The Chief’s Last Stand: A Vision of Justice Beyond the Grave

"What is impressed upon the mind of the Indian?" he was asked. "Heaven, Alaska, and India," replied the Chief. "I believe below in the Great Spirit, in a future life, and in hell. But many men are liars, and think that when they die, they are no more, just like the man and the horse here follow but two worlds, the one on which we live, and that where the Great Spirit dwells. The Spirit World is more than ten thousand times larger than this; its hunting grounds have no end, and the game there is inexhaustible; its flowers are more beautiful and fragrant than any we have ever known, and its residents are lovely as the colors of the rainbow, like a setting sun, and never grow old. The land does not have to be cultivated there, but every kind of good man, and in the same abundance hang upon the trees and bushes continuously waiting to be plucked. Nothing is lost, ever dies there, and the wants of all who go there are constantly and forever supplied; without the necessity of any mark. All men and women, whether they are white or red, go to heaven, but great difference will exist between the conditions of the races at once and individuals there and what they were here. Everything nearly will be reversed. The weakly here will be strong there, the powerful and great has will be humble there. The Indians who have lived more oppressed by the intelligence and skill of the white man here will have a better chance there. Everything which has been taken from them here will be given back to them there, even to his gun, his dog and his pony. Here the Great Spirit has been on the white man's side; there he will lean on the side of the Indian," said the Chief, his face flashing in the meantime, a fearful realization of the present condition of his people. "We'll fight it out, and we will not be driven from our hunting grounds like the sneaking, savage wolf. The bad men of all nations will go down into the centre of the earth and be excluded from the spirit land."

Correspondent—"But tell me, You Indian when you die—when your people die—they rot like the horse and dog and their bodies go into the earth, the air and water. How is it that you are to go to the spirit land and do everything there as individuals Very much after the same manner that you do here?"

Spotted Tail—"We go there as spirits, and there get new bodies, which the white men can not kill."

THE MAN OF JESUS CHRIST. Correspondent—"Have you not heard through your missionaries about Jesus Christ, the Son of the Great Spirit?" Spotted Tail—"Yea, I have heard all about Him; how good He was, what great things He did; how He would help the bad man to be good and how we would learn all who would listen to Him to the Great Spirit—His Father. And I have also heard how the white man killed Him. The Indian never would have done that; he never would have murdered the Son of the Great Spirit. We now here have loved Him better than his own life; would have given Him any thing and all He had, and for Him would have gone upon the warpath and conquered this world. It was for a long time after I first heard about Jesus Christ that I did not understand how the white man could have killed Him but when I got better acquainted with the Indian, when I realized the fact that they had no respect for the rights of the Indian, would take away his home where he was born, murder him and his children, defile his women, and rob him of his winter's food. I then very readily understood how they could even kill the Son of the Great Spirit as they did."

Correspondent—"Do the Indian often pray to the Great Spirit?" Spotted Tail—"Yes; on most all occasions, whether great or small." Correspondent—"Does the Great Spirit answer their prayers?" Spotted Tail—"Yes; He always honors the good man, no honor given us all we have, and is always present to give us more, if we only do no wrong."