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Beyond Penn's Treaty

A Mission to the Indians from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne, in 1804

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After a short pause, the Little Turtle

inquired
if the Friends had any thing more to say, and
being told that we were all willing to listen to
him, he rose up and said:

Brothers and Friends: My heart returns
thanks to the Great Spirit above, that has put it
in our power to speak to each other. My
brother chiefs and myself are glad that our
Friends and brothers, the Quakers, have such
great compassion for their Red brethren. He
then spoke of the belief of the Indians, in
one Great Creator of all the men upon the
earth, and who were made when the earth, the
sun, moon, and stars were also made, to be useful
to them and give them light. After referring
to the desire of the Friends to benefit the In-
dians, and their need of that assistance, he
added: You have been kept in the straight
path by the Great and Good Spirit. We
have been led astray by inferior spirits: we
now hope that we may come upon your track,
and follow it. He then said the long and
destructive wars that have raged in the country
of our Red brethren, since your fathers first
came amongst them, have caused their numbers
to be greatly diminished. Those that have come
among us, have very much cheated and imposed
upon us. They found us simple and ignorant,
and have taken great care to keep every thing
from us, in order to profit by our ignorance.

Friends and Brothers,-We find you are now