![]() ![]() ![]() They were cross to one another and fought, and our parents were very much grieved. ![]() For a time they got along together without quarrelling, but soon they disagreed, and there was trouble. One girl and one boy were dark and the others were white. You all know that a great while ago there was a happy family in this world. Our forefather and mother were only two, and we are their children. "In the beginning of the world there were only four, two girls and two boys. Seeing they would not trust him, my grandfather left them, saying, "Perhaps they will come again next year." Then he summoned his whole people, and told them this tradition:– When I think of my past life, and the bitter trials I have endured, I can scarcely believe I live, and yet I do and, with the help of Him who notes the sparrow's fall, I mean to fight for my down-trodden race while life lasts. I can imagine his feelings, for I have drank deeply from the same cup. But he was disappointed, poor dear old soul! He took some of his most trustworthy men and followed them day after day, camping near them at night, and travelling in sight of them by day, hoping in this way to gain their confidence. He had expected so much pleasure in welcoming his white brothers to the best in the land, that after looking at them sorrowfully for a little while, he came away quite unhappy. Grandpa at once made signs of friendship by throwing down his robe and throwing up his arms to show them he had no weapons but in vain, – they kept him at a distance. Arriving near them, he was commanded to halt in a manner that was readily understood without an interpreter. He immediately gathered some of his leading men, and went to the place where the party had gone into camp. "My white brothers, – my long-looked for white brothers have come at last!" When the news was brought to my grandfather, he asked what they looked like? When told that they had hair on their faces, and were white, he jumped up and clasped his hands together, and cried aloud, – My grandfather was chief of the entire Piute nation, and was camped near Humboldt Lake, with a small portion of his tribe, when a party travelling eastward from California was seen coming. My people were scattered at that time over nearly all the territory now known as Nevada. ![]() They came like a lion, yes, like a roaring lion, and have continued so ever since, and I have never forgotten their first coming. I was a very small child when the first white people came into our country. I WAS born somewhere near 1844, but am not sure of the precise time. RESERVATION OF PYRAMID AND MUDDY LAKES 76 To tell it was her own deep impulse, and the dying charge given her by her father, the truly parental chief of his beloved tribe.ĬHAPTER PAGE I. At this moment, when the United States seem waking up to their duty to the original possessors of our immense territory, it is of the first importance to hear what only an Indian and an Indian woman can tell. It is the first outbreak of the American Indian in human literature, and has a single aim – to tell the truth as it lies in the heart and mind of a true patriot, and one whose knowledge of the two races gives her an opportunity of comparing them justly. In fighting with her literary deficiencies she loses some of the fervid eloquence which her extraordinary colloquial command of the English language enables her to utter, but I am confident that no one would desire that her own original words should be altered. Finding that in extemporaneous speech she could only speak at one time of a few points, she determined to write out the most important part of what she wished to say. Hopkins came to the East from the Pacific coast with the courageous purpose of telling in detail to the mass of our people, "extenuating nothing and setting down naught in malice," the story of her people's trials. M Y editing has consisted in copying the original manuscript in correct orthography and punctuation, with occasional emendations by the author, of a book which is an heroic act on the part of the writer. Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. ![]()
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