice; he had to fight. It soon appeared that he must become a white man in all but color; he must try to learn in a few years what his teachers and their ancestors had learned in centuries.

It was in the spring of 1819 that the United Foreign Mission Society of New York sent Epaphras Chapman and Job Vinall to see what could be done for the Osages. A great task laid in front of them and before the journey was completed Vinall met the fate of his many successors,—not death at the hands of the Osages for they were never guilty of killing those who came to help them, but death as the result of fevers, malaria and exposure.

Chapman made his way back to New York and the next year was ready to lead a mission family to the West. He had already selected a location on the Grand River (Neosho), a tributary of the Arkansas River. This delegation consisted of seventeen adults and a few children. They left New York April 20, 1820 and took the accustomed route via Pittsburgh and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and then up the Arkansas.

The mission family stopped for several days here and there in the first part of their journey. These delays were generally profitable in that a great deal of money was collected for the enterprise. This was not solicited but freely contributed by churches, individuals and various cities where sympathy with the missonary movement was in evidence.

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Under the date of April 27, 1820, written at Philadelphia, the journal reads: "The collections taken up and donations in Philadelphia amounted in all to nearly $700 exclusive of contributions in necessary articles of clothing, books, medicine and to the amount of $1200 more."

A merchant of Pittsburgh donated $100 to the party. In addition to this the journal entry of May 21, 1820, states that at Pittsburg, "a collection had been taken up during the last week, the citizens of this place have contributed in articles of their own manufactory such as farming utensils, mechanic tools, articles of provisions etc., to the amount of about $1200."

Farther down the Ohio the citizens of Cincinnati gave generously to the amount of $500. It must be remembered that Cincinnati was not an old city abounding in wealth at this time. When all the collections had been totaled with the money supplied by the Board at New York and that appropriated by the United States government the sum was nearly $13,000.⁷

As the party made its way up the Arkansas River the members began to sicken and by July 25th two of the women had died. Upon reaching Little Rock they made a temporary camp and lived in tents and log houses while some of the men proceeded to the proposed mission site to prepare lodging for the winter. Here on the west bank of the Grand River about twenty-five miles above its confluence with the Arkansas they began Union Mission.

When the remainder of the party at Little Rock was able to go on, the river having risen making it possible to use boats, men were employed to help move to the station. Through the late winter and early spring months the long journey was finally completed. A happy entry is found in the journal which to the missionaries meant both an end and a beginning. The following was written: "Union Lords day February 18th. about ten oclock this morning reached the long look (ed) for Station after a journey of nearly ten months attended with many delays, and disappointments. It has been a day of joy and gladness to us all."

Rapidly as possible the mission family set to work and soon accumplated considerable property,—five horses, twenty-three cattle, more than seventy hogs and had one hundred acres in cultivation. They soon constructed a building eighty feet long and eighteen feet wide by placing cabins end to end. This was done with no little difficulty and much hard labor. All this was needed to maintain the mission family, the school and the Indians that might come to them for instruction.

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Today all that remains of this one time thriving mission are a few mounds here and there that mark building sites now overgrown with trees and scattered about are piles of stones that were foundations, doorsteps and walks. A grim reminder more impressive than all this are the graves of several of the members of this intrepid group of frontier missionaries. On a hill about two hundred yards northwest of the building sites are the marked graves of those who gave their lives that Indians might learn of God. Here is the broken slab of native stone that bears the inscription

In
Memory of
REV. EPAPHRAS CHAPMAN
who died 7 Jan. 1825;
Aged 32.
First Missionary to the
Osages.

"Say among the heathen the Lord reigneth."

After the death of Chapman the mission family was led by William Vaill and the good Doctor Palmer aiding only as a physician could in the primitive lands. It was no small task to be responsible for all that was to be done. Under Vaill’s leadership the mission prospered well.

During the winter of 1821 and 1822 the missionaries found coal about fifteen miles from the mission. This they hauled home and burned. The first winter was not so hard as might be expected if we may judge by their Journal of December 26, 1821 when they killed "6 fat oxen," had coal to burn and obtained salt from "Bean’s Saline" six miles away. They must have spent a somewhat pleasant season but no one envied their lot.

In the summer of 1820 an Osage chief from his tribe on the Marias de Cygne, Missouri, visited Washington and in conversation with Colonel McKinney, Superintendent of Indian trade, requested that missionaries come and teach his people how to live like white men. His request was communicated to the United Foreign Mission Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, the latter in Boston. Since the former was already in the field among the Osages the establishment of a second Osage mission was undertaken by it. A call was sent out for missionaries and by the first of March, 1821 a second mission family was ready to leave New York. This family was larger than that of the preceding year. It consisted of twenty-five adults and sixteen children. N. P. Dodge was selected Superintendent to direct the establishment of this station which was to be called Harmony and to be located on the north bank of the Marias de Cygne six miles above its entrance into the Osage river and eighty miles southwest of Fort Osage. Harmony

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Mission soon communicated with Union and established intimate relations which served to make mission life more pleasant.

About twenty-eight miles west of Union Mission was Clermont’s village.⁸ It was described as containing more than 250 lodges and "probably 3000 souls." Several years before the founding of this mission Auguste P. Chouteau had induced Clermont’s band to come into this region to hunt and trap for furs for which he traded. This accounts for the separation of the Osages,—one part of the tribe living in Missouri and the other on the Grand River or in its vicinity. Clermont was generally friendly to the missionaries but was never enthusiastic about their work. On the other hand Tolly, the second chief, always evinced the greatest interest.⁹ He even brought his daughters and son to the mission school, however, only the son stayed here for instruction.

As soon as the work in religious instruction at Union Mission was ready to begin, war broke out between the recently removed "Western Cherokees" and the Osages¹⁰. This was progressing as most desultory Indian wars do until June, 1821, when the Cherokees killed a halfbreed Frenchman, Joseph Revard, who was of the Chouteau trading post on the Grand River, while the tribe was on a summer hunt. This murder greatly enraged the Osages who, upon their return, renewed the war in all seriousness. It was quite unsafe for small parties of either tribe to be caught unprotected and attacks were made without notice.

About the first of November of this same year a party of Osage hunters were overtaken by the Cherokees and nearly a hundred of the former were either killed or taken prisoners. During this time while the Osage warriors were absent leaving the old men, women and children at home helpless, the Cherokees fell upon their encampment. All who could fled for their lives but were pursued for one day and part of another until all fell a sacrifice to their enemies. They lost their peltries, meat, horses and most of the few utensils they possessed.

The Osages were left much the loser by the summer and fall campaigns. For this they blamed Major Bradford whom they expected to keep the Cherokees at home while they, the Osages, were away from their villages but he had neither the authority or power to do this.¹¹ Major Bradford was commander of the garrison at Fort Smith.

Throughout the winter the war dragged on keeping the Union Mission in waiting for an opportunity to begin active work. When spring came the war promised to open with renewed vigor. Late in

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April, 1822, it was reported to the Cherokees that the Osages, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes were coming down to their village in a body. This created great consternation among the Cherokees who made ready to defend themselves but the blow never fell. Governor Miller of Arkansas had gone out the preceding month and had somewhat succeeded in quelling the war spirit. A peace "talk" was held between the Osages and Cherokees during the summer and peace was agreed to,—both sides being tired of the war.

Great superstition prevailed among the Osages at any time and especially during a war very much "medicine" was made, the sacred bird consulted and dreams were given much importance. When on a campaign one bad dream will turn back a whole army. An incident of this sort occured in this war when in 1821 about four hundred warriors set out for the Cherokee camp. They had made great preparation and the dread of them was felt everywhere. The whites living near the Cherokees moved to safety while the Cherokees themselves made ready for defense as best they could but little could they have done had the Osages gone on. They turned back because one of their leaders dreamed a bad dream which foreboded evil.

Such a war as had just been fought left the Osages much impoverished. Generally they had suffered more than their enemies. They had been afraid to leave their children at the mission station which would have been by far the safest thing to do but they had yet to learn that the mission would be safe from attacks. They had never yet experienced anything like safety except in flight or a decisive victory made possible by overwhelming numbers. The summer of 1822 at Union was spent in preparation for receiving the Indian children that might be brought in and by planting crops. The Indians must be taught by example. At this time it was not books they wanted but something to make their extreme condition better.

It must be remembered that a single village seldom contained more than a few hundred Indians at the most and they were scattered about over the region. Neither did they readily come to the mission. There remained, in that case, but one thing to do—the missionaries must go to the Indians in their villages. The treaty of 1825 greatly affected the somewhat settled conditions of the Osages. They recognized the fact that soon they must go to their reservation. To meet this situation new stations were established to keep in contact with the wandering bands.

Union Mission had a very enterprising group of individuals. From this station William Montgomery and W. C. Requa in December, 1823, left to begin an agricultural settlement four miles farther above and on the opposite side of the river. This new station was named Hopefield and proved to be one of the most successful attempts at expansion. By June of the following summer eleven Indian families had arrived and at once began to make permanent homes. Log houses were built and more than thirty acres cleared,

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fenced and planted to crops. These few Indians readily went to work and by August they were ready to dispose of the surplus of their growing crops. They loaded their canoes with melons and corn and went to Fort Gibson where they found a good market. Nothing like this had ever before happened in their lives so they returned and went to work with renewed interest.¹²

Not always could they expect such good results. Difficulties came to them in many ways. Sometimes their crops were flooded, sometimes, and rather often, the "working" Indians were ridiculed by their less industrious brothers for settling in permanent homes. Worst of all the vagabond Indians would steal from these resident families, go into their houses and eat everything in sight. This caused no little trouble.

When the Osage lands were surveyed according to the treaty of 1825 it was found that Union and Hopefield fell within the Cherokee limits. The former might remain where it was but the agricultural community would have to be moved for the best interests of the Indians. This was done in 1830. The farmers selected a location thirty miles farther up the river and moved there. They were followed by fifteen Indian families who at once began to clear and plow farms and settled themselves to work in an industrious manner. The chiefs instructed their people how to do good work, told them to stop stealing and quarreling, and generally set before them a good example. In June the next year, 1831, W. C. Requa reported that the Indians there owned more than fifty head of cattle, a great number of hogs and despite sickness and persecution from the larger villages they were doing well. He further stated, "They have generally speaking given up their war expeditions and say they will war no more, but to defend themselves."¹³

Meanwhile the mission at Harmony was doing excellent work. The Indians around that place were beginning to desire the ways of their white neighbors. They asked the missionaries to plough fields for them and to help generally. One principal chief, Whitehair (Pawhuska), a noble Indian, set an example of industry for his people. He was the first to go into the fields and assist with the work. Several Indians sought employment at the mission soon after its founding.

In the summer of 1824 Benton Pixley and Samuel Bright went out from Harmony to begin an agricultural settlement on the upper Neosho eighty miles southwest of that mission.¹⁴ The Indians here were interested in a manner but the station never attained the popularity that Hopefield enjoyed. Five years after its establishment it was not considered wise to continue it and was abandoned.

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N. P. Dodge, Superintendent at Harmony, who was a tireless worker, went out from his station in 1830 to establish a station on the Neosho about one hundred miles above Union Mission. He named the new place Boudinot. His purpose was not that of the party that left a few years earlier when an agricultural community was established but to preach to the Indians who would go there with him. The Little Osages, who had remained on the Osage river in Missouri, found it necessary to remove farther west when the whites began to occupy the lands which had been ceded to the United States. To these Indians Dodge went and labored for a number of years. This station proved to be decidedly successful despite adverse circumstances and was the last of all stations to be abandoned.

The methods of conducting successful missionary operations among the Indians have to vary according to the conditions. When the United Foreign Mission Society sent out the first mission family in 1820 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions had already seen the need of helping the Cherokees recently removed to their new homes. For them a mission had been established at Dwight where success had come to the missionaries who labored here. To this mission William Vaill, Superintendent at Union, proposed in 1822 a general meeting of the delegates from the various stations. His plan was carried out and for several years these meetings were held annually, each station getting its share which was always most welcome.

The aim was to discuss the methods pursued at each mission to secure the best results. Once, at least, a series of questions, very practical in their purpose, was presented, thoroughly discussed, answered and then sent to the officers of the Societies in the East. It was generally determined that practical things should be taught the Indians and that only such religious teaching be given as best suited their "capacities." It was agreed that it was more profitable to teach Indian children at the mission while living apart from their parents. A very elucidating point was evolved in one of the questions and answers. It serves to illustrate conditions very well:

Question: Can we rationally expect that the preaching of the gospel will be effectual among a people entirely uncivilized?

Answer: Bread cast upon the waters is found many days afterwards.

When it was determined to be almost impossible to bring the Indians in any great numbers to the missions new plans were devised. The one that worked most successfully and was adopted was that of making missionary tours. The first of these was made in the year of 1831 when Dodge from Harmony, Vaill from Union and Washburn from Dwight went out for three weeks. They traveled several hundred miles on horseback visiting many villages among the Osages.

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In this manner the gospel was taken to several hundred Indians so that now instead of a few scores benefitting from the missions many more were to receive what they had to offer. Of course, difficulty was involved and especially at the beginning for at this time the Osages were having trouble with their old enemies, the Pawnees. It was common to find war parties either coming from or going on their raids. Whenever one of these parties was in a village the missionaries found it hard to get an audience. In particular one principal chief, Clermont, gave no little trouble in his village by breaking up the meeting and giving a great deal of annoyance generally. Such tours were so profitable that they were made oftener than once a year.

Those engaged in teaching school at the missions were always busy. They were given ample opportunity to teach all the time and plenty of Indian children were at hand if they could be induced to come, rather, if their parents would allow them to be taken to the school. The boys were taught to do manual labor and the few that came and stayed became quite proficient. The girls were taught to weave cloth, sew and perform household duties. Both boys and girls were given good courses in academic instruction and many of them learned to read very quickly. Not only boys and girls were taught how to work but the men and women were told how to make their lives easier by building homes and adopting the ways of white people who had household comforts.

It was a prodigious task to learn the Osage language but it had to be done to make possible the best results. Several of the missionaries set to work at once upon their arrival to learn the language and to reduce it to writing. W. C. Requa and William Montgomery succeeded in working out a written language for their pupils. The production was the "Osage First Book" (Washashe Wageressa Pahugreh) three and one-half by five and three-quarter inches in size and containing one hundred twenty-six pages. It had in it the elements of syllabication, sounds and simple words that led to more difficult reading. It was an admirable book for Indian children. The scripture lessons were generally parables and stories that could be easily understood. Five hundred copies were printed in Boston in 1834 and much was expected from it, being the first book ever published in the Osage language.¹⁵

The school at Harmony had eighteen pupils in 1824, thirty-eight in 1825, and only twenty-four in 1826. The decrease was due to trouble between the Osage and Kickapoos. In the following year the school was reported to be doing well and three years later, in 1830, forty pupils were enrolled and seven had completed their course in education. In 1832 the Catholic missionaries began to work among the Osages and consequently took out some of the children.

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At Union better results were secured. There the school was opened in August of 1821 but grew slowly until after the trouble between the Cherokees and Osages was settled. Two Indian children were sent from this mission to the Foreign Mission school at Cornwall, Connecticut, where they received further education. One of these returned in 1832 to do valuable work as an interpreter. In 1826 this mission could boast of fifty pupils, several of whom came from the resident families at Hopefield, and a school building twenty by forty feet was erected. There were several Creek and Cherokee children in this school after 1830 due to their having moved into this region and also to failure of the Osage children to be punctual.

The mission established on the Neosho by Dodge in 1830 had at one time a school to which a few Osage children went. There was, however, no strenuous effort made to engage the Indians in education at this place.

Wars were the greatest handicaps to the progress of the schools. They were kept in a continual state of uncertainty. Wandering about from place to place took out a large number of children after attending school for a short time. Then, too, it was, found difficult to interest the Indian youth, the old environment proved to be too great a temptation. A scalp dangling at a youth’s belt looked more like a mark of distinction than an "Osage First Book."

With the best of conditions the labors of the missions both in the schools and in the agricultural settlements were not so fruitful as had been hoped for. As just pointed out war was the big difficulty in the school but no less with all the other activities of the missionaries. When all seemed peaceful between the Osages and Cherokees and prospects looked good in 1822, trouble broke out over the murder of a Cherokee by an Osage the very next year. The Creeks pressed the Osages too closely, the Kickapoos encroached upon their rights, the fierce Pawnees stole their horses and made prisoners of their hunters, so the Osages alleged.

The never ending number of treaties made it impossible to fix a definite location for the stations. Just when the work was well under way in 1825 the treaty made that year provided for a cession of land such that Harmony was left quite far within the limits of Missouri and many miles from the Osage reservation. Union and Hopefield had been left forty miles from the nearest point of resident land. By the Cherokee treaty of 1828 these two stations fell within the limits of the Cherokee lands. The principal station, Union, could not be moved without heavy financial loss,—more than twenty thousand dollars worth of property had been accumulated here by the late thirties. Moreover it was not well located because the Osages were never too friendly at any time with their new neighbors the Creeks and Cherokees.

Around the mission at Harmony white settlers were coming in

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so that the few Indian families remaining there were soon compelled to leave. Union was not troubled with white settlers but with the traders who were working among the Indians and urging them to hunt and collect peltries instead of farming. They brought whiskey with them and by the middle of the thirties the Osages were beginning to imitate the white man although they had long been total abstainers. In 1826 William Vaill wrote that in the six years he had been there he had not seen seen one drunken Indian. When George Catlin, the Indian portrait painter, was among the Osages in 1834 he well summed up their many faults and one virtue by saying they reject every luxury and custom of the civilized people and "amongst those, the use of whiskey, which is on all sides tendered to them, but almost uniformily rejected.¹⁶

The summer of 1834 was unusually hot, dry and severe in practically every respect. To make conditions worse an epidemic of cholera and general sickness raged throughout the Osage nation. As a result of this several of the missionaries and three or four hundred Osages died. This was extremely discouraging.

With a view of closing the missions a committee from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which society had assumed control of all Osage missions in 1825, visited in the fall of 1835. This committee found conditions that hardly justified the continuance of the stations. In addition to this many of the missionaries had now spent fifteen years on the frontier exposed to all its vicissitudes and Indian wars. Some had already returned to their homes in the East and others were asking for their discharge. Consequently the mission at Harmony was ordered to close up its business and nearly all members of the mission family were discharged. A few were retained for a short time to finish the work. The school was closed in March, 1836.

At Union the school had already closed. In 1833 it was proving unprofitable as a place of instruction for the Osages and the interest had been directed to the printing of books and tracts. This was not continued long for in 1836 the printing press was moved to the mission at Dwight.

Some of the missionaries discharged at Harmony remained there to preach to the white settlers. One of these, W. C. Requa, from Union was left alone to continue the work at Boudinot to which place he had gone, but in July 1838 he, too, abandoned the work. This ended the efforts, for the time being, of the Protestant missionaries to civilize and christianize the Osages.

The work had not been in vain. Much good had resulted yet it is doubtful if many real converts to the Christian religion were to be found. But this alone was not to be the test. There was substantial evidence that the training given the Osages had helped to

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decrease stealing—a pernicious habit among them. It had been demonstrated, especially at Hopefield, that Indians could be induced to settle somewhat permanently and farm their crops. Some had learned that cattle and hogs would, in a measure, take the place of the fast disappearing buffalo. Probably three hundred Indian boys and girls had received more or less instruction in the schools and had learned many useful things.

In 1834 Colonel Dodge had with him on his campaign to the Pawnee Picts an Indian youth named Monpisha who had been trained in the schools. His short speech to the council of western Indians and Colonel Dodge fairly well represents the best that came from the work of the missionaries. Monpisha said to the assembly:

"We shake hands with pleasure. I am nothing but a boy, my father was an Osage chief; we wish to be your brothers—dogs fight. We wish to be peaceable men and friends. Our good father has made in coming to you, a great road; we hope it will never be stained with blood. My father told me that he was once a wild Indian: that white men taught him to be happy, instructed him to build houses, raise cattle, and live like white men. I was sent to the white man’s school, (mission school) was taught to read and write; this will be extended to you, if you make peace with the white men; your buffalo will be gone in a few years; your good father the President will give you cattle, and teach you how to live without buffalo."¹⁷

—M. L. Wardell.

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