Which Way to the Wild West? by Steve Sheinkin

Author:Steve Sheinkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Published: 2011-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

Red Cloud and the other Indians were taken to an expensive hotel, where their huge suites were furnished with pitchers of lemonade and baskets of oranges, nuts, and cigars. The next day they were given fancy American suits (which they found terribly tight and uncomfortable) and went to the Capitol building to watch senators make speeches (which they found terribly boring). A photographer asked permission to take Red Cloud’s picture, but he refused, saying, “I am not dressed for such an occasion.”

He didn’t want anyone photographing him in the ridiculous suit. Then they went on to the White House to have dinner with President Ulysses S. Grant. The Lakota chief Spotted Tail particularly loved the strawberry ice cream. “Surely the white men have many more good things to eat than they send to the Indians,” he commented.

When everyone finally got down to business, Ely Parker explained that the United States was committed to living peacefully with the Plains Indians. Red Cloud agreed with this goal and thought it should be easy to achieve. “The white children have surrounded me and left me nothing but an island,” Red Cloud said. Let the Lakota keep this island of land, he explained, and there will be no more war.

Next Red Cloud stopped off in New York City, where crowds of people lined the streets and cheered as he rode past on a horse. “We want to keep the peace,” Red Cloud told New Yorkers. “Will you help us?”

Red Cloud understood—now more clearly than ever—that he would need help. The trip gave him a close-up view of busy American factories and enormous American cities. There was simply no way he and his warriors could continue winning wars against such a massive and growing nation.

So Red Cloud headed home a bit depressed. And it could not have helped his mood to see so many trains packed with people racing west. He must have been wondering: Where are all these people going? How long until they start crowding onto our land?

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