This lands is ours, from the God of Heaven. It was
given to us. We cannot make land. Driven back and reduced as we are, you
wish to cramp us more and more. You tell us of a pre-emptive right. Such
men you say own one reservation, and such another. But they are all ours,
ours from the top to the bottom. If Mr. Ogden had come from heaven, with
flesh on his bones, as I we now see him, and said that the Heavenly Father
had given him a title, we might then believe him.
"BROTHER: You say that the President has sent us word that it is for our
interest to dispose of our lands. You tell us that there is a good tract
of land at Allegany. This too is very extraordinary. Our feet have covered
every inch of that reservation. A communication like this has never been
made to us, at any of our councils. The President must have been
disordered in mind, when he offered to lead us off by the arms, to the
Allegany reservation. I have told you of the treaty we made with the
United States. Here is the belt of wampum, that confirmed that treaty.
Here too is the parchment. You know its contents. I will not open it. Now
the tree of friendship is decaying; its limbs are fast falling off. You
are at fault.
"Formerly we called the British brothers. Now we call the President, our
Father. Probably among you, are persons with families of children. We
consider ourselves the children of the President. What would be your
feelings, were you told that your children were to be cast upon a naked
rock, there to protect themselves? The different claims you tell us of, on
our lands, I cannot understand.
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