“I Love the English”

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6867, 23 March 1929, Page 20 (Supplement)

“I Love the English”

Indian’s Gratitude

Big Chief White Horse Eagle, aged 106, and head of over 600 tribes of American Indians, has spent a large portion of his life in making the world acquainted with the life and customs of the Indians. His tolerant outlook on life, and his admiration of British people is expressed in the following interview, published in “Pearson’s Weekly”: The people of all the world are my friends, but I especially love the English for four reasons.

The first is because England sent William Penn to us. He was a very good friend to the Red men; they called him Father Onas, which means Father Quill, because there was no word in their language for “pen.” Father Onas never made a written treaty and never broke a spoken one. When he was sent by William 111. to take possession of what is now Pennsylvania he would not claim any of the land without giving the Indians what they considered a fair exchange. Penn’s friends urged him to make the Indians stick to the bargain. But instead he asked them how much more goods they wanted. The Indians were delighted, and asked only for a few more yards of cloth and some fishing hooks. Then Penn pointed out to his friends that if they had sent soldiers against the Red men to compel them to give up what was really theirs, the rum alone supplied to one regiment would have cost them more than all the goods which had sent the braves away as happy as children. When I come to England I always visit William Penn’s grave, at Jordans, in the heart of your lovely pastoral country. The second reason why we Red men like the British is because the Canadians have always treated us justly, while other people have not. It is natural that other nations should have wanted to follow the path that the Indians first blazed in the great continent, and we welcomed them as friends. But they betrayed our friendship, made war on us and seized our land.

I love England, too, for the sake of her great Queen, Victoria. I was her guest at the time of the 1887 Jubilee, when she sent two of her Ministers to America for me. It was a long time ago, but there are still two retainers at Windsor Castle, who remember my visit. And, lastly, I love the English people for their kindness to me in this country. I was born in 1822, in what is now Colorado, and was then Indian territory. I have lived during the lives of all the Presidents of the United States except George Washington, and I have known every President since Abraham Lincoln. I have met nearly every crowned head and been honoured by the most distinguished men in the world.