Schurz’s letter. I did not promise, and went away. I did not say anything for five or six days. At last my people came and demanded of me to come to them. Brother and I went to them.
Leggins got up and said to his people,—
“My dear children, you all see that we have no friend. You all see that our mother has sold us to Father Wilbur. You see that she does not want to let us know what our father Winnemucca has done for us. We are all told that she has a paper, which has been given to her by the mighty Big Father in Washington, and she has burnt it or hid it, so we won’t know it. That way she has made her money, by selling us. She first sold us to the soldiers and had us brought here, and now she has sold us to this bad man to starve us. Oh, we shall never see our friends any more! Our paper is all gone, there is nobody to talk for us, we are all alone, we shall never get back to our sweet country.
The tears ran down his face as he talked, and women cried. Brother could not stand it any longer. He jumped up and cried aloud, saying,—
“For shame! What are you talking about? Are you mad? Why don’t you ask before you talk?”
I had told Lee what Father Wilbur had said to me.
“Go and talk to Father Wilbur, not to my sister. It is he who has sold us, not sister; it is he who don’t want us to go back.”
Some of the women cried out,—
“That’s what we told them last night when they were abusing our mother. We knew she would not do such a thing.”
Some of them came and laid their hands on my head, and cried, saying,—
“Oh, mother, forgive us for thinking badly of you. Oh,
