While Living I Want To Live Well.

I Was Born On The Prairies Where The Wind Blew Free And There Was Nothing To Break The Light Of The Sun. I Was Born Where There Were No Enclosures.

The Song That I Will Sing Is An Old Song, So Old That None Knows Who Made It. It Has Been Handed Down Through Generations And Was Taught To Me When I Was But A Little Lad. It Is Now My Own Song. It Belongs To Me. This Is A Holy Song (medicine-song), And Great Is Its Power. The Song Tells How, As I Sing, I Go Through The Air To A Holy Place Where Yusun (the Supreme Being) Will Give Me Power To Do Wonderful Things. I Am Surrounded By Little Clouds, And As I Go Through The Air I Change, Becoming Spirit Only.

When A Child My Mother Taught Me The Legends Of Our People; Taught Me Of The Sun And Sky, The Moon And Stars, The Clouds And Storms. She Also Taught Me To Kneel And Pray To Usen For Strength, Health, Wisdom, And Protection. We Never Prayed Against Any Person, But If We Had Aught Against Any Individual We Ourselves Took Vengeance. We Were Taught That Usen Does Not Care For The Petty Quarrels Of Men.

I Am Not Ashamed To Be A Christian, And I Am Glad To Know That The President Of The United States Is A Christian, For Without The Help Of The Almighty I Do Not Think He Could Rightly Judge In Ruling So Many People. I Have Advised All Of My People Who Are Not Christians, To Study That Religion, Because It Seems To Me The Best Religion In Enabling One To Live Right.

It Is My Land, My Home, My Father's Land, To Which I Now Ask To Be Allowed To Return. I Want To Spend My Last Days There, And Be Buried Among Those Mountains. If This Could Be I Might Die In Peace, Feeling That My People, Placed In Their Native Homes, Would Increase In Numbers, Rather Than Diminish As At Present, And That Our Name Would Not Become Extinct.