The Great
Spirit is our father and he has always supplied us with all we need. We
do not want anything from white men. Our women are able to do our work.
Go, then. Let us remain in the mountains where we were born, where the
ashes of our fathers have been given to the wind. I have said enough."
To this the Major answered abruptly in Indian style: "If you and your
people have all you desire, why do you steal our horses and mules? Why
do you rob the miners' camps? Why do you murder the white men and
plunder and burn their houses?"
Tenaya was silent for some time. He evidently understood what the Major
had said, for he replied, "My young men have sometimes taken horses
and mules from the whites. This was wrong. It is not wrong to take the
property of enemies who have wronged my people. My young men believed
that the gold diggers were our enemies. We now know they are not and
we shall be glad to live in peace with them. We will stay here and be
friends. My people do not want to go to the plains. Some of the tribes
who have gone there are very bad. We cannot live with them. Here we
can defend ourselves."
To the Major Savage firmly said, "Your people must go to the
Commissioners. If they do not your young men will again steal horses and
kill and plunder the whites.
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