To the great men in high places,
That the Indian tribes and races
Be accorded fairer dealing,—
This he asks with kindly feeling.
He for justice only, pleadeth,
That the bread his people needeth
To sustain them from starvation
Be supplied them by the nation.
From their lands have they been driven,
And with faces shrunken, shriven.
Have they wandered forth, unsightly,—
Wandered daily, wandered nightly.
Vainly seeking for protection.
Oh ! the sadness, the dejection
Of a race thus doomed to wander.
Sitting Bull long years did ponder
O'er the direful situation.
Oft he sat in contemplation,
Through the long night watches, lonely.
SITTING BULL S MESSAGE.
In his heart was one thought only,— How to hft the Indian nation, From their woe and degradation. He for Ught was ever calHng; Yet the darkness, so appalling. Sent him back no answer'ng token. All unrifted, all unbroken. Did the heavy cloud hang o'er him. Walk beside him, move before him. Heavy was his heart with groaning. Sore became his breast from moaning. Sore and weary with his sighing. When he saw his people dying For the bread from them withholden. It did all his thought embolden. And within him woke the spirit That the red man doth inherit From his fathers gone before him. Yea, it seemed they did bend o'er him, And did whisper their monition — Urged him to demand rendition Of the lands and bread belonging To his people round him thronging. This he sought, through arbitration. To accomplish for his nation. But the Government, unheeding.
Listened not unto his pleading;
Or, while listening, failed in action,
And he gained no satisfaction.
What remained then, O pale faces,
For the Indian tribes and races,
But to seek revenge in battle —
In its dreadful din and rattle?
Sitting Bull to white man sayeth,
Wonder not the red man slayeth
When he sees his people stricken.
Sees his sons and daughters sicken.
Sees them fainting, falling, dying,
For the bread he is denying.
Long the red man's blood had bounded
With injustice, ere he sounded
War's dread tocsin. Had white nation
But fulfilled its obligation.
Made for red man intervention.
There had been no dark contention.
With the white man lies the error
Of the turmoil and the terror
That hath siezed upon the nation.
With him rests the obligation.
Will the lesson sore be heeded ?
And will justice be conceded
