(Thunder coming up over the land from the water)
Good words do not last long, unless they are amount to something.
Words do not pay for my dead people; they do not pay for my country;
they do not protect my father's grave.
Good words do not give me back my children.
Good words do not give my people good health.
Stopped 'em from dying.
I am tired of talk that has come to nothing.
It made my heart sick.
I remembered all the good words and all the broken promises."
"If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian...
we can live in peace.
There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike...
Give them all the same law.
Give them all an even chance to live, to grow.
You might as well expect the rivers to run
backward as that any man who is born a free man
should be contented when penned up and denied
liberty to go where he pleases.
We only ask an even chance to live as other men live.
We ask to be recognized as men."
"Let me be a free man...
Free to travel, free to stop, free to work,
free to choose my own teachers,
free to follow the religion of my father's,
free to think, and talk, and act from ourselves."
"I am tired of fighting... from where the sun now stands,
I will fight no more."
"Perhaps you think the Creator sent you here
to dispose of us as you see fit.
If I thought you were sent by the Creator,
I might be induced to think you had a right to dispose of me.
Do not misunderstand me, but understand fully
with reference to my affection for the land.
I never said the land was mine to do with as I choose.
The one who has a right to dispose of it is the
one who has created it.
I claim a right to live on my land
and accord you the privilege to return to yours.
Brother, we have listened to your talk
coming from the father in Washington,
and my people have called upon me to reply to you.
And in the winds which pass through these aged pines
we hear the moaning of their departed ghosts.
And if the voices of our people could have been heard,
that act would never have been done.
But alas, though they stood around,
they could neither be seen nor heard.
Their tears fell like dorps of rain.
I hear my voice in the depths of the forest,
but no answering voice comes back to me.
All is silent around me.
My words must therfore be few. I can say no more.
He is silent, for he has nothing to answer when the sun goes down."
