Page 109 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

REPORT ON THI PIOTURE GALLERY. 105
name on the roll. The Colonel said this could not be, but if
the chiefs mere all willing, the child should have his share.
They were all willing-the boy's share was given to me, and I
gave it to his mother. It was this same child-the same one
now taken from us. It is the truth I am telling.
"And now we want yourhelp to get back the child. We still
hope to find him. We cannot give him up. We want you to
satisfy the public that the child is ours. We hoped to take him
home with us this time, We came from a great distance.
Once before the child was carried off by force, after the law had
decided in our favor, and now he is again carried away. We
are grieved and disappointed. This is why we ask your help."
OSHKOSH, having concluded what he had to say, again shook
hands with us, (the opening and closing ceremony of each
speech) and gave way to SOULIQNY, the Head War-Chief, who,
though seventy years old, has all the fire and energy of a man
in the prime of life. After a hearty shake of the hands,
SOULIGNY squared himself and spoke as follows:
"Now, my friend, listen to me. The one who spoke first, is
our Head Chief. What he says is so. You see me, another
old man, standing before you. I can remember my old Chiefs.
They used to own this soil. Green Bay was our principal
village. There we lived when the Americans landed on the
east side of Fox river, and crossed and came to our huts.
They asked leave to live among us, and said their Great
Father had sent them to take the Menomonees under their
wings and shelter them from all harm. They told us, too, that
their Great Father had a very long arm, and that whenever any
one did an injury or took anything away from us, he would
stretch out that arm and bring it back, no matter how far off.
And now we have lost something. We lost it at Waupaca
Falls. It is a piece of our flesh. And to think, after all our
Great Father promised, that this' should have been taken from
us by some of his children, the whites, and they should claim
it as their own.
"I cannot think my friend, the white man, did this wilfully.
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