I Should Never Have Surrendered. I Should

I Should Never Have Surrendered. I Should Have Fought Until I Was The Last Man Alive.

We Had No Churches, No Religious Organizations, No Sabbath Day, No Holidays, And Yet We Worshiped. Sometimes The Whole Tribe Would Assemble To Sing And Pray; Sometimes A Smaller Number, Perhaps Only Two Or Three. The Songs Had A Few Words, But Were Not Formal. The Singer Would Occasionally Put In Such Words As He Wished Instead Of The Usual Tone Sound. Sometimes We Prayed In Silence; Sometimes Each One Prayed Aloud; Sometimes An Aged Person Prayed For All Of Us. At Other Times One Would Rise And Speak To Us Of Our Duties To Each Other And To Usen. Our Services Were Short.

I Was Warmed By The Sun, Rocked By The Winds And Sheltered By The Trees As Other Indian Babes. I Can Go Everywhere With A Good Feeling.

It Is My Land, My Home, My Father's Land, To Which I Now Ask To Be Allowed To Return. I Want To Spend My Last Days There, And Be Buried Among Those Mountains. If This Could Be I Might Die In Peace, Feeling That My People, Placed In Their Native Homes, Would Increase In Numbers, Rather Than Diminish As At Present, And That Our Name Would Not Become Extinct.

I Was Warmed By The Sun, Rocked By The Winds And Sheltered By The Trees As Other Indian Babes. I Was Living Peaceably When People Began To Speak Bad Of Me. Now I Can Eat Well, Sleep Well And Be Glad. I Can Go Everywhere With A Good Feeling.