who tried to withstand the invasion of Julius Caesar.
ten months on the job, taking a deep breath,
so to speak, in mid-December, for the next year's eff ort,
and incidentally countering the threat
of the Army's taking over Indian aff airs:
was simple: it was the place to get supplies.
No crops had ever been grown here, and only
shirt-tail sized gardens, watered out of pails.
Their understanding of what it is to farm
was vague, and they wished to leave it so.
Further, they were, and are, split into factions --
Douglas the chief's, and Jack's, who wants his place.
To ask that they agree on a policy
is as absurd as to ask that Democrats
and Republicans shall in like manner agree,
for government is run, when it runs at all,
by the party in power, and cannot be blocked
by the party out of power. Douglas proposed
that they should work, Jack and his party opposed,
and Douglas drew off . At last my threats (to write
to the Commissioner) brought Jack around.
Twenty-fi ve Indians worked early and late
fully a month, till freezing weather came.
The ditch will water about 1,000 acres,
as so far fi nished; all we shall want next year.
The result is, many Indians want to farm.
I am embarrassed by their needs -- they want
wagons and plows, and harness, and corrals,
and seed of all kinds; and there is no question
that they will work, and gladly, for they believe
they will have something and be better off .