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 some- thing 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. It makes my
heart sick when I remember all the good words and all the
broken promises. There has been too much talking by
men who had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations
have been made; too many misunderstandings have come
up between the white men and the Indians. If the white
man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in
peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give
them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live
and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit
Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all
people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that
any man who was born a free man should be contented
penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If
you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat?
If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and
compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will
he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great
White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the
Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white
men going where they please. They cannot tell me.

I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men
are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a
home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I
would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people
would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three
have died since I left my camp to come to Washington.
When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see
men of my own race treated as outlaws and driven from
country to country, or shot down like animals.

I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our
own with the white men as we are. We only ask an even
chance to live as other men live. We ask to be recognized
as men. We ask that the same law shall work alike on all
men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by the law. If
a white man breaks the law, punish him also. Let me be a
free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to
trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers,
free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think
and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to
the penalty.

Whenever the white man treats the Indian as
they treat each other then we shall have no more wars.
We shall be all alike -- brothers of one father and mother,
with one sky above us and one country around us and one
government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rules
above will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out
the bloody spots made by brothers' hands upon the face of
the earth. For this time the Indian race is waiting and
praying. I hope no more groans of wounded men and
women will ever go to the ear of the Great Spirit Chief
above, and that all people may be one people.