ch 26 Flashcards
(5 cards)
“With the skins [the Indians] build their houses; with the skins they clothe and shoe themselves; from the skins they make ropes and also obtain wool. From the sinews they make thread, with which they sew their clothing and likewise their tents. From the bones they shape awls. And the dung they use for firewood, since there is no fuel in all that land. The bladders serve as jugs and drinking vessels. They sustain themselves on the flesh of the animals, eating it slightly roasted and sometimes uncooked. Tiking it in their teeth, they pull with one hand; with the other they hold a large flint knife and cut off mouthfuls, swallowing it half chewed, like birds. They eat raw fat, without warming it”
Spanish explorers marveling at Plains Indians’ reliance on buffalo:
“Tell your people that since the Great Father(Andrew Jackson) promised that we should never be removed we have been moved five times… I think you had better put the Indians on wheels and you can run them about wherever you wish.”
One disheartened Indian complained to the white Sioux Commission created by Congress:
“His reply was, bringing his fist down close to my face, ‘Damn any man who sympathizes with Indians.’ I told him what pledges were given the Indians. He replied that he ‘had come to kill Indians, and believed it to be honorable to kill Indians under any and all circumstances”
Colonel Chivington argues that attacking Native Americans would be a violation of pledges:
“We took away their country and their means of support, broke up their mode of living, their habits of life, introduced disease and decay among them, and it was for this and against they made war. Could anyone expect less?”
Indian fighter General Philip Sheridan reflects on the war against the Indians:
“I see no longer the curling smoke rising from our lodge poles. I hear no longer the songs of the women as they prepare the meal. The antelope have gone; the buffalo wallows are empty. Only the wail of the coyote is heard. THe white man’s medicine is stronger than ours… We are like birds with a broken wing”
Indian spokesman Plenty Coups said
