When we arrived to our village
There was quite a commotion going on
Upon inquiring
We learned that Mountain Chief
Had also just returned from a meeting
He had been at with other Chiefs
He was happy to see Moon Cow and I
And, along with the elders
We all went into the big teepee
And had talks.
We learned that every day
The U.S. Army was getting more and more aggressive
With locating and systematically
Forcing all the tribes onto
What they were calling ‘Treaty Lands’,
Reserves, they said, for our safety
And to uphold our traditions
Mountain Chief shared a few stories he had heard
About the U.S. Army promising everything
But then once the papers were signed
They were not respected
And abused
And had even heard of some tribes
That had been slaughtered
Once they had signed the treaty.
Even worse,
The tribes that didn’t sign
Or refused to sign
Were declared enemies of the country
And hunted like outlaws
Mountain Chief had told many
About where what we had done
Though they most likely already knew
But there were a few others that were following our lead
And going further into the mountains
It was hard though
To leave their traditional land
An act of cowardice to some of the Chiefs
An act that they would refuse to do
With their heads held high
As they went into battle.
I greatly respected Mountain Chief
For the sacrifices he had made
To bring us here
No doubt he was criticized for his actions
And he, himself, probably thought about it too
But he had his vision
Which had led him here
And he was a proud man
And we all trusted him with our lives
He was our leader.
We learned of many of the other tribes
Particularly the Sioux
Who were not our friends
Fighting the U.S. Army,
Even the Canadian government
In the East
Was trying to do the same with the tribes
The RCMP was then doing their dirty work
Some of the tribes were fighting them
Nobody liked to hear all this news
It was a scary time for everybody to think
About what the future meant.