ORIGIN OF THE



SPEECH OF BLACK THUNDER.



  "The speech of Black Thunder, or Mackanatnamakee,
generally styled the patriarch of the Fox tribe, before the
American Commissioners who had assembled many
chiefs at a place called the Portage, July, 1815. He
rose andaddressed himself thus, to the commissioner who
opened the talk:
  "My father, restrain your feelings, and hear calmly
what I shall say. I shall say it plainly. I shall not
speak with fear and trembling. I have never injured
you, and innocence can feel no fear. I turn to you all,
red skins and white skins---where is the man w.Tho will



appear as my ace
how things are wV
Am I again to he
pable of chanlme.
I tell you ; but it
earth to witness.



user '
orkin
plun
You
is a
It is



that I have bean assailed in



that pride, fear, feeling, or i
I have been pushed to the
against you; but all in vail
feel that you were my enen
an enemy, I shall n ever I
quainted with my removal
went and formed a settlen
around. We took conunse
never have departed. We
common cause with the U
pipe-it resembled this-a
that the Indians of the Miss
we wvere doing. You rece
your friends should be my
should be my enemies-ar
signal to make war. If thi
I shall never be your frien4



l father, I uniderstan
g. I have just been
(red into bondage ; b
may, perhaps, be irn
truth, whichl I call
a fact which can easi



almost



every



d not cl
set at lit
ut I amn
)rant of
heavenI
ly be pr
possible



-early
berty.
inca-
what
and
oved,
way



nterest could touch me-that
last to raise the tomlahawk
a. I never could be made to
ay. If this be the conduct of
)e your friend. You tire ac-
from prairie des chienurs. I
lent, and called my warriors
1, and from that counsel we
smoked, and resolved to make
nited States. I sent you the
rnd I sent it by the Missouri,
sissippi might not know what
ived it. I then told you that
friends-that vour eneneies
Ad that I only awaited your
Ls be the conduct of an enemy,
1. Why do I tell you this ?



246



I