Remember that there were councils which gave their decisions
in accordance with the highest ideal of human justice before there
were any cities on this continent; before there were bridges to
span the Mississippi; before this network of railroads was dreamed
of! There were primitive communities upon the very spot where
Chicago or New York City now stands, where men were as children,
innocent of all the crimes now committed there daily and nightly.
True morality is more easily maintained in connection with the
simple life. You must accept the truth that you demoralize any
race whom you have subjugated.

From this point of view we shall consider Sitting Bull's
career. We say he is an untutored man: that is true so far as
learning of a literary type is concerned; but he was not an
untutored man when you view him from the standpoint of his nation.
To be sure, he did not learn his lessons from books. This is
second-hand information at best. All that he learned he verified
for himself and put into daily practice. In personal appearance he
was rather commonplace and made no immediate impression, but as he
talked he seemed to take hold of his hearers more and more. He was
bull-headed; quick to grasp a situation, and not readily induced to
change his mind. He was not suspicious until he was forced to be
so. All his meaner traits were inevitably developed by the events
of his later career.

Sitting Bull's history has been written many times by
newspaper men and army officers, but I find no account of him which
is entirely correct. I met him personally in 1884, and since his
death I have gone thoroughly into the details of his life with his
relatives and contemporaries. It has often been said that he was