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Probably instead, the text of one of his earlier speeches
Copy of a letter written (in 1879) by Bright Eyes to Mr. Tibbles who wrote to her for facts about the Ponca Indians [[double underline]]before[[/double underline]] he began the Standing Bear Habeas Corpus case. That statement is wrong in time. This was written in the [[underline]]autumn[[/underline]] of 1879, after the case
p.1 Some time in the winter of 1877 my father received a letter from my uncle who is now in the Ind. Territ., saying that the tribe had been ordered to leave the reserve and go to the Ind. Territ., that they had refused, but the inspector told them that he would take them to see the President. Accordingly ten of the chiefs started, as they supposed, for Washington. Several weeks elapsed and we heard nothing from them. My mother said to me once, "What if the White men have taken them and left them in a strange place where they cannot find their way home?" I laughed at her & told her it was impossible for the Govt. to treat the chiefs of a nation with whom it made treaties in that dishonorable way; that it might cheat them & all that, but it would treat with respect, at least, men with whom it [[strikethrough]]made treaties in that dishonorable way; that it might cheat them and all that, but it would treat with respect at least, men with whom[[/strikethrough]] it was intending to make a treaty.
Some time after this my uncle, with the other chiefs, came to the Omaha tribe on their way back to the own reserve ragged, weary, & footsore. They had been left in the Indian Territ. because they would not select a piece of land there. Do [[underline]]you[[/underline]] know what I felt as I sat there & heard my uncle tell his story, and saw the tears running down my mother's cheeks and knew how powerless we were to help or even avenge ourselves? I felt as though, if there were a God, he must have created us for the sole purpose of torturing us. I think if it had not been for the memory of the noble Christian women with whom I lived at one time, I should
p. 2 have become an utter disbeliever in God & humanity.
My uncle told us how they were left in a strange country among a strange people, whose language they did not understand, to find their way home on foot, without guide, money, or interpreter.